Blizzard's Secret Sauce, In Full View
A lot of people are linking to this, but we might as well join the band of merry adventurers - The Escapist's new article 'Secret Sauce: The Rise Of Blizzard' is indeed, pretty fun to page through.
The intro notes: "In 1991, videogame industry leader Sierra launched the Sierra Network (later called the ImagiNation Network). It was geared more-or-less toward children, with cartoon-ish art and themes, but it allowed users to play a variety of games and chat with friends in online chat rooms - all for an hourly fee, of course. It was, in every way, ahead of its time."
But, it continues: "The Sierra Network, not surprisingly, failed and was shut down in 1996 by AOL, who had acquired it from AT&T. Ironically, this was not too long after the internet had become both widely understood and easy-to-use, and right around the same time that several other online gaming services had begun to flourish. Among them, an exciting new service offered by a company called Blizzard." Learn more about Blizzard's sprouting into a very tall tree via the link.
Comments
Aye - when I saw it was Russ Pitt's article, I couldn't wait to read it.
Russ Pitts was the host of Gamers With Jobs Radio podcast and had to leave it when he accepted the position at Escapist so I was eagerly awaiting his first article.
Posted by: Jakanden | June 7, 2006 10:48 AM
It's a great article, probably the one of the best we've published. It's not Russ's first though, he also had Duck and Cover in issue 33, about post-apocalyptic fantasy.
Posted by: Jason Smith | June 7, 2006 1:37 PM
I thought it was a great article, but I wonder at its accuracy - during the time frame most of the quoted developers were talking about they were 700 some odd miles north of where Blizzard was really taking off. Yes, Diablo had a lot to do with Blizzard's success, but it wasn't the 1st smash hit the company put together, or even the second. If you include the battlechest and the expansions to War2, it wasn't even the third. I guess what I'm saying is - how valid are their observations, really? Distance and the emotion involved in bringing your own baby to the world (Diablo) are bound to color your recollection of the time, right? Strike teams are very powerful, so I don't think I'm ready to refute their conclusions, but having been a developer during that time and knowing a few of the folks from the warcraft team of that era, I have to admit that I found myself less than ready to believe.
Where is the interview with Allen Adham? Or Mike Morhiem? Or Pat Wyatt? Or Chris Metzen? These are the guys that made Blizzard the hit factory we know it as today, but they're not represented much at all in the article. Maybe people don't remember how hings sat at the time, but Diablo was the "also being made by Blizzard" title while it was in development, not the "this is the title that launched an empire" project.
Posted by: AMaxwell | June 7, 2006 6:03 PM
It's a great article, probably the one of the best we've published. It's not Russ's first though, he also had Duck and Cover in issue 33, about post-apocalyptic fantasy.
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Oh wow - I had read the article and never even realized it was his =)
Posted by: Jakanden | June 7, 2006 6:28 PM