Pardo's low-key presentation caused a ripple of raised eyebrows, exchanged looks and murmurs of appreciation as he talked about friends lists, cross-game communication with WOW, cloud saving, a brilliant new matchmaking and tournament system, and a move to build not just a community but a commercial marketplace around StarCraft II mods. But that's exactly when our perceptions started to change. Then we had to wait until after WOW and Diablo's designers had presented their visions at panels for Blizzard's design chief Rob Pardo to take to the stage and talk, not so much about StarCraft II itself, but the new platform it goes hand-in-hand with. They got cinematic trailers and new class and expansion announcements, amid a tumult of cheering and thundering subwoofers. On BlizzCon's opening day, StarCraft II took its now customary place in the hype queue behind World of Warcraft and Diablo III.
We didn't know - we had no idea, actually - it was this big. Can you have a sleeper hit at a convention where there are only three games? Can you be taken unawares by a monster sequel to an RTS classic, six years in development, of which expectations are already sky-high and for which the delayed wait until next year seems unbearable? Is it possible to underestimate the importance of Blizzard's first non-World of Warcraft release since 2003? Going by last weekend's BlizzCon - yes, absolutely.
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