There is something about being anonymous in an internet chatroom that just brings out the worst in some brain dead morons. Like tonight where I was sitting in the game lobby waiting for a 2v2 game to fill.
I guy called BetterThanYou was sorta rude in the chat, so I banned him and he started sending me rude messages. I’m not that touchy, but i can reply in kind.
Now I suck at Starcraft Brood War and have never got to play Starcraft II in its current form, so I’ll abstain from discussing balance issues or any other issue that I think you will have to play the game in order to get a true feel for.
What I will do is write something about the features that I am really looking forward to, and those that have me concerned. I’ll also comment on some of the debate raging on teamliquid and iccup. Not that any of the gosus there care one iota about my take on the whole thing.
Racial distinctions: In Brood War each of the three races have their one distinct feel and signature units and strategies. While I don’t mind the individual units being changed, I feel that Starcraft II should stick to what made the races of the first game so different.
For Terran the distinct feel was centered on the ability to hold positions and fight positional battles. Some may think that made Terran vs. Terran games boring, but I think they have a beauty all of its own. The Siege Tank/Vulture/Turrets everywhere combination is what defined Terrans.
Zerg is in Brood War defined by speed. Both how fast their units are and how fast they can switch technology. Mutalisks, Zerglings and their relative flat and independent technology tree is key here.
Protoss are high tech harrasment, the clear choices between three advanced technology branches: Robotics Facilty to Reavers/Observers, Citadel to Dark Templars/Templars og Stargate to Cosairs/Carriers. What ever you chose first in bw, defined your Protoss mid-game.
For Starcraft II Protoss seems to be pretty close to its original vision. The reaver has been replaced by the awsome looking Collosus, but other than that it is fine. Zerg seems to be completely messed up right now, but as Blizzards seems to acknowledge that, I guess we have to wait and see. Terrans on the other hand have lost their Siege Tank and become a mobile race. I really, really don’t like that. My only reason to be optimistic is that there are so many positive reports from people who have played the game.
Battle.net 2.0: I’m in love with everything I know about this beast.
There will be no LAN. I don’t care ‘cause I have internet, and I find it reasonable that Blizzards wants to limit piracy.
The “ReadID” has caused a lot of grief on various forums and I think that is bullshit. So now you are only allowed one master account for each copy of the game you own and you can no longer reset your hidden “real level”. Yeah, I realize that 1337 players can no longer create smurf accounts to sandbag n00bs and it is great! Not only is it great for me personally, but those accomplished players ought to realize that it is great for eSport as well. The community really should seek out new players and help them along in order to widen the community and eSport and not beat them up in order to scare them away.
There have been some real concerns about naming, clan-tags and privacy. I think it is retarded to think that all those concerns will never be addressed.
When it comes to the new bracket/leagues and automated matchmaking I am cautiously optimistic. I think everything described sounds great (video), but is a bit nervous as well ‘cause I don’t think the Warcraft III is the best track record. In my opinion the Warcraft III ladder and automated matchmaking is deeply broken.
Starcraft 2 as a Spectator Sport: I love the new overlays, but am deeply concerned about have the new beautiful graphics will make it harder to see what is going on. Especially in 2v2 games like this one from Blizzcon 2009 (part 2). I know that it probably will be easier to differentiate in game (although in Warcraft III it was already very difficult), but most spectators will watch those games on Youtube and it will probably take 5 years for Youtube to catch up with regard to video quality.
Time: I played Warcraft II on Kali and Vanilla Starcraft a ton when it came out. I’m not getting younger and I have less and less time to play. This is annoying and I personally want Blizzard to release the damn game before I retire and die. So please get on it!
Not just from playing Starcraft but from my mundane life too. Tomorrow I’m going away for a little while. Just for some sunshine, exiting food and relaxation and no gaming.
It is still my goal to reach 100 played 1 on 1 games on iccup before the end of the season, but playing 2 on 2 has taken up a lot of time. Also, my computer has become kind of unstable, which also tend to demotivate me a bit. I’ve gotten two loses out of sudden crashes lately and that pisses me of.
I have money reserved for a new computer, but I am awaiting the release of Windows 7 and Starcraft , what ever might come first (and who would have thought that Microsoft could deliver software faster than Blizzard?).
Today’s announcement about the single player campaign: Yawn! Admittedly it looks cool and I may even end up playing it, but compared to my excitement about multiplayer, then this is a long way down the line of my priorities.
I hate when Dustin Browder in one interview talks about how the matchmaking system will work and is very unspecific. Here is a newsflash for you: It most certainly did not work in Warcraft III. In fact, I predict that any game that has no cost associated with creating a new account or resetting your existing account will not work for lower ranked players.
And I know that high ranked Warcraft III players think the current battle.net system is broken too. They play team games an lose just so they can be matched up against newbies in 1 on 1. So in fact you need to punish players for losing on purpose as well!
I’d like to see how they address that :-) Hopefully they will during Blizzcon and I can return to rainy Denmark and read all about.
Due to my extremly bad iccup season, I’ve been playing a lot of 2v2s on battle.net. I feel bad about it, but since I suck, I assume that is one thing that I can be kinda good at.
A 2v2 is something completely different from a 1v1: It is a cheesy rush game and it is a lot more about being coordinated with your ally. When you get in that “we do things in synch”-mode with your ally it is great and when you don’t, you wish you were playing 1v1 and losing on iccup instead.
Games:
| Color | Player | Race |
| W | duel_raptor | Protoss |
| B | Drummer_RelaX | Terran |
| Y | TS-Buzz. | Terran |
| R | FafnerX | Protoss |
| Color | Player | Race |
| B | hi_hf_gl_ff_GO | Zerg |
| P | eZ-Dragon | Terran |
| G | TS-Buzz. | Terran |
| W | FafnerX | Protoss |
TS-Buzz. is a regular Starcraft-buddy of mine and we are at about the same level. Our games work out well together. Often I play with another guy called Darkan, and he is slightly worse.
This game is bad. I am annihilated early and now Darkan faces the Orange opponent on his own. Doom seems inevitable, but we talk on Skype and I guide him through the game. At then end I am called n00b and Darkan is praised. We both laughed about it.
| Color | Player | Race |
| R | duel_raptor | Zerg |
| O | JULEK12 | Terran |
| B | Darkan | Terran |
| P | FafnerX | Protoss |
