Anyone else think Blizzard is overrated?

[saturnfan]

I don't think they are "overrated", they make great games. In a top 100 list of games I would include Diablo and Starcraft somewhere in my list.

[MrPopo]

I've always felt that Blizzard, while they aren't pioneers, will take the best stuff from preceeding works and then polish it to a mirror shine. Innovation on its own is not enough; the execution must be good. Red Faction's Geomod was innovative, but the eventual execution in level design was terrible, leading to a sub-par game.

As for the IP comment, I've personally never understood why people get upset when an IP is reused. The Warcraft universe has had the most games built for it in Blizzard's catalog, but it doesn't feel like they're "milking" it because each entry furthers an ongoing story about the world that I find interesting. Again, new doesn't always mean better. I think we can all agree we've seen a lot of new IPs in this last console generation that have been absolutely terrible.

[Xionraserei1]

Loved Starcraft I and Brood wars
Loved Diablo, Diablo II, Lord of Destruction
Loved Warcraft II

HATE Starcraft II
HATE World of Warcraft
HATE Warcraft III
PRE-HATE for Diablo III

They have lately gone down the tube and Activision is partly to blame.
Nasty habits are being taken up by Blizzard and they no longer think about their original fan base. I am not even sure if the old blizzard is the same as the new blizzard. They just seem different.

All the new games: Yes Overrated piles of crap that shouldn't be bothered with.

[corn619]

Comparing a company that develops kid friendly yet, universally appealing games and movies to a company that focuses mainly on a PC, adult demographic is a bad comparison. They both develop two totally different styles of games for different customer bases. As I'm currently watching my 7 year old play Super Mario Galaxy 2, trying to compare Nintendo & Blizzard is very hard to envision.

[flamepanther]

I don't think I would say that Blizzard is overrated generally... however there are certainly fanboys out there who overrate them, just like anything else. They tend to do real quality work, so they've clearly got merit. However, I just can't get excited about most of their games like so many seem to do.

Oh, to add to the list of derivatives/genre improvements: Blackthorne. It's Prince of Persia with orcs, guns, and grenades. I sorta wish they'd make a sequel.

[Ivo]

I'm a big fan of Blizzard.

Diablo I think was pretty original and "invented" that genre as far as I know.

Lost Vikings was also quite original I believe.

Blizzard also improved on known genres - true, Warcraft and Starcraft aren't *that* original (and I agree the "theme" is very close to known franchises of table-top wargames). Why is that bad though? It is hard to make new genres all the time (it is not like Nintendo does that...) and I do not think they overuse their franchises. The similarities with other classic franchises can be a good thing as well.
In other companies Diablo would have had more than 3 games and Starcraft certainly more than 2! Maybe it would be interesting to divide the number of Mario or Zelda titles by the number of years the series has been around and compare to Diablo / Starcraft.

There are many, many great Nintendo games and there was plenty of innovation there. They make very nice games, some excellent, some good, some not so good certainly. Blizzard is less prolific but you can practically count on each game having received a lot of polish - maybe they won't be to your taste but they will be top class within the given genre, be that RTS, Diablo-style or WoW. That is pretty solid and reliable.

Ivo.

[MrPopo]

Loved Starcraft I and Brood wars
Loved Diablo, Diablo II, Lord of Destruction
Loved Warcraft II

HATE Starcraft II
HATE World of Warcraft
HATE Warcraft III
PRE-HATE for Diablo III

I am very curious to see why you dislike Starcraft II. WC3 and WoW I can understand if you didn't like the hero mechanic or MMOs. But SCII was basically SC but prettier. Sure, it's not as balanced yet, but SC at launch wasn't exactly balanced either.

[GSZX1337]

Loved Starcraft I and Brood wars
Loved Diablo, Diablo II, Lord of Destruction
Loved Warcraft II

HATE Starcraft II
HATE World of Warcraft
HATE Warcraft III
PRE-HATE for Diablo III

I am very curious to see why you dislike Starcraft II. WC3 and WoW I can understand if you didn't like the hero mechanic or MMOs. But SCII was basically SC but prettier. Sure, it's not as balanced yet, but SC at launch wasn't exactly balanced either.

Maybe he's Korean?

[flamepanther]

Diablo I think was pretty original and "invented" that genre as far as I know.

Diablo is generally considered part of the "Roguelike" genre of dungeon crawling games, so I would assume that Diablo did not invent the genre. I'm not sure even Rogue did, but that's probably a better bet.

[msimplay]

The only thing I ever hear about Blizzard is WoW and Starcraft neither of which I've played or care to play.
I don't think they are overrated since I almost never hear about them but they are certainly not like Pixar.