[9:16PM] Hello, this is my first live blog. Blizzard has been running a countdown on their main site. At the end, the announcement of their next game will be made. Why is this important? A lot of people are speculating that it’s Starcraft II. This is sort of more important than, um, any news of the past week. Or month. Word has it that the announcement will be made at 10 PM pacific time, coinciding with the beginning of the 2007 Blizzard Korean Invitational. I know what you’re thinking: “Nobody’s going to read a running blog about some guy refreshing the Blizzard homepage.” Guess what, you’re right.
[9:24PM] The announcement has been made. Here’s the teaser poster (click for large size):
[9:41PM] It sort of took me mad long to make that poster. So this probably won’t be as long as I expected, since the announcement is supposed to take place in about twenty minutes. Louie and I, along with half the internet, were trying to think of the worst possibilities for the next Blizzard game: Lost Vikings II, Starcraft II for mobile phones, Warcraft IV. The feasible possibilities (excluding Starcraft II because that’s what it’s gonna be) are Diablo III, World of Starcraft, or just a whole new series. I’ll throw my chair out the window if it’s one of those.
[9:48PM] Refreshed the page, same thing.
[9:51PM] Refreshed the page, still same thing.
[9:53PM] To be honest, I loved Rock ‘n’ Roll Racing. I was also like 8 so I have fond memories of a lot of odd things. Like the Super Scope. Actually, all I remember is losing over and over because I’d play with Dan and his friends. Chances are they just did the old ‘give your little brother the unplugged controller’ trick. I hope I wasn’t that dumb. It wouldn’t be that disappointing if they did World of Rock ‘n’ Roll Racing. Instead of PvP fighting you just race (Tagline: “Race” for Alien “Race”-ial supremecy). Nevermind, it would be disappointing.
[9:59PM] F5. “I see no changes” – 2Pac
[10:04PM] I think the 10:00PM thing is a lie. We bought our second computer when I was in eighth grade. My mom let me get one game and one DVD. I picked Rainbow Six and Austin Powers. One day, walking around the worst mall in the North America, I had some money and narrowed my next purchase down to two things: some web design book or Starcraft. I might be some kind of web guru now, but it wouldn’t be worth the loss of all the memories doing humble tasks like, you know, saving the human race.
I guess I can’t act super excited because I never played the single-player campaign. Supposedly one of the best gaming experiences ever. I jumped right online.This was my first experience gaming online. Me and some random guy played against two computers for six hours. That guy must’ve been horrible. We had two lines and Curt would come over with his computer and we’d both dial-up and, guess what, we played against computers. It doesn’t make that sense now, but it did then. The best memory is when my brother needed to call his girlfriend oh-so-badly even though I told him I just needed to finish the game. It must’ve been important, because he just turned the phone on and started dialing. Disconnected. And he left the house like five minutes later. Wow, urgent huh. Apparently the game I got disconnected from was pretty important, because I kicked a hole in my wall.
When you’re in middle school and you kick a hole in the wall, there’s no other way to put it: your parents are going to kill you. Maybe stop feeding you or something, but death was around the corner. Unless I could hide it. So I opened up an old paint canister in the garage and put a paper towel in it to saturate it with paint. Then I spread it out and put it over the hole. Um, Ces the Toolman Taylor. That still stands as one of my most genius ideas ever.
[10:22PM] As mentioned, the announcement is taking place in Korea. It’s sort of big there. I can’t say I know first hand, but I can try to describe its popularity. It’s broadcast on TV and kids want to be like Boxer like how kids want to be like Mike. I don’t know how much of an exaggeration that is. But league championships are sort of big events. Here’s a YouTube video that might give some idea (fast forward to the end for a good crowd shot and reaction). Back to the original point, if they announce something other than Starcraft II in Korea, isn’t that like announcing Madden 2007 in Japan? Bad analogy.
[10:28PM] My mom got a new computer, so I’m headed home to set that up. I have to pack for a day and then I’m out of here. My guess is the Blizzard site will change at midnight like it’s been doing the entire week. I’ll post my reactions when I’m in Oak Harbor.
[10:35PM] I just read that it was Diablo 3. But it was a commenter on Kotaku. Who said “Just joking… or am I?” I sure hope he is. I’m getting nervous refreshing the Blizzard page because I’m tired and I don’t know that I can handle the disappointment of it being a new Diablo game. I played Diablo II for a little bit. It was fun but it really wasn’t a good enough reason for the Starcraft servers to get hung up. Those were depressing nights: having four or six people ready to play and trying to get a game going for an hour then just going to sleep when that didn’t work.
[1:59PM] I’m pretty sure my mom has a faster computer than me now. Doesn’t matter, my life is complete: Starcraft II.