SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

The rediculous side of esports
 

(Time to get some serious blogging done)

Starcraft 2 is one of the best games of the decade.

I dont know anyone on these forums who would want to say otherwise when reading the above statement. Not only because of the actual gameplay, but because of the communities that starcraft 2 has cause to bring together, the scale of which I see as insane for an individual game. Although other games have achieved this, some of those communities will not last for a huge amount of time. These communities that starcraft 2 has founded are making the game into a sport. Even the small tournaments we hold on this website, or lan events held locally contribute to this. I shudder to think of how much money has been invested into starcraft 2 alone, as an esport.

But then you look at other games. FPS and fighting games are not really growing at the rate of which starcraft is, esports wise. I think this is due mainly to the watchability of the games, but much effort has it taken, to produce a game that is easily watchable by people who even don't own the game? The game has had SO much time spent on it in development, over $100 million dollars spent on this development, and even still they are struggling to make the game as balanced as possible. The amount of time and effort that not only the game creators have had to put into the game is insane. Just think about it, how much work has been put into starcraft 2, as of when you've read this blog?

Considering esports cannot be a single game (its a plural), what could it take to make a large lineup of games that are both watchable and an accessible sport, to the extent starcraft 2 has achieved? To have starcraft 2 as a widely successful esport and leave the rest of the games trailing behind, the image of esports would suffer.

So, considering what it has taken to get it this far, then what are we looking at for the future of esports?

Re: The rediculous side of esports
 

That's really rediculous. And you may want to check the rediculous spelling of the title too LOL

K just kidding there erm. I think what makes SC2 so successful is its commentators/casters. The reason why it's so 'watchable' as you say is because the commentators make it watchable and understandable even for the layman. For other games like the FPS and fighting games, there aren't such commentators (I may be wrong I don't actually know for sure I just can't imagine those being commentated on)

Re: The rediculous side of esports
 

Its nice to see such enthusiasm though I could never agree that SC2 is the best game of the decade, or even close to it.
For a game by what some hold as the AAA developer for PC the game design is intentionally derivative, story was the worst thing I have played in recent memory despite all the money sunk into. And despite all the time they had there are features that were promised that are STILL missing - not to mention all the issues with bnet even if they are minor. These days I want to punch my monitor every time I see input limit reached. I literally haven't had a patch that hasn't caused some issue. And yes, that includes the tools only update which literally broke the game on my laptop.
If the game developers put as much time into game design as the did to trying too hard to load the game with pop culture references and "cool" cut scenes we may have had a much better game
Not to mention that I think that Halo series and COD are bigger in esports though I could be wrong. I believe the main draw of the last MLG was Halo (if I remember the interview with the CEO correctly)
Here's hoping blizzard get there act together for HotS but i'm not holding my breath

Re: The rediculous side of esports
 

I feel that sc2 is not progressing fast enough. It has all the good core of sc1, which is good. But new titles nowadays got so much better, that sc2 needs more to offer for sports than work-in-progress balancing and good commentators.

Look at the e-sports scene some 6-7 years ago. Halo was crap. COD was crap. WC3 was imbalanced. Dota didn't get popular until recently. WoW was new at the time, and had close to 0 competitive elements in it. SC had nothing to compete with, and gathered all the money behind it. It had all the time in the world to slowly patch and rebalance the addon. It was the only game that had the elements of a truly competitive sports. Naturally, it became the flagship of e-sports, which is awesome. That's why we all know SC1 and admire Blizzard.

But then came new HALO and COD titles. They improved so much that NOW sc has to compete for e-sports market share. However, sc2 has not improved too much compared to sc1. Same gameplay, same story, almost same mechanics and math. The two improvements that sc2 really shines is unmatched ladder system and unlimited potential in mapmaking. But for e-sports, these don't matter.

Sports-wise, SC2 is a new rts that requires lots of work and balancing. Any FPS now has a simple advantage. FPS don't require even remotely the amount of balancing an RTS needs in order to have fair competition.

Unless Blizz puts their shit together and throws 9999 developers into balancing the game ASAP, SC2 has grim prospects as a competitive e-sport. But what blizz is doing seems like e-sports suicide to me. They are releasing an addon with (i think) new units and mechanics. Sure, they will make money. But they will also reset all the balancing work they have done so far. In the current state of the e-sports market, such delay seems unacceptable to me.

If you want to watch competitive RTS - you have no choice. SC2 or nothing. Good for Blizzard. Very bad for e-sports consumer (read - watcher). I'm not surprised consumers are switching to FPS, where at least there is a choce. You can watch CoD, Halo, CS, Quake. Feel the difference?

The only competitor for RTS market share could be Relic. CoH, imo, had very good potential, but for some reason was abandoned by Relic. Actually, Relic games have something sc2 doesn't - realistic physics of combat. An engine Relic could capitalize on, but never did. Makes me a sad panda.

Re: The rediculous side of esports
 

I didnt say its the best, simply one of the best.

Re: The rediculous side of esports
 

the or one of the doesn't matter
Taste plays a part in it to some extent and in terms of RTS games there's SC2 and DoW so sayings it one of the best is not saying much :P
As a whole product though I would say sc2 comes in as good at best - and 7.5-8 out of 10. Maybe I just have higher standards ^^

Re: The rediculous side of esports
 

It's spelt 'ridiculous' btw, in case you didn't get it.

Re: The rediculous side of esports
 

you sure it isn't spelt redonkulous?

Re: The rediculous side of esports
 

A paper on your topic, in annoying university format
http://jeffhuang.com/Final_StarcraftSpectator_CHI11.pdf
A nice summary of the paper, not in annoying university format
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news...s-Fun-to-Watch
Honestly that format is so annoying to read for some reason

Re: The rediculous side of esports
 

I think that Blizzard have been really stupid with Starcraft 2. No clan tags, no lan, not as balanced as it should be. I think that these few little things could pull the game up so much. RTS's are just so much more fun to watch than anything else. CoD gets boring, you run, you shoot, you snipe or you throw grenades. Everyone calls everyone else a n00b and it is just boring to watch. You can enjoy some mindless fun but after a while you always want some smart stuff and there is where Starcraft fits in.