Coolbeans again! This is a topic that I have been pondering for a while now. What exactly about this game makes it not only enjoyable, but also satisfying on a deeper level then getting a head shot on COD?
I'll tell you a bit about why I love this game, but i'd love to hear your responses too
Without being cocky, i would describe myself as above average intelligence, good at sports, social and incredibly competitive (perhaps a little too at time :P) I believe all of these traits make starcraft the perfect game/sport for me.
Going in reverse order! The competitive aspect of starcraft is perhaps the greatest factor that attracts me to the game. Going up 1v1 against someone else is something that i take great pride in in all areas of my life. (i clean the bathroom on alternating weeks with my brother, my week is always cleanest :P) Competition is something that strives me to become better at what ever it is im am doing, be it school work or sport.
Social. I believe that this is an important aspect to a good player. People can be ridiculously intelligent but in different ways. While i may not be the most popular young lad at school (being a skinny pale nerd) I feel that i have a good understanding of how people feel. THIS IS VITAL IN STARCRAFT. the game is all about how we process and act on limited information (scouting) Mind games are a social aspect of the game. Purposely show a dark shrine in a pvp? poor bloke over spends in detection, not ready for charglot archon attack. The aspect of planning a game and strategy are social skills, (which partly what makes this such a great community)
Good at sports. I like to think i have fine motor skills, being able to play tennis (a sport i think shares many similarities with Starcraft) The idea of practice makes perfect, and the competitive mindset are all shared between starcraft and sports.
Intelligence. Working with limited information, mathematically working out simple tasks, and making the correct decisions in only a fraction of a second without hesitation make starcraft the perfect challenge and mental exercise.
Before i knew of starcraft, I think i can say that we all needed something similar to the complexity of the game in our lives. Tests at school, competition with my peers and challenging myself to excel at something hard. Starcraft is a great representation of my needs as a person, and why I find great satisfaction and not only winning a game, but knowing that is was my hard work that got me there.
I think why i love starcraft is a combination of all of these things combined. I'd love to hear your views on the topic, so please leave comments Thanks very much
Edit: I am also very interested in why casters love starcraft, as they may have different reasons
I like it because when spectating, I know what both players are doing while they themselves don't, which gives a feeling of tension depending on the game. As a player, when I played sc2 compared to when I play another game, I have to focus 100% of my mind on the tasks at hand. Every win gives me a feeling of relief and a rush of adrenaline as my hands calm down from the many actions performed in the game. That, coupled with the fact that I heard some people in higher leagues are better than me (working on fixing this!) gives me the motivation to keep clicking that find match button.
I was always felt like i couldn't play as much as I want to previously.. FPS teams need 5 people to play and I couldn't get enough..
SC2 swung around and I could play as much as I wanted to without relying on any other people.. really the first time that's been able to happen and I just can't get enough
Practising consistently, then pulling good results in tournaments is what does it for me. Whenever I pull decent results in tournaments, or beat good players, I get a feeling that cannot be fulfilled by anything else.
While playing, it gives you a much higher appreciation of the game to those pro players when watching. You've been there in the game, and know how hard it is to pull off some of the things they're doing, for example, MarineKing's marine splits, and how insane they look.
DotA: Relying on others is always good fun til someone on the enemy team gets first blood, double kill, mega kill, etc... on your carry who doesn't farm or your support who doesn't buy wards.
WoW: It's a great game, but of all games this one made me rage the most. This game is incredibly asymmetric that Blizzard decided the way to balance PvP was to make all classes equally capable of killing each other... naturally this isn't really all that easy or possible. The smartest play was to balance it based on class counters but you see it's little rants exactly like this that caused me to stop playing the game in the first place. Suffice to say I would have all these ideas to make this game better... 6 months later Blizzard would implement versions of my original ideas which should have been implemented 6 months ago cause there are newer problems now... etc...
StarCraft: Balance. And if you lose (in 1v1) you have no one to blame but yourself.
Edit: I'd play FPS but I suck with guns... Medic is my class of choice in TF2
Apart from the obvious competitive and intellectual aspects others have said, one of the greatest things for me is that it is 'safe' for me to get addicted to it because I'm constantly needing motivation to practice rather than other games (WoW) that just consumed me and have affected my life fairly negatively.
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I like figuring things out. Obviously I don't get into it as much as the pros but I enjoy my little world, ad I enjoy watching pros and ppl who are generally better than me figuring things out.
I love when I scout something and have limited time to prepare for it. Then the attack hits and I get a huge rush in micro mode.
agree with the thoughts of people above, I always felt limited in team games with friends like dota (doesn't mean that they aren't fun though!) because there's the need for cooperation and teamwork, which isn't something I can instantly identify and fix. Starcraft, being a 1v1 game, doesn't have this problem.
I feel like starcraft isn't really a fun game - it's more stressful and frustrating if anything - but it taps into the competitive side of me and the desire to improve and win makes it enjoyable. Enjoyable. Not exactly fun itself, but a different kind of fun.
I used to play CoD 1 heaps and like yang said its hard to get 5 people together then find another 5 to play against. Now in CoD 1 it was 4.00PM to 2.00AM play time and that was pub only if you wanted to play outside those hours you where playing on NA servers and they where ******* shit modded and all that crap, besides the ping haha. Being able to play when ever and how ever much i want is amazing. Community, community is ******* amazing i wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the community the same as my CoD 1 days i would go into a server and everyone would say "hey Spook hows it going man!" its the same here in chat box and on bnet people say "hey spook you **** how is it going" but ya community is amazing that's the main reason. I can't really put it into words but "for me at least" its nice to be apart of the community, kind of a "special feeling" idk. holy crap first serious post on these forums MVP please
The community and social aspects keep me in the game. SC2 community has some cool people in it unlike FPS communities
Shout outs to awesome FaDe guys
personally i don't actually like large portions of the game and really only play it because of an obsessive compulsive desire to progress or something
That and other games I did enjoy playing a lot died or are unplayable from Korea
It's the only game that I've enjoyed enough to get mad at when I lose, also the people the community is 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000x better than any other game I've played. Plus it's a nice outlet for competition outside of footy.
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"The hardest part about playing Protoss is not choking on your dad's d--k" - Kreamy 2013
...only play it because of an obsessive compulsive desire to progress or something
A common requiring theme, I for one have always enjoyed the game, even losing sometimes to great strategies. If only we could use some of this compulsive disorder to get better at work aha
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