StarCraft II Meets WoW Machinima
Blizzard is nothing if not creative.
More accurately, Blizzard loves to have its fans be creative, tapping into their ever-present and desperate love for all things Starcraft.
As of April 5, 2010, Blizzard has begun a Starcraft II movie-making contest, encouraging fans to submit a homemade movie which in some way relates the universe Blizz has created.
Have a secret Starcraft tale of romance and intrigue that you want to tell? Apparently, as long as it’s PG-13 and in certain formats – AVI, DivX, or QuickTime – and is under 150mb and 5 minutes long, you’re good to go.
Let the melodrama and bad puns commence! If we had any talent at moviemaking, and if Blizzard really loved low-level puns and slightly-above-base humor, we’d be golden.
But not to rely solely on the nerdity of its fans, Blizzard is also offering prizes for the best submissions, including a TV, monitor, and an NVIDIA 3D vision kit, which as far as well can tell is a pair of sunglasses, but according to web reviews, is actually pretty fantastic.
This thing closes May 7, 2010, but is sure to generate any number of submissions, good, bad, and ugly. This is simply another part of the publicity machine that Blizzard needs to keep oiled and running to make sure that Starcraft II is flying off the shelves like a Terran Raven when it is finally released.
Blizzard doesn’t even care what type of movie the fans make, but includes such suggestions on its webpage as the traditional “machinima”, a battle report, or a live-action skit.
The last option has “Star Wars Lightsaber Kid” written all over it, but replace “Star Wars” with “Starcraft II”, “Lightsaber” with “Zealot Swords” and “Kid” with “Weirdo Guy”, and you’ll have it about right.
In truth, we’ve actually seen a number of really great machinima and even music videos come from supporters of Blizzard games, especially those crazy WoW fans. The “Roflmao” YouTube video is funny as hell if you know anything about the MMORPG world, for example.
But the fact of the matter is that Blizzard is going to receive a great deal of nonsense, some simply poorly and hastily crafted, and some overwrought in hopes of becoming the next big thing. The Starcraft universe is ripe for this kind of movie-making, and there are any number of great stories to be told.
Frankly, we’d rather see them in print, perhaps crafted by a blogger with a sly sense of humor and a feel for cadence and clarity. We can’t imagine where they would find such a person, but surely there must be someone on the web with such talent.
To wrap up…
The Starcraft community is strong, especially among those who liked the first game but weren’t hardcore players. Many of those, especially professional gamers, are unhappy with the direction that Starcraft II is headed, but they’re a small enough community that while losing them would be a disaster for the “street-cred” of Blizzard’s new game, it would hardly cripple their sales.
This video contest should keep the already-high interest in the game at a fever pitch among both the general and extra-nerdy fans alike, which is a good thing all around.
We’re sensing a “two thumbs down” sort of situation here, and most likely a “skip it” rating, but that’s never stopped us from seeing truly terrible movies before. Some of them were even worth it.
