Zerg Coverage >> Chris Sigaty Interview

Morten
Did you at any point consider including Hero characters into the game?

Chris
Well, there was a big discussion in the beginning on that. What are we doing here? We decided we are going to make StarCraft II. With WarCraft III we created this new sort of genre, an RTS game, but the hero becomes a bit centric in WarCraft III we said no, we’re gonna remove Heroes, we’re going to go this direction, so the two franchises basically *feel* their own, you know? So we knew we were definitely not going to have Heroes or concentrating on “creeping” or that sort of stuff [Chris refers to the neutral units you can encounter and kill in WarCraft III that are called “creeps”; “creeping” means killing creeps to gain experience/money to your Hero - not referring to Zerg creep]. Much more fast paced action RTS game that is StarCraft.

Patrik
How do you prepare for map hack and stuff like that? How much energy are you putting into that?

Chris
Cheating is definitely something that we’re very aware of, conscious of and despise. You know, Diablo II is an example. It became what it is. First there was Diablo one, it had its own issues too, but because of the idea that as soon as all the information is on the client, you can do a lot of abuse. So we actually have a lot of things in action right now, even with WarCraft III...

Patrik
Like the Warden?

Chris
And we don’t really want to go into too much details about that but we are continuing to enhance the Warden. WarCraft has a lot of low level things that are going on to make sure that we can ensure security as best we can, and make sure there is no cheating going on. You know, it is a constant battle and we pay a lot of money to fight that constant battle. We intend to do exactly the same thing with StarCraft II. You know the game is basically client+router for games where it really counts, but if you want to go off and play on your own, you can basically play off the network. However, we definitely want the games count towards your record, to be controlled, so that we can see who is disconnecting and that sort of thing. And then… Ah, hopefully that answers your question.

Morten
Cheat-wise, what is the greatest problems in StarCraft?

Chris
The greatest problem is always map hack. It’s important for us just to be involved in the community and knowing what is going on and when it’s happening. We have in place team now, we didn’t have that back during StarCraft *at all*. WarCraft III started forming that team and with WoW it’s much better. That team will be effectively ensuring that StarCraft II has far fewer cheaters. There will always be the cutting edge, bleeding edge hackers that are able to get in front of us for a short period of time, but then we jump back in front with this game. The situation is much better than in the old days, and it will be even better.

Andreas
Ok, maby time for a group photo or so, that would be nice?

Julia (PR)
Yes Sure.

The group photo turned out like this:

 

From the left standing: Patrik, Chris, Gunnar (Leord).
Sitting: Andreas, Morten

In addition to this, I also managed to nick off an autograph off of Sigaty. Being editor of a fansite gives you the freedom to be objective, try to grill the “victim”, as well as being a fanboy!

Written by Gunnar “Leord” Petzall 24/6-2008 (from transcript).
Thanks Andreas for the foto.

Read the Full Browder Interview Here.

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