Do we need a proper rollout of broadband for online gaming to really catch on? Multiplayer gaming has always been a strong part of our games. The net allows us to realise our potential as a global community of players, sharing cultures and dreams along with great strategies and fun game play. Broadband makes this connectivity an easier and more solid proposition.
How did Battle.net come about? At E3 in 1996 we talked over our impressions of the show, and the push for a solid internet gaming model was evident. We'd done all our previous games with support for modem and LAN games, so we came up with an idea for playing Diablo over the net. The fledgling Battle.net had only a few servers, all in southern California. Today, it has hundreds of servers co-located in Asia, Europe and in the United States. We host more than 11m games every month and commonly have a peak concurrency of well over 200,000 players.
Any advice to anyone wanting to work in the games industry? The chance for people to get an entry-level position and then move into a career they really want is still here. You should have a love for what you're doing and for games. Getting into this industry is no guarantee of fast cars and big money. If you want an in-depth look at what Blizzard looks for in developers, point your browser to www.blizzard.com/jobopp/ intro.shtml and check out each section.
Favourite gadgets? I'm itching to try out a Segway Human Transporter. This super-smart, computer chip-laden machine won't topple with a driver's clumsiness. Instead, it responds to a driver's slightest moves and runs on pennies worth of electricity a day. I saw a postal worker in San Francisco on one and it pushed every techno-geek button I have!
Do you support the release of tool-kits and code to allow players to modify games? We support the community creating new content for our games. We do not, however, allow add-ons or expansions for our games to be made and commercially distributed. The World Editor in Warcraft III is far advanced over the one we shipped with StarCraft, and our designers feel it is the best tool they have worked with. You can now script any behaviour or game event you want by using the extensive scripting language. There's also an easy-to-use 3D editor that anyone can utilise to make maps. New sound effects or speech files can be placed into any map, and players can even create movies within the game engine to tell their own stories.
Favourite sites? www.pvponline.com; www.sinfest.net; www.reallifecomics.com; www.penny-arcade.com; www.zombo.com www.demisecomics.com/demise/wwwy/; www.megatokyo.com; www.theonion.com; http://inktank.com/AT/index.cfm; www.ifilm.com
Visit: www.blizzard.com
