By Alec Meer on November 1st, 2011 at 4:06 pm.
WITCHCRAFT, TRICKERY, DEVILRY, PERVERSION. A man, if he truly deserves that title, has sullied the noble art of waiting a long time for a new videogame. He has jumped the gun in the most devious possible way. He has… no, I can barely stand to repeat it.
But I must. His crime must be known. He has recreated the units from the impending StarCraft II expandosequel Heart of the Swarm, before it has even been released, and packaged them into a four-map mod for the current version of Wings of Liberty. I… I don’t know what to say. He might as well have wiped Blizzard’s hard drives and then taken the very bread from their mouths, such is the heinousness of this thought-crime and the surely catastrophic consequences of making something that looks and plays a bit like something in future might play.
It took him 60 hours to do it, and even involved the creation of a spreadsheet containing known and best-guess values for the various units. So, not only has he ruined Blizzard’s next game, but he’s also spilled their priceless secrets in public. He should be tarred and feathered for this OUTRAGE and SICKENING DISRESPECT FOR COPYRIGHT. Of course, he’d probably argue that he’s demonstrating his passion and enthusiasm for the game, and thus in turn increasing other gamers’ anticipation for it. Sounds like hippy talk to me.
You can find details on how to get hold of Heart of the Swarm Custom here, but I hope you’re only downloading it so that you can then angrily delete it.
Via PC Gamer.
01/11/2011 at 16:12 LintMan says:
The villain! What would happen if Blizzard’s supply of disposable money hats ran low?
01/11/2011 at 16:12 sneetch says:
The evil nature of this act has caused me to swoon and be unable to comment on it!
01/11/2011 at 16:12 Raiyan 1.0 says:
*Looks at alt-test*
Oh, you cheeky bastard! ;)
02/11/2011 at 11:05 iWHUT says:
Damn Nids. In the year 40k, there is nothing but war…
02/11/2011 at 12:02 Syra says:
You forgot the grimdark
01/11/2011 at 16:17 nimzy says:
I laughed so hard when I saw this article. What an utter mockery of Blizzard’s three-game series plan for Starcraft II. This is almost the ultimate burn.
03/11/2011 at 03:05 Kazang says:
Er, no. No it’s not.
01/11/2011 at 16:28 Vadermath says:
Wait, is Alec really on drugs?
01/11/2011 at 16:30 kikito says:
I hope Blizzard squashes this villainy promptly. Just like Bethesda did with the Scrolls thingie.
01/11/2011 at 16:34 zergrush says:
What exactly did he “recreate”?
What I get from this article is that he took the unit stats and altered some skills to what people saw from the demo and put them on whatever models. If so, that’s nothing more than a regular custom map with custom stats on a couple of units.
Unless he somehow got the new models, spell effects and all that, what’s the big deal?
01/11/2011 at 16:38 Daz says:
I think you may have taken the article a little too seriously :D
01/11/2011 at 16:40 TensaiBoy says:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/sarcasm-detector/
should you ever need one, got ya covered
(yeah it’s a UMS, like the BroodWar thing)
01/11/2011 at 16:46 zergrush says:
I got that he’s not serious. Really.
I simply… tought that there was something relevant that Alec somehow found worthy of reporting amidst all that, since there seems to be people all over the internet claiming that this somehow devalues the expansion or whatever and THAT is what I don’t get.
01/11/2011 at 17:02 TensaiBoy says:
It’s The Internet, people will be fools, don’t pay attention to any of that haha.
Alec probably only wanted an excuse to make that hilarious post.
I’m sure this comes at no surprise to any party involved.
01/11/2011 at 17:05 Bantu says:
I believe he also created some custom models
01/11/2011 at 16:41 Wulf says:
Don’t… don’t do that Alec. You might get taken seriously by Blizzard. You may just give them ideas.
There seem to be corporate-subsidiary lawyers that don’t fully understand irony, or satire at all.
If they decide to send him a cease & desist like they did with that World of Starcraft chap, it’ll be YOUR FAULT!!!
01/11/2011 at 16:58 Ham Solo says:
Let’s just hope the “real” game is better than the mod, otherwise I would be ashamed to be Blizz.
01/11/2011 at 17:08 Khemm says:
I say let the fans create their own version of the HoTS story/plot, if Wings of Liberty is Blizzard’s new “standard” when it comes to writing, I guarantee whatever the fans come up with will be MILES better.
01/11/2011 at 17:14 TensaiBoy says:
apparently Blizzard think the WoL campaign was too long *laugh*
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=279310
bodes well! not!
01/11/2011 at 19:44 Jenks says:
Not only was it awfully written, it pretty much retconned the much beloved Brood War.
01/11/2011 at 22:04 kimadactyl says:
Agreed, it’s not the length, it’s the utter terribleness, plus sprinkling of mild racism and sexism…
02/11/2011 at 01:18 vivlo says:
i’m so happy that so many people seem to share that opinion
02/11/2011 at 12:04 Syra says:
WOL campaign WAS too long. And it was damn boring.
01/11/2011 at 17:10 Stense says:
Blizzard lawyers, assemble!
01/11/2011 at 17:10 Roshin says:
ICE. BURN.
01/11/2011 at 17:49 Kuroko says:
Somebody please! Think of the children!!
01/11/2011 at 20:51 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
The sweet, succulent children are ripe for consumption or use as spawning hosts.
02/11/2011 at 12:04 Syra says:
Encouraging people to think of children on the internet is a bit dodgy if you ask me
01/11/2011 at 18:05 misterT0AST says:
ah I wanted to do the same thing for Warcraft III releasing the Expansion for those who didn’t have it. Those buggers at The Hive Workshop.com though (as always) were too lazy to give any real help.
I am the user called “HorizonTal”
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/idea-factory-462/charity-86048/
Warcraft and Starcraft editors are just always amazing and easy to use.
As much as I’d like to hate Blizzard when I think of what can be done with their tools alone I lways forgive them.
01/11/2011 at 18:12 Gap Gen says:
To be fair to him, half-chewed bread *is* the best bread.
02/11/2011 at 01:01 fashionaaq says:
http://url7.me/c6i4
http://url7.me/c6i4
http://url7.me/c6i4
02/11/2011 at 21:11 Nightbringer says:
This is pretty much why fewer and fewer games have editors, I think. Unless the upcoming map sales platform makes a good chunk of money for Blizz, I bet SC3 won’t have an editor. :)