Blizzard Chief: Starcraft a 'Short Session Game'

Blizzard Chief Operating Officer (COO!) Paul Sams recently spoke to Wired. In the interview he provided the following information:

1) WoW is not going to be closed anytime soon.
2) Other Blizzard MMOs might (or might not) make use of the WoW userbase.
3) StarCraft II may actually nick WoW players by being more attractive to them.
4) StarCraft II is a 'a short-session game'.
5) WoW is "exceptionally expensive for us".
6) "Micro-transactions are cool".

But you've got to dig and dig to actually get to those facts. Here are some CorproQuote gems from the interview for you to learn. Remember, this guy is the Chief Operations Officer:

On the annual expansion packs for WoW. "I think we’re getting closer to working towards a year-ish timeline, but, I think as much as I would love for them to be able to do one a year, that’s proven to be a bit challenging." Trans - "We haven't done it because it's too hard. Sorry."

On the next expansion: "I really feel like this new expansion is going to set the universe on its ear, literally and figuratively. It’s going to be quite fun." Trans - "It's going to be a good expansion pack".

On StarCraft II vs WoW: "I think the game is going to be significantly differentiated enough..." Trans: StarCraft II will be different from WoW.

On what gamers will say about StarCraft II: "Okay, I have all my friends over here. I dig this.." Trans: Look at me all talking like a hip young 'un.

On good fun in gaming: "hopefully those pleasures will be ones brought forward by Blizzard..." Trans: We make games that are fun.

On making games: "we can continue to feed these great experiences..." Trans: We'll keep making good games that are fun.

On making WoW free-play: "But I think over time, it would be crazy to say that there wouldn’t be a possibility that the business model changes at some point in the lifecycle but I don’t see that anytime soon." Trans: "We might."

Actually, taking the mickey out of business speak is fun, but Sams does have quite a few salient points to make, not the least of which is: "There’s another whole contingent of people that are also shareholders that don’t hold that piece of paper, and that’s our players. Those people are the ones that are causing the paper-holding shareholders to make their money. Those are the people who are voting with their pocketbooks, those are the people that are the very most important. Everything comes as a result to what their decisions are. If we deliver on the promise for the games, they’re going to vote with their pocketbooks. If they vote with their pocketbooks, the paper-holding shareholders are going to be happy. So it’s in the shareholders’ best interest and Blizzard’s best interest to focus on those gamers."

Thank goodness for that. Full interview here.