The arena is packed, millions of viewers all over the world await the games eagerly. Starcraft 2 fulfilled it’s prophecy! It brought all gamers together and now we’re finally here at the finals in Seoul. Conditions are perfect with Artosis, Tasteless, Day[9] and Garimto commentating. You’re at home with all your relatives cheering for your favourite player.
The crowds noise gets louder, Spawncop_referee has created the game (Starcraft Player Association With No interest in Cash but Only Pure gaming), Flash is already in it spamming hotkeys… But something is wrong. Where is Nony? The camera films his booth, Dustin Browder is inside, the mic is turned on.
- Dustin, I can’t join his game since my account is on the U.S server and I can’t play with Those on Asia. - Yeaah. Uhm…
- Well you can borrow my asian account. Here…
A well timed commercial break lasts for 4 hours while Nony reinstalls and updates his starcraft 2 with an asian version, finally it starts... “Terrible.Damage” joins the game, it can finally begin.
Flash twitches his eye, commences his 16 cc build… He thinks of a Msl final where the booth was too cold, the power went out and somehow misplaces his command center. But then he realises, “this isn’t under Kespas rule anymore… We are finally free from slavery and blind capitalism, can play for fun and earn the money we deserve for it”. His booth is warm and the power is secure. He twitches his eye once again, repositions his command center and the game continues on.
25 minutes has passed, their armies finally clash in the middle of Blistering Sands. We follow Nony’s Phoenixes as they somehow lift off a 200/200 Terran army, Flash manages to land his Command centers on Nonys Interceptors, the whole world holds it’s breath as the fight’s about to end.
But then it happens… An endless lag happens… An endless spam happens…
Thousands of b.net users spam the observer and players, the server starts to lag terribly as the fight is forgotten in a mist of messages and a frozen screen.
And this was only the beginning…
Bip… Bip… Bip… A blue pop up steals the attention. “Server Maintenance! Battle.net 2.0 will go offline in 1 minute.”
Additional patch information: -We are sorry for not adding a lan function without lag and risk off abrupting important games but we are afraid of Chinese private servers, couldn’t think of another way to deal with it.
-We are also sorry for not creating a game without a defenders advantage and explicit ways to micro that differentiates the good from the great.
-We are also sorry for the division system. We know why the functions of Iccup ,that is being able to see how u rank compared to the world and your country, made the experience sweeter. But our priority is the quantity, the new players and for them this is awesome, the league system makes it good enough. Lately we’ve realised that their gaming experience wouldn’t be any worse if a “one division” system was implemented on the higher leagues where 99% of the players would want it but our new player priority clouded our eyes.
While we’re on it we at Blizzard would like to admit something else. We didn’t make Broodwar what it became. You did… We created a bunch of awesome units and abilities with no disturbing attack animations for the sake of cool graphics. We didn’t think about making the game as easy as possible. We just made it pure from scratch, left all kinds of freedom to the player and somehow it ended up balanced, dynamic and with an endless skill ceiling making a 14 year old pro scene possible.
Simply put. We don’t fully understand what gave brood war it’s endless skill ceiling. We don’t know what main functions in the game made it possible, therefore we can’t implement it in a new game.
That’s it. This is what we all must accept. Starcraft 2 didn’t reach perfection but it was good enough for a western pro scene because you made it possible.
Haha, very cute, and I think you addressed most of the salient non-balance issues with sc2.
Although the whole splitting server thing has one (1) advantage: different metagame/strategies on each server which might promote somewhat diverse playstyles in international confrontations.
On May 08 2010 07:17 Keniji wrote: awesome up to the bip bip bip and maintenance part. especially the sexsexpussy hair.
the ending = not so good more about the awesome final and how it's finishing would've been better.
=) For those not understanding the sexsexpussyhair part->
The final was quite fun to write about yeah but I wan't my opinions to be as clear as possible, but I seem to have faild with that as well.
On May 08 2010 07:20 Hesmyrr wrote: I have no idea if this is pro-Blizzard, anti-Blizzard, or anti-KeS.. oh wait at least that is clear.
4/5. Found it fun you criticizing all current flaws with fairly objective standpoint, though it could have been refined a little.
I like blizzard, am thankful for all the games and joy they've given me. I dislike Kespa for looking like a "workers rights union" but being the opposite. A players association consisting of greedy rich men who don't understand the sport they support isn't the best option in a "player association".
Again about Blizzard I'm just hoping for a good game, so far I've really enjoyed starcraft 2. But these are issues that can constrain the pro scene. In Brood war we had a amateur scene, an ideal interest in the game but without the commercial parts and financial support it can never be as big as Counter strike etc. The foundation behind it is a pro scene, without it it'll just be another brood war. A good game but not more. With the map editor, big interest for the game overall this mentioned above isn't sufficient as an explanation but the point is still there.
We haven't seen their Pro league yet. If it'll be a separate world wide lag free server and Blizzard paying attention to it as they've said then lots of the issues will be solved.
Let's just hope for a good game, Blizzard making a international pro scene possible
As all have said before I came, This post does paint a solid picture, Of what could happen our beloved game, Without Kespa's oh so rigid stricture
I too hope for a solid StarCraft 2, And so far am not so disappointed, But then you destroyed me in a 2v2, So my experience has been disjointed
At the end of the day, just thought I'd say, It's been a pleasure to see you blogging, Now's time to hit the hay, down my head to lay, Knowing that these issues will be dogging,
If I should die before I wake, I pray Kespa my soul to take
On May 08 2010 09:50 Sonnet wrote: As all have said before I came, This post does paint a solid picture, Of what could happen our beloved game, Without Kespa's oh so rigid stricture
I too hope for a solid StarCraft 2, And so far am not so disappointed, But then you destroyed me in a 2v2, So my experience has been disjointed
At the end of the day, just thought I'd say, It's been a pleasure to see you blogging, Now's time to hit the hay, down my head to lay, Knowing that these issues will be dogging,
If I should die before I wake, I pray Kespa my soul to take
EPT
more about the awesome final and how it's finishing would've been better.
