Here is my response to Rob Pardo in GDC'10:

http://gdc.gamespot.com/story/6253464/blizzards-pardo-serves-up-game-design-secret-sauce

Well Mr. Pardo gives some very good insights into Blizzards design philosophy, lots of brilliant ideas. But it also reveals his EQ roots, and highlights the weakness in Blizzard.

1- That he didnt understand why developers spent "time crafting a 10-hour single-player campaign", well that is IMHO the biggest weakness of blizzard, their games are shallow story wise, and the narrative resembles a teen essay compared to BioWare or Bethesda.


2- That he did not understand why graphics was important. Well that is the the second weakness of blizzard, their games are never cutting edge graphic wise. WoW is a good example, it was not even "cutting edge" in 2005. And the reason its important is that now in 2010 its looks are irritating, the the UI for example is flawless.