Will you create more models and assets for the community to use and are the models from Left 2 Die just made for the map or will we also see some of the new units in Heart of the Swarm?

Tony Hsu: Right now our funmaps are standalone. Like I said our development team is focussed on Heart of the Swarm development and getting that moving forward. Some of the additional things we are working on is: We are working on some additional challenges. So much like the callenges in Wings of Liberty which teach you the fundamentals like "how to play terran" probs out to a little bit of protoss or a little bit of zerg. We are looking to focus on a few more challenges to put those out to the public with that way. You can kind of have new experiences and new tools to learn as a player. Some of the other things we are working on is the new map pool for the multiplayer layer. So that way we have a brand new experience for a lot of people. But overall our team is just very focused on Heart of the Swarm and that is something we want to get in the hands of our fans as soon as possible.

Will there be more funmaps that will also contribute to the StarCraft story line?

TH: At this point we do not have anything planned in order to continue the story like this. Predominantly we are working on things like challenges and on bringing the best competitive maps possible to the ladder maps and also just continuing on the campaign for Heart of the Swarm.

Ok, let's switch to the custom map system. There is a lot of discussion in the community about the current way that the custom map system is made. You surely have recieved a lot of feedback. What do you personally see as the biggest problem of the current map system?

TH: Honestly, I think the current map system is working and it is a great iteration towards eventually where we want to be with Battle.Net as a continuously evolving system. But one of the things where we definitely want to help the players is with the abilities to search and find the maps that they want to play. And also the popularity system: We know that our community is putting a lot of work and their heart into making these maps. There are phenomenal maps around and we want to definitely make sure that we reward these players, making sure that their maps get featured, making sure that their maps get recognized and for people that want to play them [making sure] that it is very easy to find it. That has a very high priority on our side. We know that there are frustrations about that in the community and that is something we want to do in order to provide service for our customers. It is something we hope to adress in an oncoming patch.

In WarCraft III and StarCraft: Brood War you could simply create a new game by hosting a map. Then game was visible to everyone in the lobby. When you try to create a new game in StarCraft II it is very hard to find players because your new game is usually not popular. Are there any plans to fix this problem? For example like considering the alternative to really host a map as it was in the old games?

TH: We are looking at the custom map system as a whole including how you find maps and how you are able to play them. I don't have any specifics to share at this point but it is something that we are definitely aware of. We are going to improve the whole system all in all instead of looking at one little specific splice of it. We want to make the whole game experience in regards to playing and finding custom games and being able to play the games that you want. We are looking at that whole system, making it a much better experience.

The publishing system in general is a barrier for all people that do not use the editor regularly. It is great if you make big projects like DotA-syle maps or something, but if you create a bunch of melee maps you will soon hit the publishing limits. A good idea would be to give the people the choice between publishing and classic hosting. Do you consider such options or will you stick to the publishing system completely?

TH: To be fairly honest I am focused more on the design test of the campaign, so I don't have specific details in regard to that. But I think that is a wonderful suggestion and I will definitely bring that to the folks that are working on that and if that is something that they haven't explored, it is definitely an option we will consider.

Why are there just two categories, namely Tower Defense and Tug of War, in the custom map system? Will you add new ones?

TH: You know, I don't have specific details in regard to what the specific implementations are that we're doing. That is something that we are definitely looking into but I don't have any specific information to share at this point.

Bob Colayco: I think, just as an overall sense: I know that the guys on the Battle.Net team and the UI team are looking at the whole custom map search and game functions, like completely from the ground up, just to see what can be improved. I think one of the biggest blessings but also problem at the same time is that there are tens of thousands of maps on the service. And it is a very tricky problem of trying and figure out the best way to display what is popular, what is new and hot and to draw some attention on that. All these different types of maps and when you have a limited amount of space to show them. It is propably kind of the same problem you have, when you look at your iPhone and the app-store. There is just so much there, like how do you show them all? So, this is problem that the team is really looking to adress from the ground up and it is a priority but we can't really go into the details right now as we are looking into a lot of new things.

Will this revised map system that you are discussing and that you are working on be launched together with what you have announced as the marketplace or is that a different kind of project that will come later on?

Bob Colayco: It's kind of tied together. I mean, it doesn't necessarily have to all come at once, but obviously our marketplace would be tied to what the user custom map search and display would look like. So it is kind of tied together logically but it is not giving any kind of indication of what the time frame will be.

Can you tell us how the "featured" maps, so the maps currently appearing at the top of the list, are chosen?

Tony Hsu: That's something that our community team looks at and I would need to ask them exactly what their criteria are. I think maybe... I can't really guess that actually. There might be some user-based suggestions or what is talked about on the forums, something like that.

Have you ever played any user-made custom maps yourself so far?

TH: Unfortunately I haven't had too much time to. I mean have played about a dozen. I have played some of the maps we featured at BlizzCon, you know with the contest winners. The one with the missles - MAD (Missile Arena Deluxe) - was really fun, but I didn't had so much time to play them. Like I said I have just been focussed on campaign, I play a lot of ladder, that's mainly what I'm currently focussed on.

So maybe you did not play much custom melee maps so far, but is there a chance for user-made melee maps to make it into the ladder map pool?

Tony Hsu: Yeah, I mean that is always a possibility. And I think when the new set of ladder maps comes out you will kind of see what we have in mind on that front.

The new maps that have already been in the PTR version have not been in the latest patch. Is that a reaction to the critics that these maps got or are you just not satisfied with the current status?

TH: In regard to the maps that is someting that we are continously evaluating and getting feedback on. We haven't released them in the lastest patch because we want to make sure that when we do we get all the bugs fixed and we have a good variety of playstyles for the ladder. So wonder they will be macro maps or they will be micro maps or whatever. We want to make sure that the maps are pretty well balanced and they don't specifically favor one specific playstyle, e.g. they don't favor rushes or a specific race. So we wanna make sure that overall the maps are fun and that they are interesting to play on. So as we are still gathering that feedback, we are still making tweaks and if we made sure that we have the best map pool possible we will release that.

Do you also plan to fix problems with the existing maps or do you focus on making new maps?

TH: Yeah, that [fixing old maps] is something that we are definitely looking at. Like I said it is overall that we want to make sure that we have the best experience possible and that we are eliminination potential favorings based on start points and so on?

How do you generally balance your maps? Do you make a lot of games and than look at the statistics or do you also do the stuff that hardcore fans do like tiles and checking for equal siege tank ranges on opposite positions?

TH: We use a lot of tools when making maps. Obviously our map designers are in the highest league, you know there are balance designers, so they are continually playing on our ladder maps and also on custom maps. They are continually looking at map pools from fan-based sites and the ones that are being used in GSL, things like that. We are looking at all the different map types and try to find out what is the most popular map and what are the most interesting types. But, as far as details go, we definitely do things just as counting cells, figuring out how large a start location is and looking at siege tank range in regard to where you can attack and where you can move by with line of sight blockers specifically and what area are you covering and what you don't. So just to make sure that we have tactical game play and that it is balanced. So if you are in a North position against a south position, one won't have a tactical advantage from the effect that the terrain is not necessarily symmetrical but it should be similar and it should offer similar game play in regards to how much of a cliff you have your reapers to move off. Things like that are definitely all part of a set that we take into consideration when making maps.

A question to the achievements. As we know there are achievements for games against the UI. Will they ever be available for custom maps?

TH: Right now we haven't a full achievement system for them, but that is one of the things we are looking to do outlong with releasing the full version of the custom maps. So for Aiur Chef, Starjeweled and also for Left 2 Die we will be releasing achievements for those maps. So, as the players got through it and play through it againt they will have the ability to unlock achievements for those.

So user-made maps will not get achievements?

TH: That is something that we are still considering but we don't have any plans for at the near future.

How does Blizzard think about content from other Blizzard games in StarCraft II, like WarCraft III or World of WarCraft. Do you accept it when fans do such things or it is something that you don't like because they are taking content from other games?

Bob Colayco: Well if you played the DotA map at BlizzCon, obviously you saw some characters from other universes in there.

Yeah, but that is your own stuff. I ask because it was something that happened with a WarCraft III mod for the original StarCraft that was shut down after a while.

Tony Hsu: I don't specifically recall that. But one of the things that we do is we provide a robust editor that can use assets form various sources. Even in StarCraft II we have models like the little Diablo model that we pulled from World of WarCraft, much like for [Blizzard] DotA where we take a lot of models from other francises as well. So the tool support is something that we deliver in the aim so you can make the most interesting maps possible.

Bob Colayco: Are you maybe referring to a total conversion or something like that?

Yep.

Bob Colayco: Yeah, that is kind of a case-by-case basis. I might have mentioned it in a previous interview, but one of our designers, Richard Khoo, who made basically a Diablo Total Conversion in the WarCraft III Engine. That got the attention of the folks here at Blizzard and as a result he was hired on. Great work on that project. So, it is something that has to be decided on a case-by-case basis, but in general if you can do it within the editor it should be kosher.

So, Wings of Liberty has now been released for over six months and you are already working on Heart of the Swarm. When can we expect to hear more details about the next expansion?

Bob Colayco: So you want an announcement about when the announcement is gonna happen?

I at least tried it.

(Gelächter) BC: You know all I can say is that Tony and these guys here are working really hard and are really excited to share the details, but we want to make sure that when we do so it's gonna be in a state that is polished enough to really get you excited and knock your socks of. So when that happens I'm sure our guys in the EU office will be calling you immediately and let you know when the time is. But it is not today and not tomorrow.

Ok, but maybe you want to give a kind of status percentage?

Tony Hsu: It's the official Blizzard "soon" with the quotes and the trademark sign.

Ok, time frame is over. Thank you very much.

Thank you guys. Take care.