Blizzard's Meteorologist Simulator Enters Alpha Stage

Several enter, only one tells you to expect rain.

Blizzard announced yesterday that their upcoming meteorologist simulator Heroes of the Storm has entered it’s alpha stage. Heroes of the Storm is the latest attempt from Blizzard to expand their brand to new genres. First it was the collectible card game Heartstone and now with this newest game Blizzards enters the MOBA (Meteorologist Online Battle Arena) genre.
Normally in the MOBA space, games consist of heroes battling for field position on a symmetrical field using magic and weapons while leveling up as the game progresses. But with Heroes of the Storm, Blizzards hopes to bring some excitement to the meteorology field without the use of magic, weapons or leveling up. “We know that no one likes their local weather guys,” Blizzard spokesmen Chet Sullivan told us, “but despite bad jokes and a lot of awkward pointing they’re still important to our society and we want to show that to gamers by having them fight each other to the death.”

Reception for Heroes of the Storm has been mostly positive so far, with thousands of viewers turning to Twitch.tv streams and watching the games happen. Popular streamer Kripparrian is leading the pack in viewer count, showing off the overweight black weatherman named Francis - one of the starter characters available in alpha. “I like his ability to casually slip racist remarks into battle,” said Kripparrian, “and his eating ability is great damage over time against the other smaller heroes.”

Along with Francis, Blizzard also made a few other meteorological fighters available at the alpha launch. When the game finally releases there is rumored to be nearly a hundred available weathermen to wage war with, but so far the official list includes the following:

Bobby - A slightly greasy looking weatherman whose main ability is wearing plaid suits and slicking his hair.

Thomas - An obviously-first-day-on-the-job meteorologist who constantly slips and falls on the battlefield.

Cindy - The local meteorologist who tries way too hard to be quirky in order to dull her opponents.

Richard - Uses his uncanny ability to be hungover and look disheveled every news cast to defeat the enemy.

As with most Blizzard releases, pre-ordering HoTS will yield some bonuses in their other games. Players will be able to fight a Francis-inspired boss in Diablo 3 and will have access to a unique green screen mount in World of Warcraft as well as a pet teleprompter. It’s a curious move that the game does not use some of Blizzards iconic characters from other games as fig, but we’ll be keeping an eye on how this one turns out for sure.