by Stacy Jones on Jan 20, 2011
Ever since Blizzard's World of Warcraft started attracting millions of players, fans have been calling for the developer to create a StarCraft MMOG. But hopes that Blizzard's next MMOG project was in fact one based on StarCraft were quickly put to rest when the developer announced that its next project was going to be a new IP and not based on its established ones (Diablo and StarCraft).
But hope for a StarCraft MMOG was not lost. A skilled modder named Ryan took his work to the StarCraft II forums and began creation of a StarCraft MMOG using the StarCraft II mod kit. Essentially calling the project, World of StarCraft, Ryan's goal was to bring a professional StarCraft MMOG to Battle.net using the tools provided by Blizzard to the modding community. He even released a new video to YouTube and created a forum for discussion and to show off some of his work and showcase the project.
Unfortunately, Rock, Paper, Shotgun reports that Activision Blizzard stepped in and had the YouTube video pulled for copyright infringement. Whether this is over the name World of StarCraft or the project itself, we'll have to wait and see. But it would seem kind of silly to prevent your modding community from modding with the tools that you gave them, especially with something as creative as this could be.
In the meantime it would appear that Ryan's work has caught the interest of Riot Games and they appear to have offered Ryan a possible chance at a job thanks to his exceptional modding. And according to PixilatedGeek, Ryan has chosen to consider the opportunity. Best of luck to you Ryan.
Another fan has also posted the removed video on YouTube, so if you want to see what all of the fuss is about, give it a look before it get's yanked.
Sources
Gamasutra
PixelatedGeek
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
StarCraft II Forums