The entire Blizzard headquarters, World of Warcraft's R&D department is the busiest, as the game represents a market for the next decade, and there is no room for sloppiness. It can be said that Blizzard has concentrated all the elite soldiers and strong generals here, and fortunately, the person Xiao Li found did not directly borrow the engineers of the World of Warcraft development team, otherwise Mike may really have to dismiss the other party's face.

Unlike Warcraft III., which has entered the final stage, the development of World of Warcraft can be said to have just begun, and now the development team is doing two main jobs, one is to build the game framework, this process is the most troublesome, the game engine needs to be written from scratch, of course, with the experience of developing the Warcraft series, the game engine only needs to evolve appropriately. However, this evolutionary process is very difficult, because the game is completely different styles, and the game engine first has to undergo a lot of modifications to adapt to the requirements of 3D online games. The other is modeling, the modeling of the World of Warcraft, in this era, is definitely the top, in fact, even in the future, the picture of Warcraft is also remarkable.

Of course, it's not that the graphics of Warcraft are good, in fact, there are games that are much better than the graphics of Warcraft. But there is a problem here, that is, how to use the lowest configuration to drive the game as much as possible, which is what World of Warcraft has always pursued.

Blizzard's programmers have done a lot of work in this regard, and it's easier to add than to subtract, and to achieve the most realistic results possible with a minimum of bones and textures, which is the goal that every game maker is pursuing.

The method used by Blizzard is to greatly improve the level of art. Zhou Fangyuan once saw a post that posted a series of development data for World of Warcraft, including model data. It is said that in World of Warcraft back then, a ghoul-like model only had more than 100 textures, but the effect in the game was that people couldn't see the obvious lack of pictures, which was the credit of the artist.

Because of this, World of Warcraft can exit a large-scale game of this quality in this era when the computer configuration is generally very poor, and it is an open map, which is very, very remarkable, so this is an epoch-making game, but in terms of game optimization, World of Warcraft is enough to be called such a good name.

Zhou Fangyuan followed Mike around the work area of the development team, he saw the orc model being modeled, saw the model of Stormwind City and Orgrimmar, and saw the effect of module collision, all in all, from these pictures, he had vaguely seen the prototype of the original World of Warcraft. I believe that it will not be long before this world will become more and more fleshed out, until it finally becomes the world in the eyes of players.

Coming out of the development zone, they visited other areas of Blizzard, and finally they came to Blizzard's planning team.

The planning team's job is to write the backstory script of each Blizzard game, as well as the various attributes in the game. For example, how much HP, magic and attacks will increase by leveling up, such as the amount of experience required for each level, such as the specific attack value, such as the value of all the treasure items, etc., these are all required to be completed by the planning team.

The planning of the first three versions of World of Warcraft has been completed, and Zhou Fangyuan took a closer look, and indeed as Mike said, the panda people have appeared in advance. Of course, the panda people at this time are just a flash in the pan, and only one or two can be seen occasionally in the major main cities, and there are basically no panda people in the main plot line. However, the figure of the ancient gods has appeared, for example, in the planning plan, Tanaris's mission has already involved the words "enemies that existed since ancient times" and "polluters of the world", but these words are also short-lived, and if you don't look carefully, it is impossible to find them.

But it is this kind of quietly hidden foreshadowing that provides plot support for later versions, and can also make a few particularly careful players feel the seamless connection of the plot. And with these particularly attentive players, more players will notice this, which is a good thing for the promotion of the whole story.

Chris Mason, one of Blizzard's most important designers, has worked at Blizzard for more than 20 years and is officially announcing his retirement in the future.

This guy is also very good, and he was still working in art and animation design at first. When a friend saw his work, he suggested that he apply for a job with Blizzard. Mason was hired quickly, though he didn't know what Blizzard would do at the time. He thought he would be a graphic designer, but instead he became a game designer.

Mason's first work at Blizzard was Justice League: Task Force, where he was responsible for the game's art and mission animations.

During the same period, Mason was involved in the art, illustration, and playbook for Warcraft I in '94. Since then, Mason has been involved in concept art, illustrations, and playbook designs for various games. In the development of Warcraft II., Mason was more directly involved in the design of the unreal world of the entire game, not just certain levels, which greatly increased Mason's contribution to the Warcraft series of games.

In '97, during the development of the RPG Diablo, Mason worked with his colleague Bill Ropple on the entire game's story. In addition, Mason also voiced some of the characters. In '98, Mason served as the general designer of StarCraft, working with James Feeney to create a detailed script for the game's plot and organize the game's voice acting. In '99, Mason also co-wrote a short story about StarCraft called "Apocalypse" with his colleague Sam Moore. It was published in Amazing Stories magazine and featured a cover designed by Sam Didier. Mason then went on to work on Diablo II.

In the development of Warcraft III., Mason served as the creative director, providing the overall concept of the game's plot and grasping the subsequent Blizzard games, and in the same year Mason created a "Blood and Glory" set in Warcraft. However, in the development of "World of Warcraft", Mason's role is not as critical as before, but he is still engaged in a lot of plot planning and art production.

It can be said that this person's contribution to Blizzard is very large, and it can be said that it is second only to the company's top management. Or in a way, he is more important than some of Blizzard's top executives, and it is because of his existence that Blizzard's successive games can show quite excellent quality, and because of this, it is loved by players.

"World of Warcraft" he failed to continue to be the chief designer, in fact, it can be said that it is a big loss for Blizzard, but then again, Rob Pardo, the chief designer of "World of Warcraft", is also quite a powerful figure. He joined Blizzard in '97 when he was in charge of StarCraft development, and Mason was the lead designer.

In '98, after the official release of StarCraft, Rob Pardo's talent was recognized by Blizzard Entertainment, and he and Mason co-hosted the development of the game expansion "Brood War", which was released in 1999, and "StarCraft" ushered in a truly glorious era.

Just this year, Rob Pardo led the development of Warcraft III for the first time as the lead designer, and his eclectic ideas changed the old-fashioned real-time strategy game, with unique heroes to grow, monster points to fight, various equipment and items that can be used, rich class skills, etc., all giving people a new feeling. The greatest glory of the Warcraft series can be said to be brought by him, and this person's level is no less than Mason.

However, he did not finish the development of Warcraft III., because he was transferred to the development department of World of Warcraft, and at this time there were three main designers of World of Warcraft, including the famous goblins, Jeff Capre and Tom Chelton of Tigulle, in addition to Pardo. Rob Pardo was the creative director of this ambitious project and was responsible for worldbuilding, so he could almost be called the "Father of World of Warcraft".

And under his control, the first two expansions of World of Warcraft can be said to be quite excellent.

But unfortunately, he will leave Blizzard for more than ten years at most, if Zhou Fangyuan is not mistaken, Rob Pardo announced his departure from Blizzard in the last 14 years, and on April 23, 15, game engine developer Unity announced that he had been hired as the company's creative consultant. He then left Unity to form Campfire Studios with three other former Blizzard colleagues.

Of course, people go high and water flows low, and there's nothing wrong with Pardo leaving Blizzard.

The glory of Warcraft in the later stage is no longer there, and someone threw the pot on the head of the expansion film, Zhou Fangyuan thought that this was incorrect. Because each Warcraft expansion has its own characteristics and playability, of course, the quality of different expansions may be different, but this difference will definitely not make the whole game fall off the altar at once.

The reason for this situation can only be said to be the fate of the time. Warcraft has been popular for ten years, and in the past ten years, the game industry has made great strides, and with the continuous improvement of computer configurations, games have become more and more luxurious...... Yes, it's luxury, the change in the game screen, and Warcraft suffers in this area in the first place.

Secondly, when Warcraft was first launched, there was no real masterpiece in the online game industry, and the quality of Warcraft itself was obvious to all, so it quickly ascended to the altar. But as time went on, the older group of players got older, and because of their work and life, they couldn't play for long periods of time. Not to mention Warcraft, a game that consumes a lot of time and energy.

And with the growth of a new group of players, the game market is also growing, and they have more choices, and the appeal of World of Warcraft is already much less than before. What's more, the emergence of a large number of fast food games has plunged the entire game industry into a fast cycle, and the game process is also accelerating, with a large number of players investing in fast games.

After that, more good games appeared, and Warcraft was completely squeezed to a second-rate level.

Although the number of players is still huge, it is difficult to regain the glory of the past.

What's more, with the development of the plot, the old batch of well-known characters in the game continue to die, which is also a big blow to old players, and the result is that many aspects work together, making Warcraft worse year by year.

In short, in the planning department, Zhou Fangyuan met Mason, met Pardo, and met many characters who could only be seen on the Internet in the previous life. In the previous life, he and these people were 108,000 miles away, and they basically couldn't reach each other even if they looked up. In this life, they have all become their own employees, and when they see themselves, they have to greet themselves respectfully.

When I speak, although I don't all stand in a row as if I am being trained, I also have very serious expressions, as if I am afraid of missing a word.

This change made Zhou Fangyuan feel like he was in a dream, but more importantly, it was a sense of satisfaction and achievement.

His original idea was just to make money for his family, and he came to this point unconsciously, and it has only been two years, what if he gives himself another two years? What if he gives himself another ten years or even longer? I have recently had a slight feeling of wanting to slack off, after all, people are not iron-beaten, the stall is so big, the phone calls are non-stop all day long, he also has a particularly tired time, he also wants to relax, so there is a trip to Shizhuang and now a trip to Nanxian and Rice.

But today's scene has regained some motivation for him.

His prophetic power can only last until 18 years, and there are still 18 years to go.

18 years seems like a long time, but in fact it is just a flick of his fingers, he wants to really build a business empire in these 18 years, so that his children and grandchildren can live comfortably on money, and let his parents enjoy the best life in the world, which is his ultimate goal. For this goal, he still needs to work hard, at least he is still reluctant to buy yachts and private jets, which is not much worse.

In the planning department, I chatted with several major designers for a long time, and the content of the chat was still about the plot development of several important Blizzard games at present. The first of these is naturally the Warcraft series. For the plot of Warcraft, in general, Zhou Fangyuan agreed, and a small part of the content that needs to be modified, this is actually okay or not. However, he thought that he finally had the opportunity to meddle in this kind of thing, and he always felt a little reluctant not to talk about it.

However, he has said before that the plot of Warcraft has also been changed, and there is nothing to modify for the time being.

After Warcraft, the second most important thing is interstellar, and the interstellar plot is also very grand, which is a picture scroll that covers the entire universe. For the interstellar plot, the designer has begun to enter the second part, and it can even be said that the main line outline has been completed, and more content is currently being filled.

Regarding the interstellar, Zhou Fangyuan has nothing to say. He didn't have too much contact with the game Interstellar, not that he didn't like it, but the difficulty of Interstellar was a bit high, and he couldn't operate it a little. A handicapped party like him, playing a World of Warcraft with the least difficult class, such as StarCraft, a game that requires extremely high awareness and hand speed, he can't play it in two lifetimes combined.

Talent doesn't work, barely it's useless.

So the plot of Interstellar II., he has nothing to say, if he really has any ideas, he feels that the plot is not complicated enough. It should be a little more complicated, and then you can add some new content to improve the playability of the game.

After the interstellar is Diablo, Diablo 3, Blizzard actually has the idea of making it at this time, but now the company doesn't have much time and energy, and the financial resources are a little tight, so Diablo 3 can only be temporarily stranded.

For Diablo 3, Zhou Fangyuan only has one thing to say, that is, can he cancel such a thing as the Great Secret Realm?

It's not impossible to keep it, but can it highlight the social nature of the game more? And to be honest, the disappearance of the rune language is also quite depressing, as a player who found all the rune words on the top back then, and he also combined almost all the rune words, Zhou Fangyuan liked this system from the bottom of his heart.

So he wants to keep this system and don't throw everything away as soon as he gets a new version.

Of course, there are good things in the new version, and this can be properly integrated, this kind of thing is just moving his mouth anyway, and it is these designers and engineers who carry it out in the end.

At the end of the day, they couldn't help but talk about a few games in Blizzard's development plan.

The first thing to put in the first place is which one is called "Titan", because the grasp of the market is not very accurate, "Titan" has been developed and is close to completion, but it has to be forcibly terminated, speaking of which, players who have been looking forward to this game for a long time are really disappointed. Although "Watching the Ass" was eventually born from "Titan", everyone knows that "Butt" and "Titan" are definitely not the same game, although there is a legacy relationship between them, but everyone is more looking forward to seeing "Titan" than "Ass".

In fact, "Titan" can continue to be developed, as an expected MMORPG game, although it is bound to compete with its own Yamaguchi Mountain, and even seriously divert players, this does not mean that this game has no value. Moreover, the development of games is a process of accumulation of experience.

Yamaguchiyama is undoubtedly very successful as Blizzard's first online game, but this can only be said to be a masterpiece created by the quality of the game and the times.

And the Titan came out ten years late, and the result was that he was cut in half in the previous life.

Now that Zhou Fangyuan could finally hear the content of the game Titan, after listening to it, he only had one feeling.

Blizzard, a group of crazy people, is really too ahead of their time.

It's not that this game isn't fun, it's just not playable.

According to their vision, even a computer ten years from now would not be able to drive the game. Of course, if it is the most expensive computer in ten years, of course, it is no problem to play games, but the question is how many people will buy the most expensive computer of that era for a game? It can even be said that even according to Zhou Fangyuan's computer before his rebirth, it is still difficult to drive this envisaged game.

One step ahead is a genius, ten steps ahead is a demon, and Titan's requirements for hardware are too far ahead, and within a few years or even more than ten years, it is impossible for this game to meet players.

So the castrated version of "Ass" appeared, while "Titan" could only be sealed and waiting for the opportunity to reappear.

In fact, the development of VR equipment is a good opportunity.

If "Titan" keeps up with the trend of VR, there will be a second Yamaguchi Mountain, so Zhou Fangyuan's requirement for them is that "Titan" can be developed, and since it has to be done, it must be persevered, money is not a problem, the problem is not to give up halfway.

Of course, game companies can't always eat the old ones, so when "Titan" is developing, new things must also be developed.

So he came up with the idea of designing an online shooting game based on some excerpts from "Titan".

"Shooting online games? This ...... We never thought ......"

Mike was a little dazed.

"I haven't thought about it, just think about it, CS everyone has played, we can make a CS-like online game, players can choose from a variety of characters, each character has different skills and focus, and the team cooperates with each other, just like first-person Warcraft. Aren't there all kinds of dungeons and bosses in Warcraft? We can also get dungeons and bosses here, and we can also play battles between players.

Of course, the art style can't be the same as CS, I want our game to be cooler and the graphics look more futuristic. ”

This request was a bit unreasonable, but everyone did not directly refuse, but thought about the possibilities.

"In addition, don't let casual games go, I want you to develop a card game, the theme, you can use the content of Warcraft first, and you can also add interstellar content, dark content, and even original content later. After all, not everyone likes large-scale online games, and casual mini-games are also promising. Anyway, these are suggestions that you can write down first and discuss them later. If you think it's appropriate, just do it, if you don't think it's appropriate, then give up, leave me alone, I'm just responsible for making suggestions. ”

Zhou Fangyuan said with a smile.

Then they left the planning department and moved on to the newly established visual department.

This is to prepare for the first future Warcraft movie, Blizzard even spent a lot of money to hire a lot of people from Hollywood, and their current job is to produce CG for the game. Warcraft CG has always been something that players are talking about. The people who can do CG are a group of programmers after all, and they are very skilled, but there are still many shortcomings.

And these people from Hollywood, their role is to fix these deficiencies and make the CG as perfect as possible. Blizzard's technology, coupled with professional shooting techniques, I believe that the new version of CG will be even better. At the same time, they are constantly gaining experience. By the end of next year at the latest, the Warcraft movie will start filming. After all, it's a movie that requires a lot of special effects, and it can take two to three years to make, so in order to get the movie out as soon as the game is released, the preliminary work has to start now.

Zhou Fangyuan spent the whole day at the Blizzard headquarters, and he couldn't eat in the canteen here.

It can be said that today's day is full of harvest, I have seen a lot, understood a lot, and put forward a lot of suggestions. It wasn't until he was so tired that Zhou Fangyuan left the Blizzard headquarters, came to the hotel that Mike had already booked for him, went upstairs, washed up casually, and fell asleep.