Friday, October 26, 2007

Software on the Edge of Forever

Tonight, I laid out a map on my brother's dining table to plan my family's Christmas trip.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with Dan about Google Local / Maps, and about how Chrysanthemum had ideas for a maps product in 2003 but didn't end up working on it.

Me: [to Tom] "If you could have worked on any product throughout history, which one would you pick?"

Tom: "Any product?"

Me: "Right."

Tom: "The Bible."

Me: [laughing]

Tom: [jovially] "I'll be Jesus Christ, your savior!"

...

Me: "So if you could pick any software product within the last twenty years to have worked on, which would it be?"

Tom: [after a few minutes of thinking] "The Sims Online. It had so much potential. The potential wasn't realized, but it was there."

Me: "My choice is Starcraft. It's still being played today. You know, if I had been willing to leave Caltech one year sooner, I could've worked on it. [pause] That game was the pinnacle of the real-time strategy genre."

Tom: "Until now."

Me: "I don't see how Starcraft can possibly be topped."

Tom: "Sure. You just have to name your company Blizzard and kick ass."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oy. Total Annihilation >>>>> Starcraft.

Anonymous said...

SC > W3 and WOW

Funny how Blizzard only shows previews of Protoss. What are they hiding in Zerg =]

Unknown said...

Funny, I thought with a posting titled "Software on the Edge of Forever," you were going to say something Star Trek related.

Anonymous said...

Do you play Starcraft? Did you? I loved it, but don't have much time, so I deliberately don't, except with friends occasionally.

DF

Anonymous said...

I know how they could improve on starcraft.

Improve the pathfinding AI. Theres nothing like telling a squad of hydralisks to attack a target, then checking back up on them ten minutes later and figuring out they're still trying to find their way out of your base.

The only thing that frustrated me more than that was when they would just spawn broodlings on your units cause they maxed out their energy. Like clockwork, every 250 energy. BROODLINGS. No strategic advantage. No follow up attacks. Just one pair of broodlings every 5 mintues.