Warcraft: Legends (game)
- For the manga series of the same name, see Warcraft Legends.
Warcraft: Legends[1] (also written as Warcraft Legends[2]) was a cancelled Warcraft game.
History
Legends was the brainchild of Mike O'Brien;[1] conceived after the release of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.[2] The idea for Legends lay in the path Blizzard had taken in real-time strategy from Warcraft I, to II, to StarCraft, where each game allowed players to control more units at a time than its predecessor. O'Brien wanted to create a game that would go in the opposite direction, with the player controlling fewer, more important units. Doing so would allow Blizzard to pivot to 3D without having to worry quite as much about technical restrictions, explore a new type of networking option that would help thwart cheating, and bring back some of the role-playing elements that he felt had been lost over the previous few years.[1]
O'Brien named the game "Warcraft: Legends."[1] The game would feature no base building[2] (buildings would still feature, they just couldn't be built),[1] no fog of war, and used an over-the-shoulder camera.[1] Players would control a handful of heroes, each with their own small army. It was such a big departure that they even coined a new acronym to explain it: RPS, or role-playing strategy.[1]
Legends was expected to be announced at a European trade show in September 1999, but just before announcing it, Pardo announced that Blizzard would be making "Warcraft III." The reception was positive, but within Blizzard, Legends was a point of contention. Staff at Blizzard wanted to advance the RTS genre, not develop something else entirely. For his part, O'Brien grew frustrated at what her perceived as risk-aversion from his colleagues.[1] By the end of 1999, a group of staff including Pardo and Chris Metzen went to Mike Morhaime and asked him to remove O'Brien from the project, stating that they weren't onboard with his vision. O'Brien ended up leaving Blizzard.[3]
Legends was ultimately scrapped, but the game's hero focus were transitioned over to Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos with an infusion of hefty RPG elements into a real-time strategy game.[2]
Trivia
- Hearthstone originally was titled as Warcraft Legends during development.[4]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, pg. 60
- ^ a b c d Game Informer #308: Reforging Real-time Strategy, pg. 53
- ^ Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, pg. 61
- ^ https://www.gamespot.com/videos/how-blizzard-s-warcraft-brought-hearthstone-to-lif/2300-6423661/
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