1 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:14,000 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,720 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 4 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Love all Things Tech. And in 5 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:23,680 Speaker 1: our last episode, I talked about the origins of Blizzard 6 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:27,880 Speaker 1: Entertainment leading up to the acquisition of Condor Incorporated and 7 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:30,720 Speaker 1: the launch of the battle Neet service upon the release 8 00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:33,280 Speaker 1: of the game Diablo. So we're going to pick up 9 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:35,760 Speaker 1: from there because it turns out there's a whole lot 10 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:39,960 Speaker 1: of stuff that's happened to this relatively young company. All right, 11 00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 1: So we're in a super important time in Blizzard's history 12 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:48,120 Speaker 1: in this timeline. So Warcraft gave the company momentum and 13 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:52,480 Speaker 1: set the stage for a sequel, Warcraft Two Tides of Darkness. Meanwhile, 14 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:56,600 Speaker 1: the founders of Condor Incorporated reached out to Blizzard, and 15 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,360 Speaker 1: as I mentioned earlier, the two companies had first come 16 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 1: into contact when they were each developing versions of Justice 17 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: League Task Force. Now, in the time that followed, Condor 18 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:09,840 Speaker 1: had reached out to a lot of different publishers with 19 00:01:09,959 --> 00:01:14,480 Speaker 1: their idea for Diablo, but they got nowhere then out 20 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:18,080 Speaker 1: of desperation more than anything else, they turned to Blizzard. Now, 21 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:22,559 Speaker 1: the pitch was incredibly ambitious. Condor would develop a PC 22 00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:25,840 Speaker 1: based game, which they had never done before, and it 23 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:29,680 Speaker 1: would be an RPG style game, role playing game, and 24 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: it would marry that with a more action oriented style 25 00:01:33,040 --> 00:01:36,600 Speaker 1: of gameplay. Ultimately, and originally, they were also thinking about 26 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:41,319 Speaker 1: modeling all their characters using the claymation process. So claymation, 27 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 1: for those not familiar with the term, is a form 28 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:47,640 Speaker 1: of stop motion animation. You build the animated stuff out 29 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:51,320 Speaker 1: of some sort of multiple material, such as you know, clay, 30 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:54,080 Speaker 1: and you pose them precisely the way you want them 31 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:56,960 Speaker 1: to look in a particular sequence. Then you take a photo, 32 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:01,800 Speaker 1: then you adjust the model ever slightly, Then you take 33 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:04,280 Speaker 1: another photo, and you do that over and over again 34 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,640 Speaker 1: until the sequence of photos follows the entire range of 35 00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:10,960 Speaker 1: motion that you wanted to capture. It's similar to hand 36 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:13,400 Speaker 1: drawn animation in that way. So if you want to 37 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:16,640 Speaker 1: show a character swinging a sword, for example, you'll have 38 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:19,679 Speaker 1: to determine how many frames of animation that will require 39 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:21,920 Speaker 1: and how far you need to move the model for 40 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:25,000 Speaker 1: each frame. If you move too far between pictures, you 41 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:29,120 Speaker 1: get really choppy animation. David Brevic was inspired by an 42 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:32,919 Speaker 1: arcade game called Primal Rage that used claymation to model 43 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:35,880 Speaker 1: its characters. Primal Rage was a fighting game akin to 44 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:39,680 Speaker 1: something like Mortal Kombat or Teken. The monstrous fighters in 45 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: the game, of which there were seven, each required around 46 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:46,359 Speaker 1: four hundred frames of animation to model all of their movements. 47 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:50,200 Speaker 1: The process takes a very long time, and it gets 48 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:53,440 Speaker 1: pretty darned expensive. The end effect can be great, but 49 00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:57,120 Speaker 1: it's an enormous task for even a seasoned video game studio, 50 00:02:57,240 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: let alone one that had only been around for less 51 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:02,959 Speaker 1: than two years. Further, dia Blow would require a lot 52 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:06,840 Speaker 1: more animation than a fighting game with seven characters, unless 53 00:03:06,880 --> 00:03:09,200 Speaker 1: the team were to limit the types of monsters you'd 54 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 1: encounter in the game. Ultimately, they would choose to ditch 55 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:16,960 Speaker 1: the stop motion plan. Blizzard was intrigued by Condor's pitch, 56 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:20,160 Speaker 1: though there may have been some skepticism about whether or 57 00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:23,400 Speaker 1: not Condor could actually pull it off. Blizzard agreed to 58 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 1: publish the game once it was developed, and they set 59 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,400 Speaker 1: a budget of three hundred thousand dollars for Condor, with 60 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:30,639 Speaker 1: a goal of publishing in time for the nineteen nine 61 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:35,880 Speaker 1: six holiday season. Now Condor actually had to build the 62 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 1: game they had been dreaming of for a couple of years, 63 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,400 Speaker 1: which is a big change from just thinking about it. 64 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:44,240 Speaker 1: They chose to go with an isometric view, with the 65 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 1: world being made up of tiles that characters, monsters, and 66 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:51,240 Speaker 1: objects could inhabit, and originally they wanted to make the 67 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:55,240 Speaker 1: game turn based. Players would have worked with character limitations 68 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:57,880 Speaker 1: that would dictate how far they could move during a turn, 69 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:01,240 Speaker 1: or how frequently they could attack, and so forth. This 70 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:04,680 Speaker 1: was the game David Brevic wanted to make because it 71 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:06,640 Speaker 1: was in a style similar to the games he had 72 00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 1: loved playing as a gamer himself. But at some point 73 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:14,200 Speaker 1: during the development process, the Blizzard team talked to Brevic 74 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:16,800 Speaker 1: and tried to convince him to change from a turn 75 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 1: based game to a real time game. Brevick resisted. The 76 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:25,560 Speaker 1: decision was ultimately put to a vote inside Condor, and 77 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:30,960 Speaker 1: everyone except Brevic voted to go real time, so Brevick agreed, 78 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,560 Speaker 1: though not before asking for a milestone payment from Blizzard, 79 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:38,240 Speaker 1: which they agreed to. The Oblow would thus transform from 80 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:41,080 Speaker 1: a turn based computer RPG into one of the first 81 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:49,160 Speaker 1: action role playing games, or a RPG acronyms are fun. Also, technically, 82 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:51,680 Speaker 1: Brevick would say that what he really did was he 83 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:54,200 Speaker 1: just made the turns last about one a second. So 84 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:56,120 Speaker 1: it's still a turn based game. It's just those turns 85 00:04:56,120 --> 00:05:00,279 Speaker 1: went really fast. One other thing that was almost a 86 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:03,560 Speaker 1: part of Diablo, and I found this really interesting. This 87 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 1: was scrapped before the game would launch, was a concept 88 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: in which players, you know, actual people who would go 89 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 1: out and buy the game, could then go out and 90 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:15,400 Speaker 1: buy supplemental stuff to add their games, in the form 91 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:17,120 Speaker 1: of like a an an expensive c D. You would 92 00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:20,200 Speaker 1: go and buy a CD add on, not a full 93 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:23,520 Speaker 1: expansion set, but maybe a five dollar c D, and 94 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:26,760 Speaker 1: and that add on would include things like weapons and 95 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:30,320 Speaker 1: armor packs or skin packs, stuff like that. It hearkened 96 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:33,080 Speaker 1: back to the days of trading cards, and it presages, 97 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:37,120 Speaker 1: it's a great word, right, the oncoming trend of lootboxes 98 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:39,960 Speaker 1: and video games. You know that stuff that everybody loves. 99 00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:44,880 Speaker 1: It doesn't create legal problems around the world. Well, they 100 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:48,360 Speaker 1: wouldn't find their way into Diablo. That that feature never 101 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:52,080 Speaker 1: made it to Diablo, but in future games Blizzard would, um, 102 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:55,000 Speaker 1: let's just say, take full advantage of this concept, and 103 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:58,080 Speaker 1: they would tweak it for online delivery rather than on 104 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:02,279 Speaker 1: optical discs. Now In Dublow, you play a hero originally 105 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:06,720 Speaker 1: one of three character classes, although expansion sets would expand 106 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:09,680 Speaker 1: that you know, thus the name, and you would be 107 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:13,839 Speaker 1: out to defeat a demonic antagonist named Surprise Surprise Diablo, 108 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:16,279 Speaker 1: who was attempting to gain control of the surface world. 109 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:20,200 Speaker 1: The game involved lots of clicking with the mouse, like 110 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:24,320 Speaker 1: lots and lots of clicking like get a new mouse 111 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:27,239 Speaker 1: every three months. That much clicking. It was a hacken 112 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:30,560 Speaker 1: slash style game, and advancement in the game is largely 113 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:33,400 Speaker 1: tied to finding better loot to make your character more 114 00:06:33,440 --> 00:06:36,880 Speaker 1: powerful and more resilient to damage. The maps for the 115 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:39,560 Speaker 1: levels of the game are created by random generations, so 116 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:42,320 Speaker 1: that the layout is never the same for different playthroughs, 117 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: which made it really interesting. The game featured elaborate at 118 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:49,440 Speaker 1: least for the time cinematics. Blizzard had already established a 119 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:52,480 Speaker 1: reputation for inserting a lot of story into their games, 120 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,800 Speaker 1: but now it was as if you were having a 121 00:06:55,839 --> 00:06:59,280 Speaker 1: short c g I film connecting elements of gameplay, and 122 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:02,880 Speaker 1: it would become another hallmark for Blizzard, which then got 123 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:08,440 Speaker 1: a reputation for increasingly elaborate, highly produced cinematic segments, and 124 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:11,560 Speaker 1: while it was a bit muted compared to other Blizzard games, 125 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:14,040 Speaker 1: the sense of humor was still there too. If you 126 00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:17,560 Speaker 1: do encounter Diablo, for example, he would say something in 127 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:22,160 Speaker 1: an incomprehensible demonic language, unless you were recorded and play 128 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:26,200 Speaker 1: it backward, in which case the demonic one would actually say, 129 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:29,520 Speaker 1: and I'm not making this up, eat your vegetables and 130 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:35,720 Speaker 1: brush after every meal. Evil right. As Condor continued development 131 00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:41,320 Speaker 1: on Diablo, things changed for Blizzard. In February, a marketing 132 00:07:41,320 --> 00:07:45,000 Speaker 1: company called c U C International announced it was acquiring 133 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:48,960 Speaker 1: Davidson and Associates. Now, if you remember from the last episode, 134 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:52,680 Speaker 1: that was the parent company that owned Blizzard, and it 135 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:56,640 Speaker 1: was also in the process of acquiring another software company, 136 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:00,560 Speaker 1: c Era Online game company that I've covered in past episodes. 137 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:04,040 Speaker 1: The change in ownership wouldn't stop there for Blizzard, but 138 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:08,240 Speaker 1: we'll get to all that. Several months before the scheduled 139 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:12,960 Speaker 1: launch of Diablo, Blizzard Entertainment, as part of this larger conglomerate, 140 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:17,560 Speaker 1: made an offer to acquire Condor outright, which Condor accepted, 141 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:20,320 Speaker 1: and it would mean that Condor would change its name 142 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:24,080 Speaker 1: and it would become Blizzard North because it was located 143 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:27,440 Speaker 1: in northern California, while as you know, the original Blizzard 144 00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:31,560 Speaker 1: they were in southern California. While Condor was now officially 145 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:34,800 Speaker 1: part of Blizzard itself, the division would still enjoy much 146 00:08:34,880 --> 00:08:38,319 Speaker 1: of the same freedom, at least at first, that Blizzard 147 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:41,880 Speaker 1: South had experienced when it was bought by Davidson and associates. 148 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:45,320 Speaker 1: Now this would mean that when Diablo launched, it would 149 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:48,520 Speaker 1: officially be a Blizzard title, though not developed by the 150 00:08:48,520 --> 00:08:52,000 Speaker 1: original Blizzard team. Blizzard would help out a little bit 151 00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:54,960 Speaker 1: in the development process, particularly when it came to implementing 152 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:59,040 Speaker 1: a multiplayer feature that wasn't in the original design concept 153 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:02,800 Speaker 1: for Diablo. The changes to Diablo would mean that ultimately 154 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:05,440 Speaker 1: it would miss its original deadline for the holiday season 155 00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:11,079 Speaker 1: in ninet. Instead, it would publish in January, and despite 156 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:14,000 Speaker 1: the inopportune launch date, the game would prove to be 157 00:09:14,360 --> 00:09:19,560 Speaker 1: a smashing success. That smashing was in mouse buttons. I 158 00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:21,920 Speaker 1: might be getting hung up on that. I just remember 159 00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:26,320 Speaker 1: really punishing my mouse playing that game. Diablo's success would 160 00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:28,880 Speaker 1: be linked with the rise of a service from Blizzard, 161 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:32,839 Speaker 1: and that was of course Battle Neet. So, as I mentioned, 162 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:35,640 Speaker 1: the last episode. Warcraft and Warcraft two were both designed 163 00:09:35,679 --> 00:09:37,600 Speaker 1: so that players could go head to head against each 164 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:40,800 Speaker 1: other on a local area area network, or they could 165 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:44,160 Speaker 1: direct dial if they happen to know the other IP address. 166 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:47,600 Speaker 1: But you could also use a third party client called 167 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:51,200 Speaker 1: Collie to trick computers into believing they were part of 168 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:54,360 Speaker 1: a local area network when in reality they were connecting 169 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:57,960 Speaker 1: over the Internet. Now that wasn't ideal, as it limited 170 00:09:58,000 --> 00:09:59,880 Speaker 1: the people who had the knowledge and the drive to 171 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:04,480 Speaker 1: actually make those connections or download the Colleague client, but 172 00:10:04,559 --> 00:10:07,200 Speaker 1: Blizzard employees noted that some companies were starting to come 173 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:10,360 Speaker 1: up with alternatives. One of those was another project out 174 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:13,199 Speaker 1: of Westwood Studios. You'll remember that's the company that had 175 00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:16,199 Speaker 1: created dune To that kind of launched the real time 176 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:21,120 Speaker 1: strategy genre, and it was called, appropriately enough, Westwood Chat. 177 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:24,440 Speaker 1: It was an Internet based chat client that allowed users 178 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:26,920 Speaker 1: to not just chat, but also play games with one 179 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:30,400 Speaker 1: another online. Blizzard wanted to make something similar to that. 180 00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:34,480 Speaker 1: The result was Battlenet, a server based system in which 181 00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:37,439 Speaker 1: players could log into a remote server and get matched 182 00:10:37,520 --> 00:10:40,439 Speaker 1: up with other players in games like Diablo. In fact, 183 00:10:40,600 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 1: Diablo was essentially a launch title for the service. You 184 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,720 Speaker 1: could play Diablo as a single player experience on your 185 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:49,200 Speaker 1: own computer, and you could you could just avoid going 186 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:52,000 Speaker 1: online entirely, and in fact, that's how people like me 187 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:54,160 Speaker 1: tended to play the game. But if you wanted to 188 00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:57,680 Speaker 1: play with other folks in a cooperative style game, you 189 00:10:57,679 --> 00:11:00,520 Speaker 1: could use battle Neet to facilitate the connection and that 190 00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:03,000 Speaker 1: would allow that co op game of up to four players. 191 00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:05,760 Speaker 1: And best of all, it was a free service and 192 00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:08,800 Speaker 1: started off as a very modest endeavor. In fact, originally 193 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:12,320 Speaker 1: battle Net was a service that existed on a single 194 00:11:12,520 --> 00:11:17,000 Speaker 1: server one PC, a machine that was tucked away under 195 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:20,880 Speaker 1: a person's desk at Blizzards headquarters, and it was acting 196 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:23,720 Speaker 1: as a sort of administrator. So in those days, battle 197 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:27,360 Speaker 1: net was actually a peer to peer networking service. One 198 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:30,600 Speaker 1: player's computer would become the host machine and the other 199 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:33,280 Speaker 1: players connecting to that gaming session would be the clients, 200 00:11:33,559 --> 00:11:35,640 Speaker 1: and the battle Neet server just sort of acted as 201 00:11:35,679 --> 00:11:39,120 Speaker 1: an operator to make all these connections. But it wasn't 202 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:41,880 Speaker 1: actually hosting the game itself. That allowed it to be 203 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:45,079 Speaker 1: very lightweight, so the service was very lean and it's 204 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:47,920 Speaker 1: why only one PC was needed to act as a server. 205 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:51,439 Speaker 1: At least Initially, the player computers were really the ones 206 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:53,400 Speaker 1: that we're doing all the heavy lifting. And while it 207 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:58,480 Speaker 1: allowed for easy connectivity, it also opened up some opportunities 208 00:11:58,559 --> 00:12:02,160 Speaker 1: for some shenanigans, because you know, players could pretty easily 209 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:05,560 Speaker 1: use cheats in their local games. I never really understood 210 00:12:05,559 --> 00:12:09,520 Speaker 1: that myself. I mean, what's the point of playing a 211 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:13,079 Speaker 1: fake character who now can do incredible fake things against 212 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:16,960 Speaker 1: other fake characters. But then they would take that same quality, 213 00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:19,600 Speaker 1: that same capability, and they would pour it over to 214 00:12:19,679 --> 00:12:22,840 Speaker 1: battle Neet matches, and obviously that led to some pretty 215 00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:26,280 Speaker 1: uneven matchups among players. It's not much fun to try 216 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:28,720 Speaker 1: and match your skills against an opponent only to find 217 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:32,080 Speaker 1: that person has used cheats to create a severely unfair advantage. 218 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:34,360 Speaker 1: And cheating was so rampant in the early days of 219 00:12:34,360 --> 00:12:37,560 Speaker 1: battle Neet that it threatened to overshadow the service itself. 220 00:12:38,120 --> 00:12:42,480 Speaker 1: While Blizzard South aka Blizzard Prime tried to find ways 221 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:45,040 Speaker 1: to mitigate the cheating online, it was also hard at 222 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:48,319 Speaker 1: work developing the next new game that was a science 223 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:53,040 Speaker 1: fiction RTS that was called StarCraft. Maybe you've heard of it. 224 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:58,120 Speaker 1: The path to publishing wasn't exactly flawless at E three 225 00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:02,240 Speaker 1: before the launch of Diablo and of Battle Neet, Blizzard 226 00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:07,520 Speaker 1: revealed StarCraft to a pretty lackluster response. The general consensus 227 00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:10,480 Speaker 1: was that they had really done nothing more than take 228 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:13,839 Speaker 1: Warcraft and then put a science fiction skin on top 229 00:13:13,880 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 1: of it. It was such a bummer of a response 230 00:13:16,800 --> 00:13:19,920 Speaker 1: that Blizzard gradually reduced the number of displays that were 231 00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:23,200 Speaker 1: showing early gameplay footage. At that E three they originally 232 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:27,599 Speaker 1: had three monitors showing this footage of StarCraft. By the 233 00:13:27,679 --> 00:13:29,760 Speaker 1: end of the show, they had reduced that to one, 234 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:34,319 Speaker 1: and they dedicated all the others to Diablo instead. Based 235 00:13:34,360 --> 00:13:36,280 Speaker 1: off that reaction, I'm sure the company was worried that 236 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:38,640 Speaker 1: StarCraft would never be more than a footnote in the 237 00:13:38,640 --> 00:13:42,000 Speaker 1: company's history. Making things more complicated was the fact that 238 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:45,320 Speaker 1: the RTS category was becoming a fully fledged genre of 239 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:48,400 Speaker 1: its own. So you had games like Warcraft and Command 240 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:51,640 Speaker 1: and Conquer leading the way, but lots of other studios 241 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:54,400 Speaker 1: were dipping their toes in the game type. Many were 242 00:13:54,400 --> 00:13:57,120 Speaker 1: adding new innovations to gameplay, which made it even more 243 00:13:57,160 --> 00:14:00,800 Speaker 1: imperative that Blizzard south revisit the design and in concept 244 00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:04,240 Speaker 1: of StarCraft to turn it into something other than a warcraft. 245 00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:07,400 Speaker 1: To clone to do that, they'd have to go back 246 00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:10,800 Speaker 1: to the drawing board, which meant ditching all the production 247 00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:13,120 Speaker 1: that had been done on that game up to that point. 248 00:14:13,559 --> 00:14:18,199 Speaker 1: StarCraft wouldn't totally die, but it would be stored in carbonite. 249 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:21,720 Speaker 1: Allah Han solo for quite a while. All Right, I've 250 00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:24,080 Speaker 1: got a lot more to say about Blizzard, but before 251 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:34,840 Speaker 1: I get into that, let's take a quick break. Okay, 252 00:14:34,880 --> 00:14:38,320 Speaker 1: we're back. So Blizzard followed up the release of Diablo 253 00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:41,200 Speaker 1: with an expansion pack, which was actually developed by a 254 00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:45,800 Speaker 1: third party called Synergistic Software. Meanwhile, the team behind Diablo 255 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:49,120 Speaker 1: was secretly at work on a full blown sequel, which 256 00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:52,480 Speaker 1: would take much longer to develop. Down at Blizzard South, 257 00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:54,800 Speaker 1: the developers were hard at work trying to create a 258 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:58,520 Speaker 1: worthy game out of the StarCraft concept. Scrapping all their 259 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:00,960 Speaker 1: work leading up to E three ninety six set them 260 00:15:00,960 --> 00:15:03,520 Speaker 1: back to square one, so they focused on the work 261 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:06,120 Speaker 1: and rebuilt the game from scratch, getting it ready for 262 00:15:06,280 --> 00:15:10,880 Speaker 1: a Spring of release. While it remained a real time 263 00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:13,880 Speaker 1: strategy game, Blizzard made a big move and that the 264 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:17,840 Speaker 1: three factions you could play each had different units, and 265 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:20,240 Speaker 1: each of those units had its own abilities that set 266 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:23,360 Speaker 1: it apart from the units of the other factions. You 267 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:25,760 Speaker 1: couldn't play the game and assume your opponents had the 268 00:15:25,760 --> 00:15:28,880 Speaker 1: same capabilities that you had. You needed to plan to 269 00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:32,840 Speaker 1: defend against their strengths and to try and exploit their weaknesses. 270 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:37,160 Speaker 1: The built in variety meant that strategy would be incredibly important, 271 00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:39,920 Speaker 1: and eager players dove into the game to learn the 272 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:43,560 Speaker 1: best approach to any given scenario. Battle Net allowed players 273 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:47,080 Speaker 1: to test their skills against each other. At the same time, 274 00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:50,680 Speaker 1: competitive gaming was starting to gain traction, and StarCraft became 275 00:15:50,760 --> 00:15:53,720 Speaker 1: a banner title for the new sport. It was such 276 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:57,480 Speaker 1: a hit that sales in South Korea alone were more 277 00:15:57,480 --> 00:16:01,320 Speaker 1: than what Blizzard had seen globally for Warcraft two and 278 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:06,000 Speaker 1: for Diablo, and ten years later, on twenty years later, 279 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:09,520 Speaker 1: it's still a very popular game in competitive play in 280 00:16:09,560 --> 00:16:14,920 Speaker 1: South Korea. While Warcraft two was the studio's first breakout hit, 281 00:16:15,240 --> 00:16:19,400 Speaker 1: StarCraft would leave it in the dust. It propelled Blizzard 282 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:23,720 Speaker 1: into the position of a world leader in video game development. Now. 283 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:27,560 Speaker 1: Like Diablo and Warcraft two, Blizzard would tap a third 284 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:31,760 Speaker 1: party studio to develop expansion packs to StarCraft, but neither 285 00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:35,720 Speaker 1: of the expansion packs produced by those third parties enjoyed 286 00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:38,920 Speaker 1: the same success as the base game did, and they 287 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:41,760 Speaker 1: were criticized for not living up to the standards of 288 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:45,560 Speaker 1: the original StarCraft game. So Blizzard went and made their 289 00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:50,080 Speaker 1: own expansion set called brood War, which gamers preferred and 290 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:52,720 Speaker 1: they viewed it as a worthy expansion of the base 291 00:16:52,800 --> 00:16:56,520 Speaker 1: campaign of StarCraft. Once again, Blizzard got the message that 292 00:16:56,800 --> 00:17:00,920 Speaker 1: going outside the company to develop for flagship title wasn't 293 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:04,600 Speaker 1: necessarily a good you know, use of their resources or 294 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:08,160 Speaker 1: their intellectual property. And a couple of other big things 295 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:13,679 Speaker 1: happened in for Blizzard. One was that Alan Adham, the 296 00:17:13,920 --> 00:17:16,800 Speaker 1: prime founder of Blizzard, who had been acting as the 297 00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:21,000 Speaker 1: company's president, stepped down from his position. He didn't leave 298 00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:23,120 Speaker 1: the company, he wanted to take a more direct role 299 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:27,480 Speaker 1: in actually designing games. Mike Morheim, another co founder of 300 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:30,240 Speaker 1: the company, would then take over the role of president 301 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:34,840 Speaker 1: and would remain there for many years. Meanwhile, way above 302 00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:38,639 Speaker 1: the heads of the Blizzard crew over at Sendence Software. 303 00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:42,640 Speaker 1: Sentence Software was formed out of the their corporate overlords 304 00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:47,439 Speaker 1: at CEUC International. There was a massive, massive scandal, had 305 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:51,680 Speaker 1: nothing to do with Blizzard, but Sendant, the parent company, 306 00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:55,400 Speaker 1: was at the heart of it, and they found themselves 307 00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:58,280 Speaker 1: in need of a lot of cash, so in order 308 00:17:58,320 --> 00:18:01,200 Speaker 1: to raise it, they sold off their software division, which 309 00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:04,240 Speaker 1: included Blizzard and Sierra Online. They sold it to a 310 00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:08,600 Speaker 1: French company called Havas. Havas was in turn swallowed up 311 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:13,760 Speaker 1: by the mass media conglomerate Vivendi, also French, which tells 312 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:17,399 Speaker 1: us that Quagon Gen was right. There's always a bigger fish. 313 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:20,800 Speaker 1: So now Blizzard, which was still allowed to operate more 314 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:25,600 Speaker 1: or less autonomously, had brand new corporate overwords, and this 315 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:28,040 Speaker 1: would become a big issue in the near future. So 316 00:18:29,359 --> 00:18:33,879 Speaker 1: keeping in mind, this ownership question gets really complicated, I 317 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:36,800 Speaker 1: feel a lot of empathy. Look up the history of 318 00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:39,360 Speaker 1: how stuff works sometime and you'll know what I mean. 319 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:43,439 Speaker 1: So the other thing that happened wasn't a great story 320 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 1: for Blizzard. In this time period, the company had reached 321 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:51,479 Speaker 1: out to a Russian video game developer to create a 322 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:54,960 Speaker 1: point and click adventure style game based off the Warcraft 323 00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:58,399 Speaker 1: intellectual property. Players were to take control of an Orc 324 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:01,080 Speaker 1: in his quest to become a war lord, the Lord 325 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:04,840 Speaker 1: of the Clans. However, while the game was in development, 326 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:09,280 Speaker 1: LucasArts announced to adventure games of their own, The third 327 00:19:09,320 --> 00:19:12,760 Speaker 1: in the Monkey Island series. I'm a huge Monkey Island 328 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:17,200 Speaker 1: fan and also Grim fan. Dango a true masterpiece of 329 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:21,639 Speaker 1: a computer game. They're both phenomenal, and they have interesting 330 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:23,639 Speaker 1: stories and they have a great sense of humor. Their 331 00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:28,040 Speaker 1: art style is amazing. Meanwhile, the work coming out of 332 00:19:28,119 --> 00:19:32,400 Speaker 1: Russia wasn't really living up to Blizzards expectations for their 333 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:35,879 Speaker 1: adventure game, and language barriers were making it challenging to 334 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:40,480 Speaker 1: manage the project from California, so ultimately, Blizzard made the 335 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:44,159 Speaker 1: tough decision to scrap the project, even though it was 336 00:19:44,359 --> 00:19:48,040 Speaker 1: probably just a couple of months away from being finished. 337 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:52,120 Speaker 1: The following year, Blizzard would push Diablo Too back from 338 00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:55,960 Speaker 1: a late release because the game wasn't quite ready yet. 339 00:19:56,240 --> 00:20:00,440 Speaker 1: They also announced plans for Warcraft three, which originally was 340 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:03,080 Speaker 1: going to have some big changes from the previous titles 341 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:05,000 Speaker 1: in the series. It would have more of a role 342 00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:07,760 Speaker 1: playing element, so you would still have some real time 343 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:11,000 Speaker 1: strategy features, but you would control hero units in the game, 344 00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:14,760 Speaker 1: and the story would unfold as your hero completed quests 345 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:19,240 Speaker 1: and encountered other important characters. After announcing the plans, Blizzard 346 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:23,320 Speaker 1: got to work, but early demos of their idea didn't 347 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:27,200 Speaker 1: appeal to anyone on the team. It was generally felt 348 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:30,560 Speaker 1: that the process just was not working. So in two 349 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:34,399 Speaker 1: thousand they announced that Warcraft three was actually going to 350 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:38,960 Speaker 1: be a lot more like its predecessors and also worse. 351 00:20:39,359 --> 00:20:41,920 Speaker 1: This would mean the game would take longer to develop. 352 00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:46,800 Speaker 1: Blizzard South would then split into two big camps. One 353 00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:50,560 Speaker 1: was focused on developing Warcraft three. The other group focused 354 00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:53,080 Speaker 1: on a project called Nomad, which was going to be 355 00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:57,400 Speaker 1: a brand new intellectual property for the company. Unfortunately, that 356 00:20:57,440 --> 00:21:00,320 Speaker 1: one would also get bogged down and Blizzard would exit 357 00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:04,560 Speaker 1: before it ever got publicly announced. Now, Blizzard hasn't really 358 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:08,320 Speaker 1: ever said a whole lot about what Nomad was going 359 00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:11,879 Speaker 1: to be like, but they did reveal that they intended 360 00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:14,480 Speaker 1: it to be a squad based game set in a 361 00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:17,960 Speaker 1: science fiction genre, and that it was inspired by a 362 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:22,919 Speaker 1: tabletop miniature strategy game called Necromunda, which is part of 363 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:26,639 Speaker 1: the Warhammer forty k universe, which might be the nerdiest 364 00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:29,520 Speaker 1: thing I've ever said, and I'm not judging I play 365 00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:32,280 Speaker 1: these games, guys. But part of the problem was that 366 00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:36,960 Speaker 1: the team on Nomad never really agreed exactly where the 367 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:39,600 Speaker 1: balance in the game needed to be. Some wanted it 368 00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:41,840 Speaker 1: to be more of a strategy game, similar in some 369 00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:45,520 Speaker 1: ways to the RTS genre. Others wanted to have more 370 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:48,520 Speaker 1: of an RPG focus, a more role playing and story. 371 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,720 Speaker 1: A few folks on the team weren't really crazy about 372 00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:53,760 Speaker 1: the idea at all, and they just wanted to work 373 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:56,480 Speaker 1: on something else, and since it seemed like there wasn't 374 00:21:56,520 --> 00:21:59,560 Speaker 1: a chance that these visions were going to cohere, the 375 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:03,920 Speaker 1: company ultimately decided to cancel it. The Warcraft adventure game 376 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:08,760 Speaker 1: and Nomad weren't the first canceled projects at Blizzard. There 377 00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:10,959 Speaker 1: had been an attempt to make a science fiction shooter 378 00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:14,399 Speaker 1: game called Crixia in the mid nineties, and there was 379 00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,119 Speaker 1: a failed collaboration with Change Links Software to make a 380 00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:22,160 Speaker 1: sequel to the space strategy game packs Imperia. Before StarCraft, 381 00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:24,920 Speaker 1: some Blizzard developers were working on a different real time 382 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:28,240 Speaker 1: strategy game with a post apocalyptic sci fi field called 383 00:22:28,359 --> 00:22:32,240 Speaker 1: Shattered Nations. And we're gonna talk about some more canceled 384 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:37,000 Speaker 1: games before we finish out this series. Somewhat mitigating player 385 00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:40,800 Speaker 1: disappointment over the changes to Warcraft three was the fact 386 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:44,000 Speaker 1: that Blizzard North was finally ready to release Diabload too. 387 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 1: In June two thousand, which, like the first game, was 388 00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:52,000 Speaker 1: an enormous hit. The graphics for the game only received 389 00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:56,960 Speaker 1: relatively minor upgrades, which threatened to impact player perception about 390 00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:59,920 Speaker 1: the title, but there were lots of improvements in other 391 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:02,520 Speaker 1: aspects of the game and had a larger scale. And 392 00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:04,920 Speaker 1: because the team knew that multiplayer was going to be 393 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:07,880 Speaker 1: a component from the very beginning, they built it into 394 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:10,800 Speaker 1: the design process, so it was much better incorporated than 395 00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:14,840 Speaker 1: it was for the first Diablo. This came at a price, however. 396 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:20,160 Speaker 1: The development process for Diablo two was famously brutal. Programmers 397 00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:24,280 Speaker 1: and designers were working long hours for a full year. 398 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:27,479 Speaker 1: Sometimes they'd be working more than twenty four hours at 399 00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:30,040 Speaker 1: a stretch in a row, all in an effort to 400 00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:33,359 Speaker 1: finish this game. Even when they pushed the game back 401 00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:37,640 Speaker 1: from to mid two thousand, there really wasn't any room 402 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:42,120 Speaker 1: to breathe. Blizzard, both North and South, were not strangers 403 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:45,320 Speaker 1: to this kind of cycle. Commonly in the biz we 404 00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:48,440 Speaker 1: refer to it as crunch. You see it in all 405 00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:51,920 Speaker 1: forms of production, but it has a seriously negative impact 406 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:55,800 Speaker 1: on work life balance, as in there isn't any balance 407 00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:58,920 Speaker 1: between work in life. Today, companies are becoming a little 408 00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:02,240 Speaker 1: more sensitive to going into crunch mode as the optics, 409 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:05,399 Speaker 1: as they say, aren't very good. There have been some 410 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:09,000 Speaker 1: rather high profile cases of employees putting their personal lives 411 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:12,040 Speaker 1: and health at risk just to finish a game. Cases 412 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:15,360 Speaker 1: like the Diablo to development process would become much more common, 413 00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:18,879 Speaker 1: and not just at Blizzard, as time would go on. Well, 414 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:23,679 Speaker 1: if you're a general gamer, you know, the average stereotypical gamer, 415 00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:27,480 Speaker 1: you're probably either not aware or you don't care about 416 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:30,200 Speaker 1: the plight of those actually toiling to create the games 417 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:33,439 Speaker 1: that you play. But one thing that the average gamer 418 00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:37,080 Speaker 1: does tend to be quite vocal about our problems with games. 419 00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:39,159 Speaker 1: Don't know if you've ever been on the internet, but 420 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:42,760 Speaker 1: they're not shy about saying that kind of thing. Diablo's 421 00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:46,480 Speaker 1: biggest problem early on was that it was so popular 422 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:49,080 Speaker 1: that everyone was trying to go online and it was 423 00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:52,800 Speaker 1: crashing the battle Neet servers, Which is the best kind 424 00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:55,800 Speaker 1: of apology you have to give to your public guys, 425 00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,560 Speaker 1: I'm sorry, we're so awesome that you have to play 426 00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:04,000 Speaker 1: our game and you're destroying our server system. We're so sorry, 427 00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:07,439 Speaker 1: thank you, But yes, that was one of the big issues. 428 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:10,520 Speaker 1: This also would mark when Blizzard would veer away from 429 00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:13,560 Speaker 1: that pure networking approach that I talked about earlier that 430 00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:15,840 Speaker 1: they had created with battle NEETs. So with the old method, 431 00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:19,000 Speaker 1: it was incredibly easy for cheaters to exploit the system. 432 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:22,040 Speaker 1: I mean, they were hosting games on their own computers, 433 00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,040 Speaker 1: so entering into multiplayer games with an unfair advantage was 434 00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:28,399 Speaker 1: very easy. You could grief other players as well, because 435 00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:31,760 Speaker 1: Diablo had friendly fire on so you have an overpowered 436 00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:34,800 Speaker 1: character who blasts fireballs everywhere and then you're the only 437 00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:38,520 Speaker 1: one standing. Ha ha ha. Isn't that fun? Well. The 438 00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:41,160 Speaker 1: way that they decided to address this was by completely 439 00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:45,359 Speaker 1: changing the architecture of battle Neet. So they went with 440 00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:48,720 Speaker 1: a more traditional server clients set up in which Blizzard 441 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:51,600 Speaker 1: would run the games on its servers and players would 442 00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:54,440 Speaker 1: log in to access the games, and that helped out 443 00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:57,080 Speaker 1: on the abuse that they had seen in the previous 444 00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:00,320 Speaker 1: Diablo game. It's really only possible because we had seen 445 00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 1: a greater rollout of broadband technology at that point. The 446 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:06,920 Speaker 1: same team that made Diablo two would work on the 447 00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:11,360 Speaker 1: expansion set called the Lord of Destruction, which added more 448 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,639 Speaker 1: features to the base Diablo two game. Blizzard made the 449 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:18,000 Speaker 1: decision early on to essue third party studios. They had 450 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:22,480 Speaker 1: not had any good real experiences with that anyway, and 451 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:24,399 Speaker 1: they said, you know, it just makes more sense for 452 00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:26,640 Speaker 1: us to do it ourselves if we're going to do this. 453 00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:29,760 Speaker 1: So they had the same team that made Diablo to 454 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,119 Speaker 1: make the expansion Set and Low and Behold. People liked it. 455 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:36,200 Speaker 1: Lord of Destruction launched in June two thousand one, just 456 00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:39,320 Speaker 1: one year after Diablo two had come out, and it 457 00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:41,840 Speaker 1: was another success for the team up at Blizzard North. 458 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:45,520 Speaker 1: They would then turn their sides on developing yet another 459 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:50,440 Speaker 1: Diablo game, which would have been Diablo three. But if 460 00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:53,480 Speaker 1: you can tell from that language, it would not turn 461 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,600 Speaker 1: out the way the team imagined it would. That will 462 00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:00,200 Speaker 1: be more uh for part three of this series race, 463 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,960 Speaker 1: but we'll get a little bit into it. Meanwhile, the 464 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:05,640 Speaker 1: team that had been developing Nomad were hard at work 465 00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:08,320 Speaker 1: on a brand new project. Their goal was to create 466 00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:12,440 Speaker 1: a game in which hundreds, maybe thousands of people could 467 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:17,080 Speaker 1: explore simultaneously. It would be a persistent online world. Players 468 00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:20,959 Speaker 1: would control characters they created and explore the world. They 469 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:25,280 Speaker 1: would take on quests that would join other players, making factions. 470 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:29,199 Speaker 1: They'd work together and coordinated raids on dungeons and opposing 471 00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:34,040 Speaker 1: player factions. They wanted to make a massively multiplayer online 472 00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:37,640 Speaker 1: role playing game or m m O RPG, and when 473 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:40,760 Speaker 1: they looked across their collection of i P they decided 474 00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:44,080 Speaker 1: that the Warcraft universe made the most sense to adapt 475 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:49,800 Speaker 1: into that format, and so work began on World of Warcraft. Now, 476 00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,920 Speaker 1: MMOs were not a new thing even in the early 477 00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:57,760 Speaker 1: two thousand's. Games like Ultima Online and ever Quest originally 478 00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:01,720 Speaker 1: debuted in the mid to late ease and MMOs were 479 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:06,480 Speaker 1: a really attractive type of game to develop. I'll explain why. See, 480 00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:09,600 Speaker 1: you design a compelling game. That's step one. It has 481 00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:12,200 Speaker 1: to be something that people want to play. That means 482 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:15,679 Speaker 1: you can then get, if you're lucky, a nice large 483 00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:19,960 Speaker 1: base of players. Moreover, the general business strategy was to 484 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:23,960 Speaker 1: charge a subscription fee every month for each player. So 485 00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,280 Speaker 1: it wasn't just that these players were going out and 486 00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:29,960 Speaker 1: buying your game at full price. I mean they were, 487 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:32,960 Speaker 1: but they were also paying for the privilege to continue 488 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,720 Speaker 1: to play the game. In return, you indicate that you're 489 00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:39,760 Speaker 1: you're going to keep building content and you're going to 490 00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:42,640 Speaker 1: roll out new stuff for players to experience over time. 491 00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,560 Speaker 1: But really, what it means is that a game becomes 492 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:50,640 Speaker 1: an ongoing stream of revenue. Best yet, with most games, 493 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:53,840 Speaker 1: you would sigh once it became pretty clear you would 494 00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:56,120 Speaker 1: hit your saturation point. Right Like, if you had a 495 00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:59,960 Speaker 1: traditional game, then eventually you hit the point where sale 496 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,160 Speaker 1: are gonna start to drop off, it would be pretty 497 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:04,920 Speaker 1: obvious you weren't going to see any more dramatic jumps 498 00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:08,360 Speaker 1: in sales figures. But with MMOs that didn't matter as 499 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:12,480 Speaker 1: much because once you had your initial player base, they'd 500 00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:15,760 Speaker 1: still be paying you that monthly subscription fee, even if 501 00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:19,280 Speaker 1: you only sold a relatively small number of copies. Once 502 00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:22,120 Speaker 1: those initial sales died down, you'd still be sitting on 503 00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:25,400 Speaker 1: a nice monthly revenue stream. Now, that didn't mean the 504 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:29,680 Speaker 1: game immediately launched right away when they announced it. Nope, 505 00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:31,840 Speaker 1: it would take a few more years before it was 506 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:34,240 Speaker 1: ready to rule out to players. But the course have 507 00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:39,240 Speaker 1: been laid for one of Blizzard's biggest success stories. But 508 00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:42,200 Speaker 1: before we get to the success, we're gonna have a 509 00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:47,520 Speaker 1: little more heartbreak. It's my favorite part. In fact, I'm 510 00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:49,400 Speaker 1: gonna have to really revel in this. So let's take 511 00:29:49,600 --> 00:30:00,000 Speaker 1: a quick break. Okay, I alluded to this before the break. 512 00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:02,240 Speaker 1: We're coming up to one of the big heartbreaks in 513 00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:08,600 Speaker 1: canceled game history. This is legendary in the world of 514 00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,920 Speaker 1: computer games when you talk about vapor were so. While 515 00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:16,040 Speaker 1: Blizzard was hard at work developing Diablo three and Warcraft 516 00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:18,640 Speaker 1: three and World of Warcraft, as well as starting to 517 00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:22,560 Speaker 1: lay out plans for a full StarCraft sequel, the company 518 00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:25,800 Speaker 1: also reached out to another developer to make an entirely 519 00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:30,280 Speaker 1: different type of game based on Blizzards intellectual property. This 520 00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:34,000 Speaker 1: game would be a science fiction third person shooter, a 521 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:39,000 Speaker 1: console game set in blizzards StarCraft universe, co developed with 522 00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:42,800 Speaker 1: a studio called Nihilistic Games. I guess they just didn't 523 00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:46,479 Speaker 1: believe in anything. Blizzard announced these plans at the two 524 00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:49,920 Speaker 1: thousand to Tokyo Game Show, and it was going to 525 00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:55,560 Speaker 1: be called StarCraft Ghost and boy, what a fitting title 526 00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:59,440 Speaker 1: that turned out to be. Now, the goal was to 527 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,640 Speaker 1: make this console action shooter because one of the challenges 528 00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:06,040 Speaker 1: Blizzard was facing was that's real time strategy games were 529 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:10,280 Speaker 1: hard to translate to a console experience. A controller doesn't 530 00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:13,320 Speaker 1: really offer you the type of speed and precision that 531 00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:17,720 Speaker 1: a keyboard or mouse would, and those are very important 532 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:20,640 Speaker 1: elements of a real time strategy game. But at the 533 00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:25,080 Speaker 1: same time, Blizzard recognized that console gamers represented a huge 534 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:27,800 Speaker 1: market and that's one that the company wasn't really able 535 00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:29,920 Speaker 1: to take advantage of with most of the games that 536 00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:33,360 Speaker 1: it was producing, So that helped motivate the team to 537 00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:37,640 Speaker 1: to get this project underway. Now. At the announcement, Blizzards 538 00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:40,360 Speaker 1: stated that they intended for StarCraft Ghost to come out 539 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:45,200 Speaker 1: for the quote next generation end quote of video game consoles. 540 00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:48,000 Speaker 1: So in two thousand two, if you look at what 541 00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:50,200 Speaker 1: were the state of the art consoles at the time, 542 00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:54,720 Speaker 1: you had the Nintendo GameCube, the original Xbox, and the 543 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:58,600 Speaker 1: PlayStation two. So the next generation of consoles wouldn't come 544 00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:00,920 Speaker 1: out for a few years, right, They announced it in 545 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:04,000 Speaker 1: two thousand two, But the Xbox three sixty wouldn't come 546 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,120 Speaker 1: out to two thousand five, and the WE and the 547 00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:09,320 Speaker 1: p S three wouldn't come out until two thousand six. 548 00:32:09,680 --> 00:32:12,120 Speaker 1: So this announcement was made well in advance of any 549 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:15,320 Speaker 1: game coming out, and sometimes that can come back to 550 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:18,120 Speaker 1: bite you on the butt, since a lot can change 551 00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:21,080 Speaker 1: over the years. Or maybe they intended to develop for 552 00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:24,120 Speaker 1: the GameCube, the Xbox, and the PS two and maybe 553 00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:27,480 Speaker 1: it just didn't work out. Things did not go smoothly 554 00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:30,200 Speaker 1: on the development front. Now I'm gonna stick with this 555 00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:32,080 Speaker 1: story for a bit, then I'll get back to the 556 00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:35,200 Speaker 1: rest of Blizzard. The company was not happy with how 557 00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,400 Speaker 1: things were going with Nihilistic, and then the two companies 558 00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:41,520 Speaker 1: would part ways in June two thousand four, with the 559 00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:45,480 Speaker 1: game still unfinished. Blizzard then signed an agreement with another 560 00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:50,120 Speaker 1: development studio called Swinging Ape Studios to help finish this game. 561 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:53,120 Speaker 1: Not much was said about the game, other than a 562 00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:55,720 Speaker 1: revelation in two thousand five that Blizzard had decided to 563 00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:58,680 Speaker 1: cancel a version of it for the game Cube, but 564 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:02,520 Speaker 1: the other versions were still active development. In two thousand six, 565 00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:07,280 Speaker 1: Blizzard published a StarCraft Ghost novel, which to date is 566 00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:11,400 Speaker 1: really the only published piece of content from StarCraft Ghost 567 00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:16,200 Speaker 1: from Blizzard. It became a famous example of vaporware, right 568 00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:21,440 Speaker 1: up there with Duke Knewcombe Forever, which actually did come 569 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:24,360 Speaker 1: out at one point. It was terrible, but it came out. 570 00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:28,560 Speaker 1: It wouldn't be until two thousand fourteen when Mike Moreheim 571 00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:32,720 Speaker 1: would finally say publicly that the game had in fact 572 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,200 Speaker 1: been canceled and it wasn't just in cold storage twelve 573 00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:41,400 Speaker 1: years after they announced it. Now, between the announcement of 574 00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:44,880 Speaker 1: World of Warcraft and the actual launch of the game, 575 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,560 Speaker 1: Blizzard would publish the third full game in the Warcraft series, 576 00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:51,720 Speaker 1: Warcraft three. Now. As I mentioned earlier, the version that 577 00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:55,440 Speaker 1: Blizzard had talked about several years previous was different from 578 00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:59,080 Speaker 1: what the company actually produced. In the original concept, heroes 579 00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:02,680 Speaker 1: in the game would essentially be playable characters, marrying the 580 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:06,280 Speaker 1: real time strategy and role playing game genres and giving 581 00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:09,560 Speaker 1: players a chance to shape a story. In the actual 582 00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:13,000 Speaker 1: Warcraft three, the hero units were there, but they were 583 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:16,400 Speaker 1: more like specialized game pieces that could do things that 584 00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:20,799 Speaker 1: other units couldn't. They weren't characters, and there wasn't really 585 00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:23,719 Speaker 1: an RPG factor in the game. It did feature some 586 00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:26,560 Speaker 1: three D gameplay, which was a new thing for the 587 00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:30,239 Speaker 1: Warcraft series, and it also featured the most extravagant cut 588 00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:32,880 Speaker 1: scenes Blizzard had featured in a game up to that point. 589 00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:35,839 Speaker 1: I mean, seriously, it was right around this time that 590 00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:38,520 Speaker 1: those of us who were paying attention to Blizzard were saying, 591 00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:41,879 Speaker 1: you know, they could just package up their cinematics and 592 00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:45,600 Speaker 1: release them as a c g I movie. But it's 593 00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:47,600 Speaker 1: actually a little too early in the timeline for me 594 00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:53,560 Speaker 1: to talk about Warcraft the movie right now, but don't worry, 595 00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:57,680 Speaker 1: we'll get to it. So the Blizzard team would then 596 00:34:57,680 --> 00:34:59,640 Speaker 1: go on to work for an expansion pack for the 597 00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:04,160 Speaker 1: base Warcraft three game. It was called Frozen Throne, which 598 00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:07,120 Speaker 1: every time I said it out loud before I recorded it, 599 00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:09,520 Speaker 1: I said throzen Frone, and I was sure I was 600 00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:11,520 Speaker 1: going to do it again. It was actually going through 601 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:13,960 Speaker 1: my mind just now, just letting you guys get an 602 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:17,319 Speaker 1: insight into how Jonathan works, because I haven't done that 603 00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:20,920 Speaker 1: podcast yet. Like Rude War and Lord of Destruction, Blizzard 604 00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:23,279 Speaker 1: actually used the exact same development team that worked on 605 00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:26,360 Speaker 1: the original game to make the expansion pack, which helped 606 00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:29,200 Speaker 1: ensure that the quality would remain the same. In two 607 00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:34,040 Speaker 1: thousand three, Blizzard North experienced an enormous shake up. Several 608 00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:38,640 Speaker 1: people in the executive management and lead developer levels had 609 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:42,160 Speaker 1: grown disenchanted with Vivendi that's the parent company for the 610 00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:45,719 Speaker 1: whole shebang. Right there was uncertainty about whether or not 611 00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:48,799 Speaker 1: Vivendi was going to spin off the game's division, or 612 00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:51,480 Speaker 1: it might sell it off to yet another owner, and 613 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,080 Speaker 1: all of that uncertainty was making it very difficult to 614 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:58,719 Speaker 1: plan development cycles for games. After numerous communications issues and 615 00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:02,280 Speaker 1: worries about the corporate direction of Avendy and whether Blizzard 616 00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:05,600 Speaker 1: North was even being listened to, a whole slew of 617 00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:09,680 Speaker 1: Blizzard North folks just up and left. That included the 618 00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:13,520 Speaker 1: founders of the company, so Max and Eric Schaefer and 619 00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:17,560 Speaker 1: David Brevic, who all founded Condor Incorporated. They left with 620 00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:20,120 Speaker 1: some other high level employees and they formed a new 621 00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:23,840 Speaker 1: company that they called Flagship Studios. Seems like they were 622 00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:26,680 Speaker 1: maybe thumbing their nose at Vendy a little bit, saying 623 00:36:26,719 --> 00:36:31,160 Speaker 1: that they made the flagship game for Blizzard. Another group 624 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:35,719 Speaker 1: of influential employees from Blizzard North also left, creating a 625 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:39,560 Speaker 1: different game studio called Castaway Games. Also seems like there 626 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,960 Speaker 1: might be some shade being thrown there anyway. The departures 627 00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:47,200 Speaker 1: through the development of Diablo three into total disarray. The 628 00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:50,359 Speaker 1: following year, Blizzard South would also see a very big 629 00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:54,480 Speaker 1: name departure. Alan Adham, the founder who was the reason 630 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:58,880 Speaker 1: that Blizzard even existed, decided he had endured enough stress 631 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:01,520 Speaker 1: and long hours. You're remember he stepped down from president 632 00:37:01,560 --> 00:37:04,799 Speaker 1: a few years earlier, but he figured now was time 633 00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:06,840 Speaker 1: to try something new it's time to get into the 634 00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:11,879 Speaker 1: exciting world of corporate finance. I'm not even making that up. 635 00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:18,080 Speaker 1: Someone chose to go from video game studio to corporate finance. 636 00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:21,400 Speaker 1: So in two thousand four he resigned from Blizzard. He 637 00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:23,799 Speaker 1: had been the motivating force that convinced the other two 638 00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:27,120 Speaker 1: founders of the company, Frank Pierce and Mike Moreheim, to 639 00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:30,520 Speaker 1: join with him to create this crazy, risky venture. And 640 00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:33,360 Speaker 1: now he was gone from the company, though he wouldn't 641 00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:36,960 Speaker 1: be gone forever. That right, there's what we call foreshadow 642 00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:39,120 Speaker 1: and but I won't get back to that until the 643 00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:43,480 Speaker 1: next episode, so just be patient. Okay. Moreheim had already 644 00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:46,520 Speaker 1: been serving as president, so actually the company didn't have 645 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:50,920 Speaker 1: too much interruption in its day to day operations. Moreheim 646 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:55,279 Speaker 1: oversaw Blizzards acquisition of the aforementioned Swinging Apes Studios, the 647 00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:58,120 Speaker 1: one that had been working on StarCraft Ghost, and it 648 00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:02,160 Speaker 1: would get renamed into Blizzard Console. Now, all the turmoil 649 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:04,879 Speaker 1: might have made it seem like the company that had 650 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:08,200 Speaker 1: so recently been on top could collapse in on itself, 651 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:11,720 Speaker 1: but in the fall of two thousand four, Blizzard published 652 00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:15,560 Speaker 1: a game that would ensure their longevity. This was, of course, 653 00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:18,640 Speaker 1: World of Warcraft, the M M O RPG that would 654 00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:22,279 Speaker 1: set a new standard of success for the genre. To 655 00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:26,760 Speaker 1: say the game was a hit would be a severe understatement. 656 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:29,640 Speaker 1: It would become one of the biggest money makers in 657 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:33,719 Speaker 1: video games history. So in our next episode, I'll talk 658 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:36,799 Speaker 1: more about the evolution of World of Warcraft and how 659 00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:40,480 Speaker 1: Blizzard would periodically inject new life into the game with 660 00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:45,160 Speaker 1: various expansion packs, world resets, and other strategies. I'll also 661 00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:49,160 Speaker 1: talk about the final fate of Blizzard North, which spoiler 662 00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:52,759 Speaker 1: alert is not a happy one, and will take a 663 00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:56,000 Speaker 1: closer look at some of the controversies that Blizzard has 664 00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,680 Speaker 1: had to weather more free recently. You know, like what 665 00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:02,080 Speaker 1: happens when a popular gamer suddenly expresses support for Hong 666 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:05,400 Speaker 1: Kong while your company is simultaneously trying to make a 667 00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:08,080 Speaker 1: whole lot of money in China. But all of that 668 00:39:08,120 --> 00:39:11,480 Speaker 1: will come in the next episode. If you guys have 669 00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:14,839 Speaker 1: suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff, well I got 670 00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:18,960 Speaker 1: some suggestions for you, buddy. You can email me addresses 671 00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:21,319 Speaker 1: tech stuff at how stuff works dot com or draw 672 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:24,000 Speaker 1: me a line on Facebook or Twitter to handle for 673 00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:26,759 Speaker 1: both of those. For the show is text Stuff H S. 674 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:29,720 Speaker 1: W don't forget to visit our website, that's tech stuff 675 00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:32,440 Speaker 1: podcast dot com. You'll find a link to an archive 676 00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:36,719 Speaker 1: of every ever love An episode I've ever recorded, all 677 00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:40,160 Speaker 1: twelve hundred of them. So go take a search before 678 00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:42,640 Speaker 1: you suggest something, because chances are I've talked about it already. 679 00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:44,879 Speaker 1: I mean, I'll probably talk about it again. I don't 680 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:47,959 Speaker 1: remember what I talked about if I'm being honest. Also, hey, 681 00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:50,520 Speaker 1: we have a link to our merchandise store. Every purchase 682 00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:53,000 Speaker 1: you make goes to help the show. We greatly appreciate it, 683 00:39:53,200 --> 00:40:00,279 Speaker 1: and I will talk to you again really soon. Tech 684 00:40:00,320 --> 00:40:02,960 Speaker 1: Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. 685 00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:05,960 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I 686 00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:09,319 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 687 00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:10,280 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.