Blizzard Engineering: The Nuggets from Blizzcon

Posted on by Gazimoff

It’s not often when you hear engineers talk about the games they’ve been working on. It’s like a peek inside the machine, or under the hood. So it’s no surprise that I was pretty geeked out when I heard that two CodeCraft panels would be running at this year’s Blizzcon. As it turns out, the sessions were a trove of information on how Blizzard develops and operates its games.

I was surprised by just how much Overwatch has led the way in new techniques for the studio, being a testing ground for everything from having no downtime on patch days, to using a hybrid cloud infrastructure. Then there’s World of Warcraft, and what it’s like to manage a 10+ year-old codebase on a living game. Under that, it was surprising to discover just how much falls into Battle.net, and that’s without considering the areas covered by Service Support or Web & Mobile teams.

If I was going to ask for more from the presentations, it’d mainly be about the architecture. As a former software engineer turned enterprise architect, I’d love to discover if they have an enterprise domain model in place, or if Blizzard uses a methodology like TOGAF. Putting my personal asks aside, here’s some of the juicy nuggets from the two Q&A sessions held at Blizzcon 2017.

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WoW Communities: Create Your Own Realm?

Posted on by Gazimoff

The meaning of a Realm in World of Warcraft has become incredibly blurred. It’s no longer a distinct cluster of servers, or even a static circle of characters.Over time, patches and expansions have added cross realm LFG tools, shared cities and a sharded open world. Battle for Azeroth will even change how PvP servers work, giving players the freedom to toggle which version of Azeroth they’d like to adventure in.

If anything, the choice of where you create your character is having less meaning with every update. But is there a way for players to take advantage of this ‘tearing-down’ of old realm restrictions? Depending on how it’s implemented and how it evolves, World of Warcraft’s upcoming Communities feature might be just the thing.

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Battle for Azeroth – First Thoughts

Posted on by Gazimoff

Another Blizzcon has happened, and another World of Warcraft expansion has been announced. Recent expansions have focused on defeating external threats, but  Battle for Azeroth aims to reignite the classic conflict between the Alliance and Horde. Only this time, it feels a little more… balanced. I’ll admit, I did cheer slightly when I realised Lordaeron was finally being taken back from the Forsaken.

I’ll cheer even more when the Gnomes take back Gnomeregan, but I digress…

Anyhow, the Anaheim convention also saw plenty of announcements about the expansion. Although, the focus was less on the story, and more about the technical details and content implementation. I could see the impact it had on other players, left deflated without having a big bad menace to rally the flag against. Instead, this feels more as if it’s the start of an intricate tale of personal conflict and malicious intrigue, in a way that’s best left shrouded for now.

Even so, I was satisfied with the WoW expansion information available, and with the Blizzcon Virtual Ticket (which I’ll come back to in a separate post). Some of it gets a thumbs up, while others I’m undecided on or will wait-and-see once beta rolls around. For now, however, here’s my initial take on the main topics we heard about.

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World of Warcraft Classic logo

WoW Classic – How It Might Work

Posted on by Gazimoff

World of Warcraft Classic logo

Vanilla – it’s a flavour of Warcraft that veterans remember fondly. Class raids to Stratholme, 40-player raids through Molten Core, and camping general chat to find dungeon groups. It was a time before transmogs, flying mounts, or pet battles. And now, in the form of Warcraft Classic, it’s making a return.

The WoW community was very different back then. Players chose a server and stuck to it, earning a reputation amongst their peers that would last for years. I even have my own memories – both good and bad – of what WoW was like back then. For some, overcoming the struggles of Vanilla WoW made a different type of player, and built a different type of community – one which some have clamoured to bring back.

But why has the concept been hard for Blizzard to implement? And what might have changed in order to persuade the studio to rethink? In essence, it’s likely taken a gradual overhaul of how WoW actually works, from a simple server setup, to a flexible landscape where the modern server engine and game content are completely seperate. How would it work? Read on…

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That Destiny 2 PC Banwave

Posted on by Gazimoff

On Tuesday 24th October, Destiny 2 finally launched on PC. One of the most anticipated releases of the year, Bungie’s platform debut became gained even more interest following an incredibly successful beta test. By all accounts, the open-world FPS performed brilliantly and looked gorgeous on a wide range of hardware.

Unfortunately, much of that goodwill came crashing down with reports of a rapid and reactionary banwave. According to a statement from Bungie, roughly 400 players had their accounts forcibly revoked after that first day, some after only playing for a few hours. The developer stated that its actions were necessary to remove those “who were using tools that pose a threat to the shared ecosystem of the game.”

I appreciate that Bungie wants to protect the integrity of its game, but there are several problems that I have with the way they carried out this action.

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Destiny 2: PC Beta First Impressions

Posted on by Gazimoff

Previously, I was cautiously optimistic about the Destiny 2 beta on PC. Unsurprisingly, after hitting it for a few hours yesterday, I’m much more enthusiastic. I’ve always felt that good first-person shooters are played best with a mouse and keyboard, and Bungie’s latest served to reaffirm that opinion. Even so, I can’t help but think that this was less of a beta, and more of a teaser for the full game.

It wouldn’t be a launch without some kind of mishap, and Destiny 2 managed to throw up a few errors when the horde of players tried to log in. I got caught by the ‘saxophone’ error message myself, but kudos to the teams at Blizzard, Activision and Bungie for crushing it quickly. I’d barely lost 30 minutes to the issue before the announcement came across Twitter that the problem had been resolved.

Ultimately, it ended up being an evening of highs and lows as I chewed through the single-player scenario/mission, and teamed up with friends to stomp through the Strike. At the end of it, we all agreed that the beta was more of an advert for the classic FPS crowd than a lure for MMO players. However, with Destiny 2 securing a spot next to World of Warcraft on the Battle.net Launcher, gamers may be lured to the sci-fi magnum opus purely out of curiosity.

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Destiny 2: Cautious Optimism

Posted on by Gazimoff

Destiny 2 is right around the corner. For console players, just a few short weeks remain before launch day. PC gamers will have to wait until late October for their turn, but the open beta this week should help soften the blow. It’s a time to check system requirements, clean out drive space, and ponder on that preorder.

And yet, Destiny 2 is not a ‘must buy’ for me. Not yet, at least. My experience of the original Destiny was a triumph of missed expectations – I’d hoped for a deep and involving storyline that took us to fantastic places, and instead we got a mediocre script and lacklustre voice acting. Once the shrink-wrap sheen wore off, it slid into the ‘some-other-time’ shelf, next to my PS4 copies of Battlefield 4 and Final Fantasy XIV.

Still, I’d keep coming back. About six months ago, I hauled the console out from under the TV and into my home office, just so I’d feel more compelled to fire it up and get some games in. I picked up the expansion pack for Destiny, which improved the experience hugely, and progressed up to level cap. There’s still more of the saga for me to complete, but I feel like I’m getting the gist of Bungie’s vision now. It’s just a shame it took so long for me to get there.

Which is why I decided to check out the Destiny 2 beta on PS4 earlier in the year, and why I’ll be trying out the PC beta later today. I much prefer using mouse and keyboard for first-person-shooters, plus I have a much bigger network of friends on Battle.net ready to play alongside. Besides, there’s a meaty Nvidia 1080Ti and 4K monitor just waiting to devour all of those glorious pixels.

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Broadband Blunders & Mac Machinations

Posted on by Gazimoff

This is a story in two parts, both revolving around a simple desire: to turn my ageing MacBook Air into a simple gaming machine. Bought in late 2013, it was nearing the end of its useful life as a workhorse, and I’d been eyeing up the more modern Pro line to replace it. To eke some final mileage out, I thought about installing some games on it.

Sounds simple, right?

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Dauntless Founders Alpha Preview

Posted on by Gazimoff

Disclaimer: I bought into the Founders Alpha. As such, the usual caveats apply: wanting to avoid buyer’s remorse, wanting something to be good because you’ve sunk money into it, and so on. If you’re not comfortable with risking your investment in an Early Access beta that you might not enjoy, then don’t.

With that out of the way, why am I excited about Dauntless? If I’m honest, it’s because of something I love about MMOs: fighting big-ass monsters with a group of heroes and stealing their loot. Take that idea, put the boss on a floating island, and that’s how I look at the core concept. Simple, right?

Sure, some gamers may invoke the Monster Hunter lineage, but that’s alien to me as I never got into the series. From what I understand, however, it’s a similar deal: kill big monsters, harvest them to make better weapons and armour, use that to take on bigger monsters. Rinse and repeat.

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Path of Fire – a Delicious Demo Experience

Posted on by Gazimoff

Earlier this week, I promised that I’d be taking a look at Path of Fire, the upcoming expansion for Guild Wars 2, during the open demo weekend. I wanted to discover for myself if the sense of wonder had been rekindled, teasing me to explore mysterious new lands. I wanted to feel like I could survive instead of being a corpse to be tossed around. And I wanted to see if the joy returned from the original game, given form in small details that lend weight to the world.

I’m pleased to say that, on all three counts, Path of Fire exceeded my expectations. Yes, the demo was restricted to half of the first map, with limited exposure to the new storyline. And yes, the demo provides you with a fresh character fully kitted in exotics, which is more powerful than my current Guardian. However, even with those caveats in mind, I had a fantastic time playing the preview. On all three counts – exploration, survivability, and easy-going entertainment – the new experience delivered.

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