Warcraft III Fan Chat Full Analysis

Off the tailwinds of another Warcraft III newsnib that there will now be four playable races instead of five, comes an impressive piece of editing from the team at WarcraftIII.net. They took the recent Warcraft III Fan Chat and did a little word-houdini with the results. They now offer up two versions for your sampling pleasure. The fan chat transcript - light lunch version is simply just an edited chat log of the event. However, if you want intelligent constructive commentary on each of the questions asked, I suggest you save room for the fan chat transcript with commentary - extra value meal supersized version. An appetizer about the demon race change:

Q: Why were the Demons removed as a playable race?

Blizzard's Answer: We have been reviewing all the units and races in the game. During that process we felt that using the Demons as an ultra powerful NPC race would be a better option for the game, and allow us to make the other races have cooler, more concentrated spells and abilities.

WCIII.net: The metamorphosis of the Burning Legion from playable race to NPC has been the most startling news since... the removal of the Sixth Race, I guess. We didn't really expect major details, or the baring of souls on this issue in today's Fansite Chat. Speculation has run high in the Forums and chat about the change, with thoughts including the belief that the Blizzard vision of the Burning Legion made them a difficult race to balance, and concerns that this massively-powerful force could stack up too overwhelmingly against a single opposing race. in particular.

Was it really an in-game situation, or was it a matter of meeting deadlines and not having the luxury of time to "get it right" with five playable races? Was it about making the playing field level for the races, or was thought given to, as with the previously-dropped Sixth Race (which has been and shall forever be unnamed, apparently) "We could do this, but it wouldn't be as cool as it would be if we went with five races?" To be honest, we don't know. It could be a little of all of these concerns. But in the end, there is - it what we have seen and what we learned today to further our information - great reason to believe this will be an amazing game, with four races, a huge variety of Neutrals, and the ever-present glowering presence now, in NPC form, of The Burning Legion.

Thanks goes out to Gaile for the news!