WEBVTT - TechStuff Gets Caught in a Blizzard 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.840 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:18.000 tech Stuff from how stuff dot com. Hello, everyone, welcome 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.439 to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Palette, and I 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:22.919 am an editor at how stuff works dot com. Sitting 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:26.320 across from me as always, his senior writer, Jonathan Strickland. Oh, 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:30.120 the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:35.360 So since we've no place to go, well, you know, yeah, somehow, 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:37.440 I you know, he never tells me what the quote 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.479 is before we start, and I had a feeling actually 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:42.479 predicted this one in my head. But there's going to 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:44.680 be that particular song. H Well, then, well, before we 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:48.279 talk about what our topic is, I have a Jeopardy 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.880 challenge for you. All right, you ready? Now here is 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:57.040 your answer. This popular massively multiplayer online role playing game 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.840 was featured in a question on Jeopardy is College We 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:04.840 in two thousand five? What is World of Warcraft? You 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:08.480 didn't buzz in? So I'm sorry, We're taking all of 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.119 your money and we're going to break your legs. This 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:13.400 is this is how he plays the Predictions game too. 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:15.560 That is yes, I will change the rules so that 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:17.880 I win, no matter what. No, that is correct. We 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:20.480 are going to talk today not about World of Warcraft 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.840 specifically Alba, that will definitely be a large part of 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:27.759 the conversation, but about Blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard, 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:34.959 the company behind such big hits as World of Warcraft, Warcraft, StarCraft, 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.440 and actually I thought we were going to talk about 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.800 silicon and synapse. That is in fact where we start. 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:46.120 Our story officially begins at u c l A in 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:50.800 around n that's the University of California at Los Angeles, 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:53.000 thank you for those of you not in the now. 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.840 So they were at UCLA, and at UCLA there was 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:00.880 a student, a computer science student named Allan Adam who 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.520 met a fellow he actually, according to him, his official 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.240 story about how he met, uh Mike Moreheim was that 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:13.520 Alan was sitting in the computer lab and was typing 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.840 away Tappy, Tappy, tappy, and then decided that he needed 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.000 to get up and get himself a hot beverage and 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:22.040 maybe a quick trip to the gents. So he locks 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:26.080 himself out of his computer and leaves and he comes back, 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:29.400 turns on his computer again, gets a ray into types 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:35.000 of his password and it launches. Meanwhile, Michael Moreheim says, Hey, there, 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:37.680 big guy, I have a question for you. How did 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.560 you make it so that your computer unlocked automatically while 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.679 you were away? I had to lock it again for you. 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.320 And then then the process of their conversation, they find 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:50.800 out the most unlikely of coincidences, that Adam and Mike 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:56.280 both were using the same password for their computers. That 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:00.360 is there, that is That's the way Alan tell the story. 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.079 Mike tells a different story. Mike story is that he 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:06.240 saw this fellow who was in his uh, his a 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.200 couple of his computer science classes, and this is their 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:13.320 senior year at UCLA, and uh he sees this guy 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.480 and he thinks, this fellow looks like he's from Israel, 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.079 and he looks really smart. So he walks up to 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:21.639 him and says, what part of Israel are you from? 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:26.160 And Alan says, I'm from Egypt. Those are the two 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:29.240 stories that they tell. Yeah, there's an official like Blizzard 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.160 retrospective video which is actually pretty cool. I really recommend 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:33.880 you watch it if you if you're into, like just 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.320 want to know more about the history of the company. Um. 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:40.800 The reason why that video was posted was because this year, 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:45.440 when we're recording this podcast is the twentieth anniversary of 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:50.120 that of the founding of the company. Because once Alan graduated, 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.520 he decided he wanted to make video games. Actually, he 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:55.480 knew he wanted to make video games even before he 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.720 had graduated college, and so he wanted to create a company. 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:03.040 And he called upon Mike Morheim to join him, and 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:08.400 Mike was working at uh Western Digital at the time, 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:11.560 and he left the company because Mike had graduated about 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.840 three months before Alan did, but he left Western Digital 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:18.400 to come and work with Alan at this new company, 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:23.000 which probably upset Mike's family a bit because there you 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:27.120 were working for alish established company with a with an 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:32.800 actual like revenue generating plan and everything, and then striking 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.120 out to form this this game's company. Uh. It was 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:39.360 probably a nerve wracking experience. Uh that he also called 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:43.159 upon a second friend. Alan had met another person in 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:47.479 the computer science department named Frank Pierce, and he called 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:50.320 upon Frank Pierce as well and said, Hey, I'm starting 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:52.840 up this video game company. Would you like to join me. Now, 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:57.560 Frank had also gone to UCLA and uh was did 0:04:57.600 --> 0:04:59.920 not know Mike. So Frank and Mike didn't know each 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:04.880 there the connecting element here is allan yes. But Frank 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:09.200 decides to come over and he actually left another established 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.839 company called Rockwell. Yes, he left Rockwell to go and 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.640 join this new company, which, as Chris has revealed, was 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:22.760 called Silicon and Synapse. Wow. What a catchy name. Yeah, 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.679 they there are reasons behind that name. Well. First of all, silicon, 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:29.040 of course, is the basis for a lot of our electronics. 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:33.039 That's the silicon chip. It's the whole the whole foundation 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:36.839 for the modern transistor. Uh. That was that where that's 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.680 where the whole silicon part came from. Synaps of course, 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.320 meaning that the connections in your brain, the stuff that 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:45.080 fires off that you can complete thoughts. So to them, 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:47.359 they thought this is a great idea. But according to 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:51.480 their video, other people just didn't get it. First of all, 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.960 they thought that silicon was the material that went into 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:59.440 breast augmentation surgery. That would be silicone. That would be silicone. 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:01.760 But other people were like, why are you calling your 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:06.480 company after boobies, And they said, we're not calling our 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:10.520 company after boobies. We are calling our company. But you know, 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:13.000 you tell that story. And then the other response to 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:17.279 get us what's a synapse? Now? I kind of like 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:19.560 the name Silicon and Synapse because, for one thing, it 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:23.919 reminds me of other uh companies or other products that 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:28.960 have blank and blank, for example, Dungeons and Dragons, And 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:33.120 these guys clearly had at least some love for the 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.040 old Dungeons and Dragons role playing system because a lot 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.640 of the stuff they worked on had that kind of 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:42.000 flare to it. So the first few years they're working 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.720 under the title of Silicon and synaps the company name 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:48.760 of Silicon and Synapse, and they had done work previously 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:53.880 in their college years with companies like Interplay. Do you 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:56.159 know what kind of games Interplay made off top of 0:06:56.160 --> 0:07:00.120 your head? Um? Well, I do remember some Interplay titles 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:03.719 yum and uh, but I don't remember any of them 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:05.880 off the top of Some big names would include like 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:10.560 Balter's Gate and Descent, and the original Fallout games were 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.680 Interplay games. Uh. And then they also had done some 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:17.160 work for data Soft, which is another game company. They 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.480 did things like Zaxon and Pole Position and Time and Magic. 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.600 So um, the following statement is a joke. So then 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.600 all of a sudden, Silicon and Synapse made World of 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.720 warcraft and lots of money. No. Uh. First, the first 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:34.400 thing they started to do is they started working on 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:39.920 ports from certain platforms into other platforms. So so when 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.080 a game is made for a particular platform, say the 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.240 PC or or Windows. Let's say, and you wanted to 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:49.760 write a version of it for the Macintosh, you would 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.160 port the game over, the original code over to work 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.440 on a different type of computers. What we're saying, which 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:58.800 could take quite a bit of time because as we know, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:03.000 these different operators is ms uh don't necessarily support the 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:05.400 same kind of models, So you would have to go 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:09.240 in and re like you've built all the resources in 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.440 your code, but now you've got to repurpose it for 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:16.040 different types of code. And uh. They started porting Amiga 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.200 and Mac titles. Strangely enough, one of their first ports 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:23.480 was for a game that I loved back in the 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:27.440 early nineties called Battle Chess. Yes, so Battle Chess, in 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.400 case you have never seen, it was a game of chess. 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.440 It was you know, played out on a chessboard. But 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:36.440 the the the figures that you're moving, the chess pieces 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.400 you're moving around are actually three D modeled or well, 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.679 I guess they were originally two d rendered um uh 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:48.640 cartoonish figures, so your ponds look like little foot soldiers. 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:54.440 The queen is this slinky uh, deadly woman who who 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:59.320 dispatches her enemies in creative ways. And there were different 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:01.960 animations when you would take a piece, so let's say, 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.160 you know, pawn takes pawn, it would play out as 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:09.360 a little battle on your screen for that square. Now, 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:11.719 the way battle chess worked was that you would if 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.800 you made the move to take a square, that was 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:17.120 the piece that was going to win every time. It 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:19.680 wasn't like it had inserted some sort of element of 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:21.880 chance where you would try and take us square and 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.880 your piece would end up getting defeated. That didn't happen, 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:27.319 but the animations were very cute. And so that was 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.560 one of the first ports they began to work on. Um. 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:33.480 They also uh and they poured that over took for 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.520 windows in the compose sixty four. Actually even that late 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.920 in the game, so to speak. And then the first 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.280 do you know what the first game they developed was 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:46.440 the first the first game they developed, Yeah, yeah, it 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:48.559 wasn't a port. It was a game that they created 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:52.520 from the ground up. It was it was called RPM Racing. Okay, 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:54.480 all right, I thought you were going to mention Death 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:56.800 and Return of Superman before you got to that. Oh no, 0:09:56.920 --> 0:09:58.880 I don't know this. Why don't you talk about that? Well, 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.760 I don't know a ton of uh, you know, a 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:06.920 ton of information about that specific game, but uh, one 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:11.040 of the the articles I used as a reference mentioned 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.800 Battle Chess two and and the Death and Return of Superman, 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.760 which was released in an example of a port that 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.520 they had done. And they were sort of cruising along 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:21.720 before they got to the point where they were developing 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.280 their own titles. Well, they did develop a couple of 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:25.920 titles before that, but it was for the S and 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.559 S Super Nintendo Entertainment System or the Super Famicom if 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:32.600 you prefer um, because the first one they did with 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:35.079 that was in ninety two for RPM Racing, and then 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.720 in ninety three they released one called Rock and Roll Racing, 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.400 which was one of the first games for the Nintendo 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.880 to feature the Supernintendo to feature rock and roll music. 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:46.200 But that was like again, that was for the Super 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.040 ne S. That wasn't a PC game or or mad 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:51.520 game whatever. It's not a computer game. That was a 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:54.280 console game. So they've done a few console games just 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.280 a few they're more known for, at least today, they're 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.719 more known for their their computer titles rather than their 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.839 con soul titles. UH. But this was kind of where 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:05.880 they started to develop their art style and they hired 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:10.120 a few artists. Had some great stories in that video. 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:14.200 I was talking about about the weird interview process and 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:16.120 they're playing it really fast and loose because these were 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:17.920 all guys who were fresh off college and had never 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:21.640 really done this before. So they had a kind of 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:28.280 relaxed way of going about business. But they really working 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:30.839 for them. And the titles that they developed ended up 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.480 winning awards for RPM Racing I think, or maybe it 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:36.920 was Rock and Roll Racing one, uh, the title the 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.360 best racing Game of the Year that came out and 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:43.120 uh and and so they were doing well, but they 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:46.360 still hadn't moved on to doing computer games. They also 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.280 developed a game for the Supertantendo entertainment system called The 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.640 Lost Vikings, which ended up being very popular. It was 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.520 originally so the the original idea was that was going 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:58.120 to be kind of like Lemmings. And if you don't 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:00.000 if you're not familiar with the game Limings and Lemmings, 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.160 you your task is to guide a group of little 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.000 limings from one side of a screen to another side 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:10.480 of the screen, and uh, and you assign specific tasks 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:14.280 to particular livings to try and create a pathway for 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:16.960 the livings to get there safely. And the livings will 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.840 just walk in a in a in a direction until 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:24.640 they encounter an obstacle or they die, and of course 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:29.320 some of them are doomed another in order to make 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:34.520 the rest of the herd, you might have to explode 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:39.080 one on purpose. So yeah, now, now Blizzard did not 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.240 make Limings, but when they thought that the Livings game 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.920 was really interesting and so originally The Lost Vikings was 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.720 going to be a game where you would have, you know, 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.280 around a hundred different kinds of vikings that could do 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:54.439 different tasks. But through the development process they decided to 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.000 narrow that down and then they got down to five vikings, 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:58.280 and then by the time they actually got to the 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:00.120 point where they're putting the game together, they just it 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.320 on three vikings, and using the three vikings you would 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:05.800 go through a series of puzzles. So it ultimately was 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:09.199 a puzzle game, but again it was very popular. One 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.280 an award for the Best Puzzle Game that year, and 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:17.640 then and ninety three, uh Silicon sonerhaps throws in the 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:22.760 booby towel and decides to rename their company Chaos Studios, Yes, 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:26.960 which lasted for a few months, and then they changed 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.880 your name again to Blizzard Entertainment. All this stuff. While 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:32.000 it's not as glamorous as some of the stuff they've 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:35.679 done in the last say, fifteen years, over those first 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:37.760 three or four years, they really were making a name 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.400 for themselves. And then no pun intended with the name 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:45.040 changes names for themselves, um because a company named Davidson 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:50.120 and Associates acquired the company in ten and also for 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.640 ten million dollars um. So you know, just even as 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:59.240 a a fledgling company, uh, Chaos Studios was becoming known 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.480 for its work and it was obvious that these these 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.920 guys knew what they were doing. Yeah, And actually that 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:08.640 that ended up getting really complicated too, because so Blizzard 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:13.199 gets purchased by Davidson and Associates. Davidson Associates gets purchased 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:16.079 by a company called c U C International see you 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.920 see International then goes on to merge with a company 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.760 called h F S Corporation, and the new parent company 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:27.960 is called Sendent c e N d E n T 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:31.160 and oh do you Oh I have D E N T. Interesting, 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.160 But anyway, it's uh, that's the company that also owns 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.920 Sierra Online. So now you've got Sierra Online and Blizzard 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.400 Entertainment are kind of mashed together as a division within 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.480 this parent company called Sendant and uh, we'll get back 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:47.680 to send It and a little bit, but we're still 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:52.160 in right now. And that's also when demos begin to 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:56.000 circulate in that summer for a new game called Warcraft 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:59.960 Orcs Versus Humans. Yes, this is the game that really 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.920 really puts Blizzard on the map. I mean, Blizzard had 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.480 already won awards for its Super Nintendo Entertainment System games, 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.640 but these are the games that make it a name 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:13.800 in PC gaming and Matt gaming eventually. Yes, yes, as 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.680 a matter of fact, well, of course ORCS really sort 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:20.040 of come from um to yeah, the Lord of the 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:26.280 Rings and uh and really they're sort of borrowing that idea. Um. Now, 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:31.320 this actually in a way goes along with the story 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:35.240 of Nintendo not directly, but um one of the things 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:39.800 that they were doing with this title was too basically 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:45.400 levin the computer game with story. This the the story 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.720 of the War between the Orcs and the Humans isn't 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:51.840 just a computer game. It's also got a backstory about 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:55.840 how the Orcs are being used by another power, and 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.600 that will eventually develop later in other titles. But um, 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:02.640 they had they had a new sort of game on 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.920 their hands with the real time strategy game and m 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:09.880 and let's let's explain what a real time strategy game is, 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.560 just in case some of our listeners don't know. So, 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:16.320 typically a real time strategy game plays out in real time. 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:19.680 So there it's not turn based, so you don't you 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.680 don't uh make a move then wait in order to 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.040 make another move. Everything's going on around the same time. 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.680 While you're preparing your armies to attack, your opponent is 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.840 preparing his or her armies to attack at the same time, right, 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:36.400 So unlike games like Risk or Civilization where it is 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:41.920 turn based, it's all going on simultaneously. Then, uh. The 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.920 way you create your armies as you build a resource 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:49.560 gathering uh units, you build special buildings that allow you 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:53.720 to create military units, and so you have to build 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:57.600 buildings with various types of characters that you have. So 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:01.040 you might have some characters that are not warriors. They're 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.680 like farmers or or woodcutters or whatever. They go out, 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.680 they gather the resources you need to build the other 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:10.040 stuff you need, and then might fol right, and then 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.160 you might have to build something like a barracks which 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:14.959 will allow you to produce troops. And then there's certain 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:17.879 specialized units that you can only produce if you build 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.680 other buildings as well. So it becomes a balancing act 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:26.000 of creating military units and also creating the resources you 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:29.879 need to produce the units you need. Um. And you 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:32.480 know all of this is coming from the same raw materials. 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:37.800 So the strategy is is multifaceted. You have the production 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:40.480 strategy like how many how much effort do you put 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.800 towards gathering resources, how much do you put towards producing 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:47.280 basic units, how much do you put towards enhancing the 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:51.199 buildings you already have? Uh? And then also how do 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:55.560 you explore and defeat your opponent? Now, in the original 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.560 Warcraft game, you pretty much could see everything on the map, 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:04.240 but uh, the the other Another development comes up a 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:08.879 little bit later that changes that. Also, it was top down, 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.320 so you're looking it's as if you were directly overhead 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:15.240 of the map. In the original Warcraft game, it was 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:19.720 a top down view, um and it it Actually there 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.639 was a game that came out before Warcraft. You're thinking 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:26.359 probably of Westwood Studios due to Yeah. Dune two was 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:30.320 another real time strategy game that that that follows the 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:34.040 same general philosophy as Warcraft. Has a totally different feel 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:38.399 to it than Warcraft, but um uh it became like 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:42.119 a kind of a battle between Blizzard and Westwood to 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.200 see who was gonna win out. But the art style 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:51.040 of Warcraft, the the backstory to Warcraft, the whimsy really 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.840 of Warcraft all helped to really push that game ahead. 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:57.800 I loved. One of the things that I loved about 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:01.080 that game and and the game's like it that followed 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:04.720 is just it's not even part of the game. It's 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.480 continuing to click on people after you've because when you 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:11.200 want to have a unit do something, say you want 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:14.040 to uh, one of your one of your units to 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:16.920 go chop wood so that you have wood for your buildings, 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:20.280 you click on it and you say, you know, okay, 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:22.639 I want you, and then you click on the trees 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.840 to go over here and cut, you know, cut down 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:30.479 wood for lumber. And you know, when the Blizzard had 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:38.000 the idea to um to basically give you a verbal acknowledgement, Um, yeah, 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.240 my lord, and then you But the thing is, somebody said, 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:43.440 you know what, you need to keep clicking on the guy. 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:45.760 So I said, all right, and I did and I 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.879 and as as you continue to click on that one unit, 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:54.320 they become increasingly annoyed with you. Well you will, you will, 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:58.480 And as far as I know that continues. I don't 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:02.959 have StarCraft Tube, but even in the StarCraft game they 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:04.720 would do that, and I it's one of the things 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:06.600 that I just love about it because it goes along 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:08.280 with the game. Of course, you can waste time while 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:11.520 the other guys building up his army, but it's just 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.080 I thought there was a kick to do that. So 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:17.479 we're still in right now. At this point, Blizzard has 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:21.040 about twenty five employees. Uh. They've only been in business 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:23.560 for three years and they've got twenty five employees. They 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:26.280 created a small booth at c e S that year, 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:28.400 and that's where they kind of showed off the idea 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.040 of Warcraft and UH and got a lot of attention 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:33.320 there and so it created a lot of buzz um 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:35.000 And then of course later in the year Warcraft came 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:36.959 out was a big Hit and then near the end 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:40.920 of just a year later, they released Warcraft two Tides 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:43.760 of Darkness, and that's where they introduced the idea of 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:46.840 a fog of war. Now, if you're not a gamer 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:49.400 and you don't really know these terms, what fog war 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:53.480 means is that part of the map is intentionally obscured 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.600 from your view as a player, and you only can 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:59.680 uncover that part of the map part of me once 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:03.399 you start it's sending units in to to explore it. Yeah, basically, 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:05.560 I think that that is sort of a role playing 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:10.960 game addition, because if you think about your players as characters, uh, 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:13.040 and yourself as a character in the game as the 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.600 if you will, the general behind behind your troops, you 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:19.199 haven't been there yet. Your troops haven't been in this 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:21.560 part of the forest yet, so they don't know what's there, 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:24.480 right And and because you don't have any eyes there, 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:26.520 it's not like you can you know, if you were 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:28.800 on the ground, you would not be able to see 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:30.800 that far like. So the idea is that the fog 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.160 of war limits what you can see until you start 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:37.000 sending units and to explore. So that gave the option 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:39.679 of creating things like scouting units things like that changes 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.720 the strategy a lot. You couldn't just immediately glance in 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:44.560 the maps see what your enemy was up to and 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:48.480 then adjust. You had to h anticipate what your enemy 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:51.959 might do and try and and head them off. Um. 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:57.040 And and also Warcraft had already introduced this the idea 0:21:57.119 --> 0:22:00.159 of being able to play against human opponents, not just 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:03.080 the computer opponents, but human opponents, either over a modem 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:07.080 or over a local area network. That I can't stress 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.000 enough how important that was to the success of Warcraft, 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.159 because playing against the computer is fun. Playing against your 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:16.880 friends as a blast, right, I mean, you know, there's 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:20.280 the whole element of smack talk. There's bragging rights. Uh, 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:23.040 they're the great stories that you tell where you know, 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:25.280 it looked like all the way up until the last 0:22:25.320 --> 0:22:26.800 half hour of that game, it looked like you were 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:29.200 gonna lose, but you somehow turned it around just because 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:33.119 this this crazy tactic that had just a sliver of 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:35.879 a chance to work actually paid off. That kind of 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:38.320 stuff is really invaluable for a game. I mean, it 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:41.800 really pushed it too into a phenomenon. And Warcraft too 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:45.880 continued that. Uh. And also players were taking it upon 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:49.000 themselves to find creative ways to create matches against each 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:54.280