Et af de største ikoner fra StarCraft har netop indstillet rygningen, og det er spillets fans bestemt ikke glade for. Der er selvfølgelig tale om Tychus Findlay, der er kendtegnet af hans store, blå spacemarine-rustning og den tykke cigar, der altid sidder i hans mundvig og samler savl. Eller sad. For Blizzard har nemlig fjernet cigaren fra Tychus i hans karaktermodel i Heroes of the Storm. Og internettet har gjort det, det altid gør, nemlig gået selvsving!

Det er selvfølgelig på reddit, at bølger går højest. En tråd med den fantastiske (og ret så lange) overskrift:

YES. We know smoking is bad, everybody does. BUT! it's not Blizzard's job to make sure we don't do it anyway. It's an iconic part of the Tychus character. BRING BACK HIS CIGAR!

Cigaren har altid været en del af Tychus og et "varemærke" for ham. Og selvom vi ved, at rygning er usundt, så er det ikke Blizzards opgave at opdrage på spillerne, er der mange, der mener. Ficherz skriver i reddit-tråden.

Blizzard, you are betraying your own game, your own universe, and your own fans.

People might say, well calm down, it's JUST a cigar.. right?

No, it's a matter of principle. Standing up for what you believe in, and not caving in to hypocrisy. You made Tychus and other characters in a special way, because it fits with the fantasy and the art, are you really gonna change that vision, because somebody has a problem with it?

I thought you had more balls than that, Blizzard.

Bring back Tychus' cigar, because it's NOT your job to police kids and parents to NOT smoke. Let people figure out their own lives on their own. If kids begin to smoke, it's the PARENTS fault, not yours.

Men det handler måske ikke helt så meget om, hvilken signal Blizzard sender til spillerne. Det handler nok mere om, hvordan forskellige landes lovgivninger er i forhold til rygning afbilledet i spil. Visse lande tillader ikke rygning, med mindre spillet skal have en 18+ rating og må muligvis slet ikke spilles på netcafeer. Derfor skal der laves to modeller. En med cigar, og én uden. Det kræver mere arbejde, og det er her, at Blizzard har valgt at gå med modellen uden cigar til alle regioner. En medarbejder fra Blizzard skriver på reddit:

Heroes of the Storm is a multi-region game with a teen rating. There are a magnitude of guidelines we have to be aware of. From a development standpoint we prioritize making Heroes and Skins as utilitarian as possible, if a single model can be used in all regions, that’s a huge win for development. In the case of Tychus’ cigar there were regions where he wouldn’t be allowed to smoke. We have two options: Make 2 versions, one smoking, one non-smoking, or Remove the Cigar. - PIGonzales

Cigaren er ikke den eneste ting, som Blizzard kæmper med at få tilpasset de forskellige love og holdninger i de mange regioner, HotS er rullet ud til. På reddit nævner Blizzard-medarbejderen andre eksempler:

  • Skelethur doesn't even show up in some regions because of guidelines about the depiction of human remains
  • There was a desire to localize Gazlowe's license plate to every region. That is a ton of time spent on a small detail that you become very disenchanted with. We got off the hook for that one, but I'd rather remove the plate and start work on the next hero instead of spending days on license plate management (his name is spelled differently in some countries, and he even has a completely different name in some regions).
  • Skulls and Blood. We have to do 'alternate' versions for anything with these elements. We have different versions of grave golems, Blackheart, etc.

Og så slutter han af med en meget rammende sætning:

It is a full time job managing those exceptions, and the less we have to manage, the more time we can spend making more game!

Så Blizzard ved altså godt, at visse ting kan genere gamerne. Men i sidste ende handler det om det store billede og det sjove gameplay. Og jo mere tid Blizzard bruger på at tilpasse disse meget, meget små ting,desto mindre tid kan de bruge på at lave selve spillet sjovere. Så hvad vil folk mon helst have? Hvad siger du?