We talk to Tony Hsu, Senior Game Producer of StarCraft II, about the latest patch.

A few weeks ago, StarCraft II received one of the most significant content patches to date in Patch 2.1. The beastly new patch included a great deal of content, including:

• "Arcade" features are now free: The custom maps of StarCraft II are contained in a portion called the arcade. It is now free with the Starter edition of SC2, and available for download. If you are new to StarCraft, I recommend starting with the games "Raynor Party" and "Mafia", they are great fun. Along with the Arcade, free players will have access to custom games and the beginning of the campaign.
• New extension mods feature: Players can now create custom games with zany modifiers, such as moving minerals and all units exploding on death. This feature allows for smaller mods to be more easily used by average players.
• New level cap for online play: The level cap has been raised from 30-35 for each race, and new StarCraft themed portraits can be unlocked.
• First win of the day bonus: The first win of the day in competitive ladder (only available to players who have purchased the full game) now grants 100,000 experience.
• Classic Soundtrack: The StarCraft: Broodwar soundtracks have been mastered and are available for free in StarCraft II.

If you haven't already, I encourage you to check out the StarCraft II Starter Edition, the quantity and quality of content available for free is overwhelming. We recently had the opportunity to talk to SC2 Senior Game Producer Tony Hsu about some of the patch 2.1 content.

Not much time has passed since the patch first rolled out. Can you detail what that has been like? Is there anything exceeding (or falling short of) expectations?

It’s only been a couple of weeks, but we’ve been really happy about the success and excitement from the community about the patch.  We have seen increased engagement from players across the regions since the 2.1 patch update.

We're also happy to have kicked off the “Rock the Cabinet” contest that challenges the community of Arcade developers to create awesome new content for more than $15,000 USD in prizes. We think it's a going to be a great way to mobilize our developers and make sure they take advantage of the updated tools we included in 2.1. The “Rock the Cabinet” contest will be a win for both the players and the developers that participate.

We even kicked off a Free Arcade marathon on Friday, Jan. 31, which helped us get more attention and eyeballs on some of the great games in the Arcade. Thousands of viewers tuned into to watch Blizzard employees and StarCraft community streamers play some of their favorite Blizzard Arcade games.

In your mind, what was the "longest overdue" aspect of Patch 2.1?

When it comes to a constantly evolving game like StarCraft II, we have no shortage of ideas on things to add to the game or improve. Part of the development process is weighing all of those ideas against a number of factors, like what's most urgent, and what is feasible to implement given available resources. We're not thinking about what's supposedly "overdue." For us we're always asking ourselves, where are we going to get the most bang-for-the-buck? What can we do right now that will serve the widest swath of the community? That said, we're very excited about free Arcade and free custom games, as opening up these aspects of the game to the entire gaming community can potentially bring more players into the game and improve everyone's StarCraft II experience.

What specifically motivated the decision to "open up" more of the game to free players? What were those discussions like?

One of our goals with Patch 2.1 was to introduce more players and map developers to StarCraft II. We have an awesome community and really powerful tools. Tens of thousands of maps and games have already been created by the community, and our hope is to get more players enjoying these games and more great content on the service.

One of the concerns we heard from our community was that it was difficult for friends to try StarCraft II and the Blizzard Arcade without having to purchase the game, so we wanted to bring the walls down.  By opening things up, we can let more people play with friends or even make new ones.  With more people playing, it's a better experience for everyone.

And on the developer front, it's never been easier to get started. The SC2 community has been making fun and exciting maps for quite a while and we want to invite more players to enjoy their work. By offering our powerful engine and art tools to all developers, we’re excited to see new content that both existing and new developers come up with.

Do you think this broader access to the game will have any effect on the eSports community?

It's possible. With Patch 2.1, beyond just making Arcade free, we also made Custom Games and all three races available to play in Starter Edition, which is a free download for anyone.  WCS and StarCraft II eSports is an extension of our game and if you’re enjoying playing the game, it’s feasible to see new players also learn about WCS and join the excitement on the eSports side.

We talk mods and more on page 2!