• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 02:52
CEST 08:52
KST 15:52
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sept 21-27): herO and ByuN double2Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple3BSL Season 2313Weekly Cups (Sep 7-12): SHIN, ByuN, MaxPax double down1StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon106
StarCraft 2
General
StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon Weekly Cups (Sept 21-27): herO and ByuN double Recent Patches and the Future Stellar Fest 1 Replay Pack Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16)
Tourneys
2026 GSTL Grand Finals ScienceCraft (October 24-25) - Live Event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Sweltering Sands [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 545 And Drops and Rifts Mutation # 544 Double Trouble Mutation # 543 Enhanced Defenses
Brood War
General
a Announcement on the JEDI Ringing [ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach Bot on ladder BW General Discussion PLAYzone Challenge - open offline tour in Prague
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro8 Day 4 [ASL22] Ro8 Day 3 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL22] Ro8 Day 2
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Total Annihilation Zero Nintendo Switch Thread EVE Corporation
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread All you football fans (soccer)!
Fan Clubs
MarineLorD Fan Club The Creator Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Violent-Cooperative Play and…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8595 users

In Defense of Blizzard

Blogs > Sc1pio
Post a Reply
Sc1pio
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
United States823 Posts
March 03 2010 22:53 GMT
#1
I will preface this by saying that I don't have a key. It shouldn't affect what I write here but for full disclosure I felt like it was necessary to say.

Something which commonly is being viewed as undesirable is SC2 being easy to pick up and play. It's fairly obvious why SC2 is easier to pick up and play; MBS, lack of "wrestling with the AI", etc. But is this really a bad thing?

Let us consider what Blizzard's ultimate goal is. Essentially, they want to create the ultimate western e-Sport. The way that this will be accomplished is through mass appeal, both in spectatorship and in playing. The former is fairly obvious to understand: nobody will want to watch something which doesn't appeal to the masses in terms of spectatorship. To do this, there needs to be some high skill ceiling. The biggest and most valid criticism of SC2 in its current form is the lack of a high skill ceiling, but it is entirely too early to determine if this is actually true: if, a year from now or even further down, players are no better than they are when the game is released, then Blizzard has clearly failed.

So Blizzard wants to have a high skill ceiling. This is nothing new. But what Blizzard also wants is a low entry point. Why is this? Imagine trying to watch a Brood War match without having played Brood War before. Sure, you could understand what was going on, but it's pretty difficult to be a fan of it. Therefore, a required part of fandom is attempted emulation. Your parents not "getting" BW is not based on age, it's based on lack of experience. Even in the case of other gamers this occurs. A prolific FPS gamer watching BW will have one of two reactions: either they will dislike the game (game meaning BW, not the individual game being played) or they will want to try the game. They aren't "fans" of BW, they're looking at it in terms of how fun it would be for them to play.

True, we enjoy strategical depth in BW, but it's literally impossible to understand strategical depth fully without playing the game in the first place. You may understand in a general sense, but not in the deep sense which drives fandom and therefore an increase in audience. BW is popular in Korea as a spectator sport because it was incredibly widely played, and it isn't as popular internationally because it isn't as widely played.

So Blizzard wants as many people as possible to play SC2, in order to maximize the e-Sports audience, which in turn maximizes the playerbase, etc. The second half occurs as people randomly turn on the TV or see a link to a stream through some website and see how awesome SC2 looks and therefore purchase the game. In order to start this chain reaction, and to retain the casual audience of SC2 as an e-Sport, it needs to have a low entry-point in terms of skill. Everybody sucked when they first picked up BW; they only got better through practice. SC2 will be the same way, but Blizzard wants to nurture the players, easing them into a clearly competitive game. They want to turn the typical MW2 player into a competitive SC2 player, and the only way to do this is to ease the entry-point.

So when you toss around that SC2 is too "easy" at this point, remember why it was made easier in the first place: to increase mass-appeal, which in turn increases the competitive base, which in turn increases the appeal, and so on for a decade. Essentially, Blizzard wants a game like the card game Bridge: simple enough to learn the rules, but with strategical depth so strong multiple volumes have been written about it.

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's there are few. " -Shunro Suzuki | fortuna fortes adiuvat
ErOs_HalO
Profile Joined January 2010
United States167 Posts
March 03 2010 22:55 GMT
#2
It's really not easy.
Pretty imaginitive, huh?
Sc1pio
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
United States823 Posts
March 03 2010 22:57 GMT
#3
On March 04 2010 07:55 ErOs_HalO wrote:
It's really not easy.


Easy is an oversimplification. In terms of the skill ceiling, hopefully it's not. But there are several reasons to believe Blizzard is making the game easier to pick up and play, which is what I'm talking about.
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's there are few. " -Shunro Suzuki | fortuna fortes adiuvat
MasterReY
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
Germany2708 Posts
March 03 2010 22:57 GMT
#4
SC1: Easy to learn, impossible to master.
SC2: Easier to learn, still impossible to master.

I dont know why people complain.
https://www.twitch.tv/MasterReY/ ~ Biggest Reach fan on TL.net (Don't even dare to mention LR now) ~ R.I.P Violet ~ Developer of SCRChart
TL+ Member
The6357
Profile Blog Joined August 2005
United States1268 Posts
March 03 2010 23:07 GMT
#5
i complain because i lack beta key....fuck
2010 worldcup!! corea fighting!!!
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 3h 8m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
SortOf 139
StarCraft: Brood War
HiyA 347
Mong 86
NotJumperer 42
Shine 41
Bale 31
Noble 11
Icarus 9
Light 0
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm198
League of Legends
JimRising 627
Counter-Strike
Coldzera 831
Heroes of the Storm
WinterStarcraft755
Other Games
summit1g8576
ceh9318
C9.Mang0270
PiGStarcraft231
Happy225
Livibee92
ArmadaUGS41
RuFF_SC227
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick551
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream486
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• intothetv
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• Pr0nogo 4
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2360
League of Legends
• Rush1427
• Lourlo1416
• Stunt443
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3h 8m
Afreeca Starleague
3h 8m
Leta vs Soulkey
PiGosaur Cup
17h 8m
Kung Fu Cup
1d 4h
The PondCast
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
4 days
Online Event
4 days
FEL
4 days
AI Arena Tournament
4 days
[ Show More ]
BSL: Ladder Tournament
4 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
BSL Open Qualifier
5 days
BSL Open Qualifier
5 days
WardiTV Weekly
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-09-27
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Calamity Invitational

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Custodian Cup
Copium Cup
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.