Blizzard Is Announcing Blizzard Level

Blizzard is sending word that it plans to implement something like a Gamerscore for its games. After announcing that World of Warcraft would get a system that tracks achievements of players, the company decided to make this action part of a larger plan designed to enhance the experience that players have with Blizzard games.

The idea is that you will be able to play each title that the company launches from now on, with Starcraft II, Diablo III and Wrath of the Lich King high on the list, and unlock a series of achievements by performing different tasks in the game. Some of them will probably be very easy to get while others will require multiple playthroughs or a level of dexterity when it comes to one aspect of the game.

All these achievements will then be collected in one definitive Blizzard Level which will reveal, at a glance, how good you are at Blizzard games. Anyone who is interested will also be able to look and see how you did in specific games and which of them you played more. The tracking system will be linked to one account that a player will use to access all Blizzard games.

Jeff Kaplan, lead designer on World of Warcraft, explained that "You'll have this Blizzard identity, and you'll be able to see things like 'Oh, this guy was great at Diablo III, but he never played Starcraft and he was mediocre in WoW'".

In fact, the company is creating a sort of meta game, where you succeed if you are the best at Blizzard games or fail if you do not explore that obscure portion of Azeroth that you need in order to get the "Explorer" achievement in World of Warcraft.

It will likely prove popular with hard core gamers that will eagerly seek out every achievement they can find to get higher on the Blizzard rankings that will be presented, but it may also prove to be a turnoff for those that only play one of Blizzard's games. And there are certainly many World of Warcraft players that are not planning to ever touch Starcraft II or Diablo III.