The modder behind the World of StarCraft MMO says he’s working with Blizzard to get the project back on track, and in the meantime he’s also been offered a job by League of Legends studio Riot Games.
Things have been moving pretty quickly for Ryan Winzen, the project lead on the fan-made World of StarCraft MMO. It was only a couple of days ago that we first heard about the game; the next day, Activision forced WoS “pre-alpha” videos off of YouTube by way of a copyright complaint. But today, things are looking up again.
“The Deputy General Council from Blizzard contacted me last night to discuss the details of the World of Starcraft project,” Winzen wrote in the latest “Cyberspace Poopstorm” update. “We talked for a while and apparently some people from Blizz were concerned I was developing the game somehow outside of SC2.” The name, as expected, is also an issue, so Winzen said he’s now trying to get Blizzard to allow either StarCraft Universe, which is already being used by another project, or StarCraft Chronicles. He also emphasized that he bears the company no ill will, saying, “They DO in fact own a copyright on World of Starcraft and have EVERY RIGHT to do what they did.”
And while that side of the story slowly unfolds, a new twist has developed. Winzen was contacted by Riot Games, the developer behind League of Legends, and offered a shot with the studio. He said it’s not a “100 percent guaranteed thing” and that he’ll still have to make his way through the application process and testing, but Riot Design Director Tom Cadwell confirmed on the League of Legends forum that the offer had been extended.
“When I see a modder with a lot of drive that has done something cool, I tend to contact them. I shot him an email recently asking if he was interested in exploring an opportunity here,” Cadwell wrote. “As to what comes of that, who knows — that depends on the mutual fit and his own goals.”
A bumpy ride with a potential happy ending on the horizon is not a bad outcome at all but despite all the excitement and uproar over the past few days, Winzen still has a StarCraft MMO in his sights. “Mille25 and I are going to discuss the possible fusion of his StarCraft Universe project today with mine, and we’ll see what happens,” he wrote. “But regardless I know that an instance-based StarCraft MMO will happen someway, somehow, eventually – within StarCraft 2.”
