Rock, Paper, Shotgun

StarCraft Universe is a fan-made StarCraft MMO and – in all likelihood – the closest thing to World of StarCraft we’re gonna get until Blizzard realizes it wants all the money instead of just most of it. You might find it a bit weird, then, that StarCraft Universe – Chronicles of Fate is entirely single-player. But paving over a fundamentally RTS-focused engine with an entirely different genre is apparently a slightly complicated process, so developer Upheaval Arts is taking baby steps. But hey, that still means we get an (admittedly WoW-ish) single-player StarCraft RPG in the meantime. Worse things have happened. Maybe. I assume.

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One of Starcraft II’s big boasts was how awesome its editor was going to be for making your own games and such. We’re just starting to see the fruits of that. One group of modders took Blizzard up on the challenge and got on with creating a Starcraft MMO. After some initial legal wobbles, the mod is now approved by Blizzard, and it’s PvP mode is now undergoing a beta test. You can find some more details here, and I’ve posted the developer diary video for it below.
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Were you following the World Of StarCraft debacle a few weeks back? Dude says he’s making an MMO using the StarCraft map makerer, says he’s calling it World Of StarCraft. Blizzard opens its mighty mouth and roars, scaring everyone with its sharp, pointy teeth. Internet cries “foul!”, everyone panics, dude gets hired by a developer, Blizzard says it was just yawning and that its teeth are mostly for display purposes, and we all sit back down. It’s the story of the internet. Well, the further good news is that the project is continuing with Blizzard’s raised eyebrow of approval under the name, StarCraft Universe.

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The StarCraft MMO mod wrangle looks to have resolved itself overnight, with Blizzard finally offering a comment beyond a scary form DMCA notice. In a statement released to all sorts of places last night, they confirmed they’re not going to block the mod’s ongoing development. While the unwise ‘World of StarCraft’ name was, unsurprisingly, key to the issue, a comment from modder Ryan Winzen suggests that the other side made a bit of a boo-boo too…
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