Starcraft in India

I was in India and as reported got my account locked from out there. Laughs all around. So what do you do Starcraft related in India when your account is locked?

Well, you can go to a mall to check out the local shops selling Starcraft and to see how the game is promoted there. Unfortunately that quest turned out to be in vain as I simply couldn’t find a game shop. And that got me thinking.

Is Starcraft even viable in India? Most of my co-workers out there are in IT, yet they are not into gaming at all. Why? Because to them software development is more about a good career, than about being nerds. Good for them I assume, but they are missing out on the wonderful world of eSport.

And then there is the common loss of all electricity and network connectivity. At least I experienced a lot of that so I assume it is common all over (I might be wrong). How would the “always online” experience of Starcraft II work out? I assume losing electricity would be bad enough for LANs, even though it is not unheard of in professional tournaments either

I wish it wasn’t about the clicking

If you read any Starcraft II site you’ll find this argument. That Starcraft II is a bad game since it is all about the speed and not about strategy. Even on teamliquid.net the hordes of new-comers to the scene will reason like this.

They will say: “It is so unfair that my opponent won. At this point in the game he had so many units simply because he clicked on stuff faster than me. I should have won, since I was better at strategy than him”.

One some level I follow this line of reasoning. Back in the early days of the original Starcraft I was a huge fan of the faster rather than fastest speed setting. I would argue that no one could execute good strategy at the fastest speed setting and the game became poorer due to the too fast speed. I know better now, but there is an important distinction. I didn’t claim that I lost to an inferior  e strategy due to my lack of speed. I claimed that the game became poorer overall. I still sucked back then though!

In the first example the complaining n00b reveals that he does not understand what strategy is. First of all: His opponent is probably not a whole lot faster due to having a set strategy from the start. He who complained had not. Also his opponent had a strategy optimized for getting more units at certain time and the complaining player was looking to overcome that with “tricks”. I.e. doing something sneaky.

The problem with sneaky play is, that they assume that your opponent is bad! He may be, but it is simply not a solid strategy rely on it.  I may suck at the game, but I know better than to complain about the game for lacking strategy. Doing so, would only reveal my own lack of understanding for what strategy is.

My Account is Locked

So I am in Delhi and like the noob I am, I started up Starcraft II and tried to login. Result: Now my account is logged due to suspicious activity. I guess playing Starcraft II from India was a bad idea.

I hope I can have it unlocked once I get back to my own Country.

There is Something Wrong

At the bottom of the Bronze League there is a strange phenomenon. Players can be up against a player who is favorite and win and earn 2 points. Only one of those points are real. The other is taken from said players bonus pool.

On the other hand when they lose, they lose all their points. As if they were playing someone where they them selves are considered the favorite. Although they were not.

It completely baffles me, and I think that Blizzard risk scaring away the players who have still a lot to learn. Its very demoralizing to not get rewarded for the few wins you really do manage to get.