Wow, I’m surprised there are no comments on this.

From the interview: “When closing Flagship, we were able to keep the company open for a good six or seven months longer than we probably should have been able to.”

News really started leaking in July of ‘08 that Flagship was sinking, which means shit basically hit the fan back in December 07 or January 08. Since the game launched on October 31st, that is a very short window in which the game flopped. It puts the whole ‘extended founders offer’ into a rather sharp new light, doesn’t it? But I always saw through that to the cynical ploy that it was; it seems a lot of people took the gamble and lost, though.

“At this point, I don’t know what Namco and EA will do in terms of the Western market. As it’s still on the shelves, it’s fortunate that there’s still the single-player component.” The same single-player component that Bill said “stop whining and play online” in response to fans asking for a single player patch. Good job Bill.

Hellgate was alot of fun despite its issues. It really was a shame Bill and his crew has to close Flagship because I thought these guys were going to be the next big thing because they had alot of talent on their team. I’ll always be a Diablo player first and foremost but there is always room for another hacknslash type rpg to enjoy as well.

Bill Roper reminds me of what Image Comics was to Marvel. Marvel lost a lot of its very best artists and writers when they went to form Image. But in the long run all that those talented people ended up created were Marvel rip offs. Spawn is about the only thing left to Image… and Marvel still has the big name characters which had been greatly improved by those Image talents….  go figure.

It just seems that Blizzard and Blizzard North were an amalgam of talents and direction. They feed off each other.

Maybe its me who see malice on everything but I noticied a little bit of poison in his words: “when that vocal minority was outraged that it didn’t have that dark, gothic, gritty look. But that actually made sense, because it’s not Blizzard North doing it anymore.”

As much as his managing of Flagship was disastrous and how amateurish the game design of Hellgate was, I felt bad for what Hellgate could have been. Too bad it ended up being silly/corny instead of the dark apocalytic epic it should have been. Hopefully he learned something from it but it seems he never loses a chance to take a little jab at Diablo3 for not being not by their creators anymore, which makes him a bad loser imo. But maybe its just me seeing malice on everything.

Max schaefer and Travis Baltree (sp?) on the other hand were amazing, I really hope that they find sucess. Bill on the other hand… nah, I cant feel sympathy for him, I really wish I could but I cant, I was watching every episode of the Hellgate drama and If there was one person I would point the finger for being the most guilty for it, I would certainly point at Bill.

I think you’re looking into it too far. What he said was fair, he was only voicing his opinion of the different styles. Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 are made by two different teams. Some people will prefer the grittier style, some will prefer the smoother style.

Anyway, Bashiok has bagged out the graphics in D2 a bit. It just comes down to what style you prefer. Nothing personal at all.

I admire their ambition with Hellgate and I can see how, flushed with previous success and enthusiasm, they wanted to pull something spectacular out of the bag.  Perhaps they had too many ‘yes men’ on the dev team, maybe even the founders themselves but certainly there was no one pulling on the reins.

It must have been a horrid time for them all, frantically trying to save their creation. Soul destroying for some so I’m happy to see they’ve all got straight back on the horse.

He’s a very creative mind though and with experience from both sides of success it should stand him in good stead in the future.

Hellgate would have done better if they waited to release it.

Too many companies put emphasis on the date they release things. They should have brushed up the bugs and worked out more of the shifty mechanics of the gameplay rather then pushing it out on the market for Halloween.

It would have sold more copies (maybe double) in the long run if they waited and kept plugging away at it.

I am disappointed with some of the artwork in Diablo 3. But then, that is my opinion over many people who might not enjoy the dark gruesome gory art that was Diablo.

It’ll still be an awesome game. I’m sure the sure dev team has put countless hours of work into bringing you both an intriguing story as well as feel.