WC3:R broke those with no sign of them ever returning. (History lesson: Blizzard had six years to recognize and reward that mod's popularity before Valve swooped in and did so instead.) Blizzard's lawyers thought clamping down on IP a good 17 years after Dota's original launch was a wise call, and that has apparently slammed WC3 community mod creation to a halt.Īs far as custom campaigns go, they still don't work. (In other words, you could do a lot with a system that combines resource management, troop deployment, and central, Diablo-like butt-kickers.) This is where the original, mega-popular mod Defense of the Ancients was born before evolving into wholly new games like Dota 2 and League of Legends. "Custom games," for the uninitiated, are essentially WC3's playground for modders to create new RTS game types and rulesets, and this became a particularly ripe factory of fun and experiments thanks to WC3's mix of standard RTS elements and ultrapowerful "hero" leaders. Blizzard also eventually reinstated LAN play and got custom games to function again-though a newly oppressive EULA killed that scene to some extent. In good news, those graphics were eventually fixed, as were a few glitches on the "reforged" visual side. then spent the rest of this ridiculous year staring at the wreckage and occasionally poking the ashes with a stick.įans who didn't pay for the upgrade had to wait for Blizzard to return the game to a tolerable state, since the 26GB version botched some of the game's "original" graphics. Three weeks into 2020, the game's handlers at Blizzard burnt most of that goodwill to a crisp. It wasn't scorching the charts by any stretch, but WC3 continued to enjoy a hearty online population, largely fueled by a community's goodwill. One of the gems of the early '00s PC real-time strategy era, WarCraft III entered 2020 still buoyed by a devoted modding community and ladder-battling fanbase.
WarCraft III: Reforged: Customs violation So I'll focus on that game to start, then circle back on other bummers by article's end. Unlike other obvious candidates for 2020's icky designation, it did so with a full 12 months of opportunity to right its own ship.
In our case, when a game lets us down, especially during a year like the last one, the results sting that much more.Īs the dust settled on 2020, one game- WarCraft III: Reforged-stood out as the year's most staggering and baffling disappointment. But "disappointing" games are different from bad ones, especially at Ars, where we do our best to err on the side of caution and skepticism before a game is finished. You may have heard that 2020 wasn't the greatest year-an issue we try not to belabor when covering the fun and escapism of video games at Ars Technica.
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