Reading a classic Blizzard interview pretty much used to be an infuriating experience for the curious, and a waste of time for the learned. More often than not, one was left with very open promises, elusive hints and a door saying: sorry, no peeking.
However, ever since their announcement of StarCraft II, or the continuing success of World of Warcraft, they have become far more talkative and have made it policy to engage their fan base directly, at times personally, far more than ever before. Whether it is a change of heart, simple recognition or just smart business sense, Blizzard has stepped up to the plate when it comes to listening to, and responding to, the ever increasing influence of online gaming communities.

What follows is a biased synthesis, from a StarCraft-4-life fan's perspective, of one of these rare Blizzard-opens-up moments. If you're a World of Wacraft fan, you might just do better reading the whole interview – five pages plus – since it is the main subject; however, if you just want the StarCraft related golden nuggets, please read on.

A lengthy interview was published two weeks ago by Gamasutra, where Blizzard's co-founder, back in the day Blizzard was known as Silicon & Synapse, Frank Pearce, and the producer of StarCraft II, Chris Sigaty, actually answer questions and give us a little of their true thoughts. Depending on who you are, one or more of the following paragraphs may be of interest to you.

For the average StarCraft fan
The interview confirms that there will be an open StarCraft II beta for a lucky few; so make sure you register if given the opportunity, especially if you have a Blizzcon gift card! At the very end of the interview they also announce yet another secret project, run by the even more secretive Team 3 and as is their classic style, all they had to say about it is that it will be something simply really awesome, and that is it, no more information about the subject.
A possible clue though, if you are into speech psychology, speculation and the such, is that when Frank Pierce made a mention of Team 3, he immediately follows it by sharing that Blizzard has around 85 guys, who take care of the pre-rendered cinematic. Any bets?

For the gaming industry news buff
We learn that Blizzard has grown from less than 50 people in 1996, to around 2,700 in just over eleven years; most have functions related to customer service for World of Warcraft, with around 350 in charge in the development sector; of which 135 are for WoW, 40 for StarCraft2 and 50 for secretive Team 3. Most of the growth of course occurred with WoW in the last 4 years.
They repeated that Ghost is on indefinite hold and no, for the moment there will be no World of StarCraft and they are not working on such a project.
Not much was elaborated on development issues except for a small mention about the unrewarding aspects of achieving good path-finding and some other RTS features. Saying that when they work, everyone is happy but blissfully unaware, and when they don't, it is only a source for never ending grief; for the gamers and the developers as well.

For the e-Sports aficionado
Chris Sigaty states that he believes the future of e-Sports should follow the Korean pro-gaming models. This in itself is a pretty revealing comment as it might forecast Blizzard's future policies in all things pro-gaming. They also stated that Blizzard does not get money from the Korean e-Sports industry and they are not unhappy about it. They understand the indirect benefits through exposure of their brand name and games.
He also reiterates that Blizzard is listening to everybody for feedback and in particular, the Korean StarCraft community, to the extent that they have a pro-gamer in their staff who actually played in Korea with vanilla, original, Starcraft. Despite StarCraft's popularity in Korea they admit, publicly and with humor, that the fans there have no clue who Chris Sigaty or Frank Pearce are or how they look!

As for the rest of the interview, if your a WoW fanatic, by all means enjoy the original. There is more World of WarCraft stuff than I can bare, and of course a little of the usual pointless filler; which, for this humble writer at least, are one and the same. Sorry, don’t hate me. I’m just not exactly an MMO fan and StarCraft will always be first love in all gaming matters.

SOURCE: Gamasutra: The Art & Business of Making Games The State Of Blizzard's Union: Pearce, Sigaty Talk Warcraft, Starcraft, And Beyond