Hello
I promised to this a lot earlier but was really busy with exams I forgot. sorry about that. I think its needed as most people including myself recently, do not know what Netease means and what its success means.
I know most of you are now thinking Blizzard does not care about the Custom map community with it's removal of Bot. And that melee community is the majority while the custom map one's are kinda expendable. That could not be further from the Truth.
This will be kind of a longer thread. These are 4 statements here that you most likely currently totally disagree but there is good chance you will agree with them after reading this thread.
- Warcraft 3 is kinda dead in comparison to other games.
- Custom map community is king and vast majority of Warcraft 3 community. Outnumbering melee and Dota 10 to 1.
- It will take a long time for Blizzard to figure out remake features such as proper hosting services for online maps, platform, reconnect system, spectating system, ladder and raking systems etc etc
- Warcraft remake is kinda unlikely and it's not gonna be profitable. If it happens it will be a trashy cash grab Remaster.
So Let's get started. What is Netease? Netease is a Chinese techonlogy company that has been in partnership with Blizzard for years. For Tax and other International business reasons Blizzard years ago decided to do a joint venture with Netease when introducing its games to China.
Warcraft 3 used to be just normal like our Battle.net in China until 2015 I beleive where Blizzard and Netease decided to upgrade Warcraft 3 through a New platform. So they made the Netease Platform. Through you can play Warcraft 3 for Free multiplayer. (The campaign I believe you have to pay but I'm honestly not sure).
Here are its features and it might be seem like a dream but it's already here:
1- The game is Alive and it's peak is usually around 40,000 players playing or more daily (vs Battle.net 3500 at very good days)
2- It's free to play and has micro-transaction model. Map makers who have popular maps can enter a deal with Netease and monetize their map and Skin models for example for sale and share profits.
3- Platform allows for great way of sharing custom maps. Instead of seeing a long list or Bots. You can browse through maps based on popularity, Genre, play rating and comments, freshness and whole bunch of other metrics. Netease also promotes new maps or maps with massive update as well to ensure each map gets a chance rather than just only the top map being played like Starcraft. You also see how many lobbies are made and being played with how many people in each map. Process of finding a game is much faster. There also tournaments and other stuff to promote a map.
4- Level based system to separate players by skill level. There is a XP system which shows you the level of each player for each map. It depends on the players Wins and games of a Certain custom map. This ensures for example you do not have a player with over 10000 games In Footmen Frenzy matches against a first timer and you can balance teams based on that.
5- Ranking system and ladder
If a game is popular and well balanced you can also choose to add a Ranking system and ladder where players can play competitive for ELO.
6- Better guild system and friend’s system
Much better and modernized guild system which allows you find clans based on your preferences and which custom maps you like. You can also check what games are your friends playing much better and invite them etc. What you would expect from a modern platform.
9- Measures against hacking and better lobbies
You do not have to worry one bit about hacked version anymore or constantly searching for official versions anymore. Say goodbye to that. Also say goodbye to copy cats as Netease takes down straight up copy cats of your map if you report it tho usually they won't climb the search engine anyways as everyone is playing official versions.
10- Reconnect system
Your trash internet got you out or Warcraft 3 Closed? no problem, reconnect to your game. The game does have a reconnect system and they found clever way to it without having to change the engines source code. However it's a bit weird and still takes sometime to reconnect. It doesn't have you from mass crash tho as if everyone crashes the lobby goes down so no you still have fix Desyncs and memory leaks in your map.
11- Voice Chat system and social systems
There is voice chat, keybinding system and bunch of other social system in the game.
12- Far better servers and connection, No problem anymore with ENT or Battle.net dropping you anymore. Also download of any map is instant now so say goodbye to epicwar, you will not be forgotten.
14- Spectator system and Far better UI. Overall navigating is much easier than while also there is a system that let's you spectate anyone (as long as they allow it) with few minutes of delay obviously. Cool for casting. Only criticism I have of this one is not applying camera hack to it tho they have some other cool features.
16- Customer service Tutorials and support. They have an active support system for tickets, bugs and issues and constantly update the platform. Meanwhile for map making they sourcing are constantly active. Their Website easily Rivals and beats Hive specially at the current stage. I recommend checking out the resources tho it's hard as it's only viable in Chinese.
So Pretty damn good! What does this mean for Custom map community? Let's look the numbers:
When you go to check the games that are being played you get:
2628 Pages of games (26280 games total) being played. Now Let's check How many of them are RPG (custom maps).
Out of 2628 pages (26280 games total), 2566 pages (25660 games total) of them are custom map games. Meaning only 620 Games of all our Melee or Dota. (most are melee).
This means Custom maps are King and Life blood of Blizzard in China. This is what happens they the custom map community is offered proper support. Breaking them would be a heresy. So in there usually they operate a patch behind and give their map makers a bunch of time, support and cash grants to make their maps compatible with new patches.
So what does all this mean? 40,000 peak Daily is pretty good for a 2003 game I believe, specially since all the content is being created by players not Netease. You can compare it to this but I need someone to get data for Games in China to compare and see if 40,000 is a good when compared to this for example:
Steam: Game and Player Statistics
So what does all this mean? We all know Warcraft 3 is in Laggard stage and have barley made any sales for years. Why doesn't Blizzard just translate Netease platform, Make the game free to play, add in bunch of cosmetic Micro-transactions and make bunch of money while also giving players Quality Warcraft 3? It is easy money and an easy update! Activision Blizzard does not say no to money.
So there can be only one answer. Warcraft 3 remake to make more money! Tho players will like a proper updated version of Warcraft like Netease and it being Free to play as well will bring a bunch of hype, editors, nostalgia and players back. It won't as much since people will not like the look and quality of 2003 graphics and engines despite all the utility updates. So simply just add in a graphic and engine update, Charge upfront and add in Micro-transaction and monetize maps. Also ownership issues will handle much more smoothly with HD graphics as Blizzard can now keep track of who made what and which map. Allowing the process of Map making monetization to go much more smoothly. It's the gold mine business model. While in the past it was best to just make game, hype hard and get sales then leave game to die and work on next game. Today with Mirc-transaction model proving to be king by games like Fornite or Dota 2. It is much better to keep adding content and keeping the game alive. And what better way to keep the game alive than having players make and update the content for you in pursuit of profit!
I know there are issues that come with monetizing maps but there are solveable issues we can deal with it. It is certaintly better than doing nothing and comparison of Netease against Battle.net proves it.
Now should I go and play on Netease now? Well you will have like 200-300 ping and might have trouble communicating sometimes. Should be fine for TD maps tho. However what I highly recommend is to check out the platform and see its features and what's possible. I'm sure I missed some stuff as I don't understand Chinese myself. Specially check out their maps as they have made lot cool ones we never heard of or thought would be possible. A lot of nice models too.
Here is how you can make an account. It's kinda hard as the platform was never meant for Non-Chinese people to join but It should not take long to sign up
Guide: How to play on Netease
Here are also links to Netease website to check it out. Also check T&C regards to maps as it's much better than battle.net imo.
平台特色-魔兽争霸官方对战平台
WoW. This went quite long. Feel free to message about things you are not sure and What you think of Netease. I'm still new to platform myself so If someone here is Chinese they can direct you better. I think this is necessary as lot of people think Custom maps have fallen which as Netease shows is absolutely not true.
Thanks
I promised to this a lot earlier but was really busy with exams I forgot. sorry about that. I think its needed as most people including myself recently, do not know what Netease means and what its success means.
I know most of you are now thinking Blizzard does not care about the Custom map community with it's removal of Bot. And that melee community is the majority while the custom map one's are kinda expendable. That could not be further from the Truth.
This will be kind of a longer thread. These are 4 statements here that you most likely currently totally disagree but there is good chance you will agree with them after reading this thread.
- Warcraft 3 is kinda dead in comparison to other games.
- Custom map community is king and vast majority of Warcraft 3 community. Outnumbering melee and Dota 10 to 1.
- It will take a long time for Blizzard to figure out remake features such as proper hosting services for online maps, platform, reconnect system, spectating system, ladder and raking systems etc etc
- Warcraft remake is kinda unlikely and it's not gonna be profitable. If it happens it will be a trashy cash grab Remaster.
So Let's get started. What is Netease? Netease is a Chinese techonlogy company that has been in partnership with Blizzard for years. For Tax and other International business reasons Blizzard years ago decided to do a joint venture with Netease when introducing its games to China.
Warcraft 3 used to be just normal like our Battle.net in China until 2015 I beleive where Blizzard and Netease decided to upgrade Warcraft 3 through a New platform. So they made the Netease Platform. Through you can play Warcraft 3 for Free multiplayer. (The campaign I believe you have to pay but I'm honestly not sure).
Here are its features and it might be seem like a dream but it's already here:
1- The game is Alive and it's peak is usually around 40,000 players playing or more daily (vs Battle.net 3500 at very good days)
2- It's free to play and has micro-transaction model. Map makers who have popular maps can enter a deal with Netease and monetize their map and Skin models for example for sale and share profits.
3- Platform allows for great way of sharing custom maps. Instead of seeing a long list or Bots. You can browse through maps based on popularity, Genre, play rating and comments, freshness and whole bunch of other metrics. Netease also promotes new maps or maps with massive update as well to ensure each map gets a chance rather than just only the top map being played like Starcraft. You also see how many lobbies are made and being played with how many people in each map. Process of finding a game is much faster. There also tournaments and other stuff to promote a map.
4- Level based system to separate players by skill level. There is a XP system which shows you the level of each player for each map. It depends on the players Wins and games of a Certain custom map. This ensures for example you do not have a player with over 10000 games In Footmen Frenzy matches against a first timer and you can balance teams based on that.
5- Ranking system and ladder
If a game is popular and well balanced you can also choose to add a Ranking system and ladder where players can play competitive for ELO.
6- Better guild system and friend’s system
Much better and modernized guild system which allows you find clans based on your preferences and which custom maps you like. You can also check what games are your friends playing much better and invite them etc. What you would expect from a modern platform.
9- Measures against hacking and better lobbies
You do not have to worry one bit about hacked version anymore or constantly searching for official versions anymore. Say goodbye to that. Also say goodbye to copy cats as Netease takes down straight up copy cats of your map if you report it tho usually they won't climb the search engine anyways as everyone is playing official versions.
10- Reconnect system
Your trash internet got you out or Warcraft 3 Closed? no problem, reconnect to your game. The game does have a reconnect system and they found clever way to it without having to change the engines source code. However it's a bit weird and still takes sometime to reconnect. It doesn't have you from mass crash tho as if everyone crashes the lobby goes down so no you still have fix Desyncs and memory leaks in your map.
11- Voice Chat system and social systems
There is voice chat, keybinding system and bunch of other social system in the game.
12- Far better servers and connection, No problem anymore with ENT or Battle.net dropping you anymore. Also download of any map is instant now so say goodbye to epicwar, you will not be forgotten.
14- Spectator system and Far better UI. Overall navigating is much easier than while also there is a system that let's you spectate anyone (as long as they allow it) with few minutes of delay obviously. Cool for casting. Only criticism I have of this one is not applying camera hack to it tho they have some other cool features.
16- Customer service Tutorials and support. They have an active support system for tickets, bugs and issues and constantly update the platform. Meanwhile for map making they sourcing are constantly active. Their Website easily Rivals and beats Hive specially at the current stage. I recommend checking out the resources tho it's hard as it's only viable in Chinese.
So Pretty damn good! What does this mean for Custom map community? Let's look the numbers:
When you go to check the games that are being played you get:
2628 Pages of games (26280 games total) being played. Now Let's check How many of them are RPG (custom maps).
Out of 2628 pages (26280 games total), 2566 pages (25660 games total) of them are custom map games. Meaning only 620 Games of all our Melee or Dota. (most are melee).
This means Custom maps are King and Life blood of Blizzard in China. This is what happens they the custom map community is offered proper support. Breaking them would be a heresy. So in there usually they operate a patch behind and give their map makers a bunch of time, support and cash grants to make their maps compatible with new patches.
So what does all this mean? 40,000 peak Daily is pretty good for a 2003 game I believe, specially since all the content is being created by players not Netease. You can compare it to this but I need someone to get data for Games in China to compare and see if 40,000 is a good when compared to this for example:
Steam: Game and Player Statistics
So what does all this mean? We all know Warcraft 3 is in Laggard stage and have barley made any sales for years. Why doesn't Blizzard just translate Netease platform, Make the game free to play, add in bunch of cosmetic Micro-transactions and make bunch of money while also giving players Quality Warcraft 3? It is easy money and an easy update! Activision Blizzard does not say no to money.
So there can be only one answer. Warcraft 3 remake to make more money! Tho players will like a proper updated version of Warcraft like Netease and it being Free to play as well will bring a bunch of hype, editors, nostalgia and players back. It won't as much since people will not like the look and quality of 2003 graphics and engines despite all the utility updates. So simply just add in a graphic and engine update, Charge upfront and add in Micro-transaction and monetize maps. Also ownership issues will handle much more smoothly with HD graphics as Blizzard can now keep track of who made what and which map. Allowing the process of Map making monetization to go much more smoothly. It's the gold mine business model. While in the past it was best to just make game, hype hard and get sales then leave game to die and work on next game. Today with Mirc-transaction model proving to be king by games like Fornite or Dota 2. It is much better to keep adding content and keeping the game alive. And what better way to keep the game alive than having players make and update the content for you in pursuit of profit!
I know there are issues that come with monetizing maps but there are solveable issues we can deal with it. It is certaintly better than doing nothing and comparison of Netease against Battle.net proves it.
Now should I go and play on Netease now? Well you will have like 200-300 ping and might have trouble communicating sometimes. Should be fine for TD maps tho. However what I highly recommend is to check out the platform and see its features and what's possible. I'm sure I missed some stuff as I don't understand Chinese myself. Specially check out their maps as they have made lot cool ones we never heard of or thought would be possible. A lot of nice models too.
Here is how you can make an account. It's kinda hard as the platform was never meant for Non-Chinese people to join but It should not take long to sign up
Guide: How to play on Netease
Here are also links to Netease website to check it out. Also check T&C regards to maps as it's much better than battle.net imo.
平台特色-魔兽争霸官方对战平台
WoW. This went quite long. Feel free to message about things you are not sure and What you think of Netease. I'm still new to platform myself so If someone here is Chinese they can direct you better. I think this is necessary as lot of people think Custom maps have fallen which as Netease shows is absolutely not true.
Thanks