Stay Awhile and Listen

For those who are painfully familiar with this phrase and who even in the 90s chords of “ Theme of Tristram ” sat down in the head, and for everyone who loves Blizzard games, another small holiday is coming. This time it's not about the game, but about a book about the company's history and about one of its legendary game series.

The three volumes of “Stay Away and Listen: How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire” will tell the 12-year history of the Blizzard North division responsible for Diablo and Diablo II, along with Blizzard Entertainment (“South”). The first book will be released on October 31 as an e-book in the versions for Kindle, iBooks and Nook - it will be devoted to the founding of both Blizzard and will follow the developers of the first parts of the Diablo and Warcraft series; the following will tell in detail about the creation of World of Warcraft, shed light on the real reasons for closing Blizzard North in 2005 and tell you about the development of the remaining parts of Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo - and, nevertheless, the focus of the story will return to one of three parts Diablo series. Readers will get acquainted with the developers, artists, musicians and designers, whose ideas and vision have made the games of the company such as the players saw and remembered them. As the author himself writes, “due to the fact that each volume is centered around one of the parts of Diablo, I was able to convey the spirit of the era in which each of the games was created, and talk about the people behind them, and also see how both the studios have changed over time. ”


The book is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with more than eighty developers working for Blizzard Entertainment and Blizzard North, or closely related to studios. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the book will include hundreds of pages of unique bonus materials, including: full interview versions on all the topics discussed in the book, game design lessons for readers, as well as developers' stories about how they paved their way in the gaming industry. Well and the most interesting - the details shedding light on the canceled projects of Blizzard (like two versions of Diablo III, made by Blizzard North) and the reasons for their closure.
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Incidentally, the closure of the studio - one of the darkest episodes of the history of Blizzard. Permanent composer of Blizzard North, Matt Ulman, said in an interview that the Blizzard North version of Diablo III from 2000 to 2005 was almost at the early alpha stage - this was confirmed published a couple of years ago. screenshots from the game, in which the firm's handwriting studio is guessed immediately.

“I wouldn't call it a game,” however, it was not a game. If you were to be able to see it. It was actually a funky summer season. ”

Moreover, the former developers of Blizzard North said that the third part of the series was to develop in the direction of MMO, which at that time did not quite fit into the plans of the "rest" Blizzard, which then made a reasonable bet on WoW and neither the budget nor the desire to develop Diablo in this direction did not have. According to another version, the developed game did not meet the high quality criteria adopted by Blizzard. However, in September last year, Matt and co-founder of the studio, Eric Schaefer, said that the reasons mentioned were complete nonsense, and the fact is that Vivendi ignored the financial needs of the developers.


A short excerpt from the middle of the book is already available here . As usual, nothing is known about the official Russian translation; however, for sure there will be enthusiasts who will be engaged in “free retelling”.