Final Thoughts - Future of eSports?

As this blog and class come to an end I look back on this blog and am forced to really consider the role of video games in culture. Specifically, Starcraft II. I have seen video games ruin lives. In highschool my roommate senior year discovered World of Warcraft during spring finals week. He almost failed that semester and has since failed out of college. On the other hand, another one of my highschool friends is currently in a WoW league, sponsored by T-Mobile, making $35,000 a year.

A quick check of the Starcraft Prizemoney rank sheet on TeamLiquid's site shows the top two players earning alomst $100,000 each. And that's just from this year. The spread of I have seen several tournaments and many different replays. It's fascinating to watch and utterly exhilarating to win, especially in 1v1 matches. I watch replays and am interested in improving my play-- even spending a few nights awake this break playing the game. But I think it's clear that I will never pursue this game seriously. However, I do anticipate, with the rise of popularity in eSports in general and the rise in numbers of players around the world, that in the next few years the docket of video game tournaments will be seen on the side of ESPN. It will probably be at 2 in the morning but I'll see it. And I'll probably be able to take my kids to see legendary players play in stadiums like they do in South Korea. By then Starcraft 3 may be out, but knowing Blizzard I won't hold my breath.

Thanks to wikipedia for saving my life as always, and thanks to the casters who have helped my play immensely over the course of this blog.

-Ian

Replays

This list of replays comes from a website I found by accident and I didn't anticipate anything coming from it, however this is a war between two borthers and notable casters. I mentioned Day9 fore, and he fights his brother Tasteless who casts games in Korea. They are both very high level players who have played against each other a lot and you can see them both mess with the other's head.

http://day9fan.com/day9fanupdates/sean-day9-plott-vs-nick-tasteless-plott

Especially game three showcases a masterful battle between professionals. An epic, epic battle.

Korean Gaming Scandal

South Korea is the unofficial Starcraft capital of the world. There are two television channels dedicated to the coverage of Starcraft leagues starting in 2002. Consider ESPN, which until a few years ago only had ESPN and ESPN 2-- for all sports in america. It's a big deal. Sponsors for the teams in the leagues include Samsung among other major Korean companies. In April of this year, it was revelaed that a number of high ranking players and gaming officials were implicated in a ring of match fixes and thrown games. This scandal has been compared to the Black Sox of baseball and shocked the esports world. On June 9th 11 players were banned from esports for life and in October sentences were handed out, primarily punishing programmers and ex programmers for gambling treatment.

Thanks to Wikipedia and TeamLiquid for sources. Also, Kotaku.

World Events Surrounding Starcraft Development

March of 1995 was an important month during the development of Starcraft, and I'm sure some of the events influenced the designers. Here are some of the events that resonate with me when I think of the orginial Starcraft. March was just before the game went into full-time development, as Blizzard was ejnoying the success of Warcraft II.

March 1 – In Moscow, Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev is killed by a gunman. March 3 – In Somalia, the United Nations peacekeeping mission ends.
March 14 – Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride into space aboard a Russian launch vehicle (the Soyuz TM-21), lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
March 20 – Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult release sarin gas on 5 subway trains in Tokyo, killing 12 and injuring 5,510.
March 22 – Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in outer space.
March 24 – For the first time in 26 years, no British soldiers patrol the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
March 26 – The Schengen Agreement, easing cross-border travel, goes into effect in several European countries.
March 30 – A police officer tries to assassinate Takaji Kunimatsu, chief of the National Police Agency of Japan.
March 31 – Tejano superstar Selena is killed by the president of her own fanclub, Yolanda Saldívar.

This month in particular saw a number of tragedies and events that I remember, even though I was just 5 when they occured, especially the Sarin gas attacks. I see themes of treachery, great violence, imperialism and space achievements. Who can say if these events translate directly into elements of the game but the themes undoubtedly run parallel.

Micro versus Macro

In all Real Time Strategy games like Starcraft there is a dichotomy of concepts known as "macro" and "micro" and these refer to two very different aspects of gameplay. "Micro" is short for "micromanagement" and refers to the individual attention paid to units. As I select a unit and tell it to do something, be it move, attack, or use an activated ability, I am "microing" this unit. Micromanagement can be the difference between a win and a loss as certain tactics favor caertain units. Zerg are most powerful when they surround units so being able to swarm in and overwhelm an enemy is crucial to playing zerg. Terran units benefit from staying in a large ball, as long as other units don't surround them.

Naturally, "macro" refers to "macromanagement," which refers to the general upkeep of your economy and production of units and buildings. In order to maintain a healthy economy you need to build workers, in order to keep building troops you need to provide supply, or "food" for them, and in order to survive deeper into the game you need to build more advanced units.

Proper play and a balance of macro/micro is essential to becoming a good player.

This is the seocnd part of a video showcasing Starcraft II to someone who has never played an RTS before. This section is redundant for most people who have played any of these types of games before but HuskyStarcraft illuminates in plain language the main differences between micro and macro and suggets rudimentary applications of these principles.

Day [9] Daily

I said I would post important replays, and this is perhaps the most important replay for an aspiring Starcraft II player. It's hosted on blip.tv so I can't embed it, but here it is: Day[9] Daily #132: Back to Basics. I mentioned a few of my favorite shoutcasters in a previous blog (to which I now add PsyStarcraft- talented and hilarious, if irreverent) and Day 9 focuses on what makes for good, solid gameplay. He asks how we can become better gamers. This post identifies many components critical to better gameplay but the most important is the subtitle of this post, The Mental Checklist. It comprises the following essential points:

1. "Keep your money low." Spending means creation or research, and this means a stronger army.
2. "Am I building units?" All unit producing facilities should be constantly producing units. If they are not, why aren't they? Are more resources required? More supply?
3. "What's going on on the mini-map?" Keep an eye on the small map in the lower left-hand corner, which gives important information about enemy movement.
4. "What do I need to do next?" Coming into battle with a plan, there are coherrent steps to achieving a goal. Be aware what needs to happen next this informs each building/unit created.

These basic points have already helped my game immensely. The video is lengthy and some times he belabours his points, but very important for new players. He details the importance of Hotkeys, buttons you can assign units and buildings to access them quickly and also building mouse precision (a concept I have yet to really incorporate into my game). Many of his posts are about advanced gameplay and go over my head regularly but they're still great. Starcraft II is rapidly gainaing in popularity and I may watch national championships on television with my children. Day 9 may cast those very games and its exciting to watch him as a growing expert in the field.

Live for the Swarm

Few video game creations creep me out as much as the Zerg race. As I detailed in an earlier post, they are bug-aliens that earn their power in numbers and rapid mutation. Comparatively weak, there are basic restrictions on unit creation that make for a very unique type of play style. All Zerg units are hatched from larvae birthed out of the basic building, the Hatchery. The hatchery will only produce three larvae at once, and it takes time for them to regenerate. Similarly, all buildings are created from Drones, the basic mining unit. The drone gives its body up to the creation of the building, changing its basic structure in the creation of the building. Zerg are also limited by a substance called creep, which spreads out wherever zerg buildings are created. All buildings except the hatchery must be created on creep. All Zerg units also receive movement bonuses while on the substance (except drones).

The basic melee unit, the zergling, is inexpensive, very fast and very weak. Their power lies in overwhelming numbers. Zergling groups can become very intimidating, as two zerglings spawn from a single larva.

Starcraft II introduced a new unit called the Queen to help overcome some of the Zerg deficiencies. Queens are inexpensive, and can attack ground and air units. Using energy, they can stimulate four additional larvae to be produced each time the spell is used. A hatchery can support up to 19 larvae. Queens also produce creep tumors, capable of spreading creep. These tumors can only be created on existing creep, but each subsequent tumor can produce a tumor of its own, allowing the swarm to sink its grasp deeper into the planet it is on.

The Protoss

The Protoss are an advanced alien race who use their advanced understanding of psionics to augment their abilities. They warp in thier buildings via probes and do not require the worker to remain with the building while it warps in (as opposed to Terran SCV's which build buildings and Zerg drones which morph themselves into buildings). All Protoss units and buildings have energy shields in addition to regular health which absorb damage and then recharge.

Protoss units are expensive, slow to build, and very powerful. The base unit of their army, the Zealot, is a melee fighter with a psionic blade on each hand. It can easily kill any single base unit of the other races. Depending on the skill of the players involved, a zealot can kill two marines (the basic Terran ranged unit) and four zerglings (the basic Zerg melee unit).

Two of the most interesting Protoss units are the two templar: High and Dark. In Starcraft lore these two templar were at odds, and each others throats, for many many years. After the Brood War they reconciled their differences and agreed to fight on the same side. High templar are spell casters without a basic attack. They arrive on the battlefield capable of casting Psi Storm, which the player activates. It zaps everything in a small area for a significant amount of damage. Dark templar are permanently cloaked units that attack with psionic blades, simillar to zealots. They deal massive melee damage and can be very nasty to deal without some sort of detection. But what makes these units so intriguing to me is their peripheral ability: you may combine any two templar to form an archon. Archons are beings of pure energy and manifestations of rage incarnate. They attack with powerful psionic blasts and have formidable shields capable of taking an amazing amount of damage. They have very little health, however, and once the shield is gone they are easily dispatched.

Death in Starcraft II

As this is a class about video game sin culture, we talk about many themes with respect to video games. We especially talk about the visceral experience of playing video games versus the visceral experience of real life. This seems to be a centering point for anti-gaming lobbies: video games seek to emulate real life and thus the lessons they teach need to be regulated like the real-life experiences we regulate. Take Grand Theft Auto, the franchise that sends anti-gaming lobbyists into a frenzy. The morality of that game is very clear: killing and stealing anything and everything are means to your end of money and influence. I can see how some people could have problems with this, both the means and the end. 'Death' in Grand Theft Auto is not a grave matter. It's the way of life in that universe, and that way is not delicate nor does it have any respect for human life and suffering. However interesting GTA is, this blogpost was supposed to be about Starcraft II and how death functions in that universe. I only bring up GTA because I believe it will forever be a part of that discussion.

You could basically call the Starcraft franchise "Kill everyone else" and you wouldn't be far from what the game is (in its most basic way). In fact, Starcraft paints a bleaker picture that just "kill everyone else" because the game really says "Kill everyone else, because everyone else is trying to kill you." If we extend Starcraft morality outwards to our own, we get a pretty bleak view of existence, all things considered.

Death is the name of this game, but it functions in interesting ways when its idea is extracted a bit. For example, the Zerg species function as a hive-mind with each member knowing that is job is to serve the greater good of the species. There is no death as there is no free will, similar to how ants or bees function. The Protoss have a great reverence for life and while they can be mortally wounded, advanced teleportation systems in their armor sense when warriors are in grave danger and warp the injured to a safe place. When they return, warriors are given the choice to be placed in the shell of an "immortal" where they can rejoin battle as powerful support units. This aspect of Protoss play is not one the user needs to know in order to play, but is simply part of the lore. Compare these mentalities to those of the Terrans, who as humans view death the same way we do. You're alive, and then you're dead.

Regardless of the race, the player functions as a commander of these units. More skilled players can keep their units alive longer than less skilled players. It should also be mentioned that the win condition of the game says nothing about killing units. When a player loses all of his or her buildings is when the game ends. However, the game really forces you to kill other units in order to win. It's just a part of life in this universe.

Terran Tech Tree

This is the Terran Tech Tree. One of the most interesting aspects of the Terrans is their capability for add-ons of their buildings. One unit-producing building can create an add-on and then the building can lift off and allow another building to land and use the add-on it just created. The add-ons are the tech lab, which allows technological upgrades and the the Reactor, which allows the creation of two basic units at once. As you play you can swap on the fly and augment your strategy based on the battle you're facing, as your opponent changes tactics.

Campaign- Playing it.

When I originally played the campaign, it had been years since I played a Starcraft game and it eases you into the gameplay very slowly, staring you off with a handful of units that will pretty much keep themselves alive. As you progress you are given access to more units and the difficulty increases what feels like an acceptable rate. I started the campaign on normal difficulty to get a feel for how the units moved and behaved, and didn't feel particularly challenged. A few times I increased the difficulty just for the experience, and found I could manage pretty quickly.

Many of the objectives in each mission center around collecting research items and foreign artifacts, which allow you to augment your army in interesting ways back on your ship (where you return between every level). Similarly, completing missions earns you credits which you can spend on army upgrades and hiring mercenaries. At first I didn't use the mercenaries as much during the campaign, except in dire situations. I found them costly and like a crutch only for newbs, and so I spent most of my money researching army upgrades. But once I started using these especially powerful units I found them important additions to my army as well as quite fun.

A quick side note: Blizzard requires internet for installation and also requires you create a battle.net account specific to your copy of Starcraft II. It then connects to the internet every time you log in to the game. This continually verifies your copy (you can only have one account per disc) and links your progress in the campaign to your account. Completing objectives in each level unlocks achievements which earn you points for your online profile unlocking portraits and making you look cool. The points don't seem particularly helpful or necessary, but the portraits are neat to unlock as they follow you into battle, which could potentially intimidate opponents.

There are 29 total missions, 26 of which you can play in a single time through. I haven't played through all the missions but they vary in their objectives and tactics you need to use. There are escort missions, survival-for-this-amount-of-time missions, missions centered around just one unit and of course the traditional build up you army and exterminate the other player (which comprise most of the story).

The Campaign - Backstory

Then 'till now: Terrans in the Koprulu Sector

The Terran race is the most familiar to us, as the Terrans are the humans. Their power lies in technology and potential for psionic augmentation. Arriving in the Koprulu sector in 2259 as the result of a mistaken trajectory, 50,000 prisoners awoke from cyber sleep to have to formulate a society. Crash-landing on three different planets, they originally formed three distinct factions, the strongest known as the Terran Confederacy. Experimenting with psi emitters the confederacy eliminated its enemies by luring the Zerg behind enemy lines and letting the swarm do their dirty work. Being found out by Arcturus Mengsk's Sons of Korhal, Mengsk led his forces against the Confederacy. During this campaign he left his second-in-command, assassin Sarah Kerrigan, to die during a Zerg siege of Tarsonis, the capital planet. This incensed Jim Raynor, one of his most prolific commanders. Thinking Kerrigan dead, he vowed revenge and took his force (Raynor's Raiders) out of Mengsk's employ. Raynor would find out that Kerrigan was not in fact killed, but had been captured by the Zerg and her DNA was being fused with Zerg DNA. Raynor could not save her from being transformed and she emerged from her incubation distorted and immensely powerful: the "Queen of Blades," with half the Zerg swarm at her disposal. She would wage a civil war to become the sole ruler of the Swarm(more on this later, as this sentence basically summarizes Broodwar).

The campaign of Starcraft II begins four years after the Queen of Blades assumes power, with Raynor's Raiders in a lull in their activity against Mengsk, who assumed power over the Terrans.

Campaign Storyline and Format

Picking up four years after Starcraft II: Brood war, the campaign centers around Jim Raynor, the head of Raynor's Raiders, the outlaws marginalized by the brutal Dominion dictatorship of the terran-controlled planets. Despite is herosim during the Brood War (fought bitterly against the Zerg and Protoss), Arcturus Mengsk has his state-controlled media desparrage the name and memory of Raynor. You play as a commander of the Raiders and go on various missions in search of loot and intel. Along the way you meet members of different factions, vying for your time and support. Based on the decisions you make in-game and which missions you choose, you unlock different units, upgrades, and mercenaries to aid you in your quest.

Welcome to the Starcraft Universe

Ten years in the making, Starcraft II is the sequel to the unbelievable popular Stacraft and Starcraft: Broodwar. The original game came out on March 31st, 1998, with the expansion pack, Broodwar, emerging November 30th, 1998. The universe consists of three distinct races, the Protoss, the Terrans, and the Zerg. The Protoss are an alien race that base their powers on advanced psionics, and in the lore typified as the nemesis of the Zerg. Their buildings and units are comparatively expensive and take longer to create, in return for power. Resembling aliens of our nightmares the Zerg race get their power from quick, cheap and relatively weak units. They employ rapid evolution and quick response to overrun their opponents. The Terrans are the humans of this universe. They were originally sent out into space as criminals of Earth to colonize distant lands, in exile (like Australia!). Generations later they base their strength on human augmentation and technological implementations. They are cast as a race of rebels.

There is also the mysterious race, the Xel'Naga. Continuously referred to in the campaign as the "forerunners," they are unplayable (as yet) and created the Zerg and Protoss races in search of the perfect race. Throughout the story their presence is felt in a variety of ways, most notably through the discovery of artifacts imbued with their power and crystals of a similar variety.

Each of the playable races will receive a highlight post detailing what makes them individual, as well as in-depth unit looks.

First Post- Some background

There are a lot of blogs out there. There are a lot of blogs about video games, a lot about the Starcraft series, and a lot about Starcraft II. This is a blog for class: Art 250-Video Games In Culture of Hartwick College. Its purpose is to act as a research dissemination platform for information collected about this game. Most information collected for this blog will be redundant.

So here we go! I'll get to a basic game overview later.

Today's blog is about replays, one of the most important elements to improving as a player. Replays can be downloaded from forums all over the internet and seen in the privacy of your own machine. I prefer to watch them online narrated by professional "shoutcasters," gamers who take you through the strategies you're seeing on screen and highlight mistakes and pivotal moments/mistakes.

There are three shoutcasters I like to watch for their personalities, impressive voices, and most importantly, talents. They are HuskyStarcraft, HD Starcraft, and day[9]. I know them only by their tags, though their resumes are each very impressive. Over the course of this blog I will post videos I have watched that are impressive for one reason or another and accessible to players just getting into the game.

Replays are critical-- CRITICAL -- to improving yourself as a player. They provide the newest models of attacks, build orders and other basic suggestions to play. They provide you with what to prepare against as well as new ideas for your builds.