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BluetrackerValid Statements to Back Up My Argument of Ultimate Important Subject
A couple of days ago in Vent I referred to Bill Roper as a "celebrity", but it was shot down pretty quick. After thinking about it I realized that people might not consider him to be one. I don't really consider myself to be more of a Blizzard fanboy than any other regular Blizzard-company-liker person-always-buyer. All and all, I think a pretty hard and solid case (air-tight proof with no breaches whatsoever, nuh uh) for my calling him a celebrity:
- Even if he wasn't directly involved, World of Warcraft has like 8 million subscribers, and that's larger than certain countries for crying out loud. ZOMG! That's 8 million people who should in some way or form know who this man is. How many players who play WoW in percent who Bill Roper is versus people living in your state knows the senator or even president?
- He did the Grunt voice for WC 3, Warrior and Peon/Grunt for WC 2 + narration, and all voices for WC 1. Various Diablo vox stuff too. Those games sold millions and millions. How many people here can't say they haven't heard his voice at one point or time?
- He also used to do a lot of heavy PR work for them back in the day, so if you worked in the gaming press or read a lot of gaming 'zine outlets you must've read him sometime. Specifically I remember listening him being interviewed on a Mac radio show and the host gave him the very broad question to describe all the three Blizzard universes: he had the balls and stamina to bite his lips together and very professionally run through all of it...must've taken like 30 minutes to do that! If I was him I'd challenge the host and question him for asking that - but that's me. He even accepted to talk for an additional 45 minutes (I think), wowza.
- Oh, did you know that he's a singer? So if my other cases fail I have the "local celebrity" category to fall back on. Yes...I know it's stretching it!
And that is that.
One last note: if you add me to your Nintendo Wii friends list you'll find Roper in your parade. Truth be told he looks eerily similar. Unfortunately Hawaii t-shirts are not available for the customization process so he had to settle with black.
Yes...I am going a bit insane waiting for the Burning Crusade to come out.
- Even if he wasn't directly involved, World of Warcraft has like 8 million subscribers, and that's larger than certain countries for crying out loud. ZOMG! That's 8 million people who should in some way or form know who this man is. How many players who play WoW in percent who Bill Roper is versus people living in your state knows the senator or even president?
- He did the Grunt voice for WC 3, Warrior and Peon/Grunt for WC 2 + narration, and all voices for WC 1. Various Diablo vox stuff too. Those games sold millions and millions. How many people here can't say they haven't heard his voice at one point or time?
- He also used to do a lot of heavy PR work for them back in the day, so if you worked in the gaming press or read a lot of gaming 'zine outlets you must've read him sometime. Specifically I remember listening him being interviewed on a Mac radio show and the host gave him the very broad question to describe all the three Blizzard universes: he had the balls and stamina to bite his lips together and very professionally run through all of it...must've taken like 30 minutes to do that! If I was him I'd challenge the host and question him for asking that - but that's me. He even accepted to talk for an additional 45 minutes (I think), wowza.
- Oh, did you know that he's a singer? So if my other cases fail I have the "local celebrity" category to fall back on. Yes...I know it's stretching it!
And that is that.
One last note: if you add me to your Nintendo Wii friends list you'll find Roper in your parade. Truth be told he looks eerily similar. Unfortunately Hawaii t-shirts are not available for the customization process so he had to settle with black.
Yes...I am going a bit insane waiting for the Burning Crusade to come out.
posted by Mastgrr at 11:04:00 AM
7 Comments:
I would say Clifton is the "celebrity" and not only that an absolute hero for PvPers. I wouldn't call Bill Roper a celebrity, he didn't have the balls to control that wild and insane raid-centric bastard Kaplan/Tigole and it nearly resulted in the game being turned into an EQ clone.
Now at long last, PvP is moving in the right direction and is a direct result of Clifton being moved to lead development. You can bet reduction to 25-man has his hand on it, and you can also bet equalization of PvP and Raid rewards is partly his doing.
If you can measure a persons worth by looking what is lacking, when he is not there, then blizzard has seen an incredible loss.
Not only Bill Roper is gone, he has taken a few with him - and for my side, these people are not known that they are extremly bad game developer - not at all.
Then look at WoW - still very successful but look at the implementation of the game itself - the mechanics, the rules and the game play.
See what is different?
After 2 years they still not know how to balance this beast (yes - this is not easy but it should not given into the hands of some unknown dilletants who go on with trial and error) - we are so far away from perfect balanced game like WC3 or StarCraft that I believe, that Blizzard will never be able to produce such wonderful games again.
What they can now: produce games which makes the owner of Blizzard rich - but that is not the same.
When I'm writing this, thousands of people playing StarCraft. Look at the age of this game - if you then realize that people playing and enjoying such an old game, you know why Blizzard has such a good name.
That is what Bill Roper has accomplished. And this is BESIDE (!) the overhelming success of Diablo and Diablo 2... Did I mention the Warcraft series, which gets EVERYTHING started.
When Bill Roper is not a celebrity in gaming, then who?
I do this for ainur...
Love your site and your thoughts on wow very very much... I was wondering if you'd mind exchanging links with my wow site named - World of Warcraft Tips, Guides & Exploits
The url is:
http://wow-tips.blogspot.com/
Dunno...does the "exploits" in your name really imply that you're giving away exploits?
:) actually my exploits are good exploits like how to replace decursive and so on.
I don't think he even qualifies as a celeberty among game developers, ie he's not a Miyamoto or a Carmack.
ce·leb·ri·ty /səˈlɛbrɪti/
1. a famous or well-known person.
2. fame; renown.
Even the people who say he isnt one knows him. Therefore, he is one.
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