Nor has beta testing even begun. But the little we do know about Starcraft 2 have moved some people to begin complaining about class imbalances already. So really, that’s the point? There’s already enough info to whet the appetite. FYI, Gamestop is currently taking pre-orders (as of July 7). When pressed, the salespeople say they have an “October date” on the computer. Which means it would release before Wrath of the Lich King and that’s just impossible. Nice one, Blizzard! They are really tricky over there at Irvine, CA. Or Paris, France (home to Vivendi), whatever. Let’s hope it’s not too much longer.

And since I’m such a fanboy fan of all things Starcraft, and one of my “news” filters being “Starcraft”, I came across this article called the “Top 5 needed nerfs for Starcraft 2“. Check out #1, the Battlecruiser. Although I played Random, I was always partial to Terran; a well executed tank push being the wall-of-death that it is. So you know I’m really ecstatic about the battlecruiser making a return in the sequel.

The author notes that 8 battlecruisers can clear the map, and for that reason calls them “overpowered”. But because of the unit price and minerals required, I am sure by the time you have such an advanced air fleet, your opponent (if you’re evenly matched) will have an army equal in pwnage. That’s if your base wasn’t already ravaged by the terrifyingly awesome Colossus (#4), the new Protoss ground unit that can walk up and down different levels of terrain (yikes!).

Until we get more news, I’ll be combing the rumor mills, and reporting back to you. If someone has an inside tip, send me a line! Much appreciated.

Pop Quiz: Which one of these girls play video games?

Answer: All of them.

w00t!

Just saw the cutest thing on the net - Of course, I say this at least 3x a day…because as you know, the internets is chock full of interesting things. And maybe I just happen to look for cute + geeky things. That’s a really really awesome combo, not every product can pull that off. It’s totally not the same as cool + geeky, because let’s face it, that’s just too easy. Almost everything that’s geeky is considered cool nowadays, right? Right?

Anyway, this made it to digg front page few days ago. Since it’s wedding season and all, I figured it was worth a blog post.

Here’s the link for more info.

I’m not going to be able to say it better so I’m just going to quote from the source itself and pepper the blog with my own thoughts. The topic is leadership, management and MMOs. Holy extrapolation?! What does one have to do with the other, you wonder? My friend, you have never been part of a raiding guild if you have to ask!

Although this line of thinking has been bandied about and postulated for a few years, a recent article sent to me by way of my friend Nesto, from Harvard Business Review titled, “Leadership Online Labs” seeks to dispel the notion that online games are merely simple play, describing them as “enterprises [are actually] where sprawling online communities in which thousands of players collaborate with and compete against one another in real time within a visually three-dimensional virtual world—one that persists and evolves even while a player is away.” Which makes a lot of sense, as these persistent worlds consists of real-time interaction between avatars controlled by humans, not AI. It’s always been worth it to examine the leadership and group dynamics in these games, but few people took it seriously. They don’t know that completing a mission or defeating a new boss often requires myriad levels of collaboration, on-the-spot decision making, morale building, and all sorts of problem solving. Not a task for the feeble-minded or faint of heart!

What follows (in the article) is a discussion of what leadership means in-game, and how that can be different or similar to management in organizations. But this was not an article about how you can learn leadership techniques from awesome WoW raid leaders. What’s mentioned is “the tools and techniques they’re using will change how leaders function tomorrow—and could make them more effective today”. “Tools” being a state-of-the-art headset and “techniques” like withholding DKP points for latecomers. Just kidding!

What they imagine is: current virtual worlds like World of Warcraft and Everquest may lend insight into the future of real-life organizational leadership. Imagine, we may one day face fire-breathing chimera in the elevator. Just kidding! But perhaps companies willing to adopt characteristics of game environments could exact some kind of leadership change. I think it’s very radical that an organization may consider changing their environment in order to support their leadership instead of finding the right people to lead in their current environment. It certainly would be in line with other progressive HR startup strategies that seek to retain human capital. Not the HR strategy of having a company sushi chef, although I heard that really helps with productivity too. And by “productivity”, I mean “getting fat”. What I mean is, we should all be so lucky.