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...just kidding. I could never leave TL for good. But I am going to be cutting down on Starcraft immensely for the coming school term. Why? Well, of course there is a lot of work to be done. And then there's the need of actually having a social life beyond IRC. Also, there are a lot of real-life problems (no, not problem sets lol) that I need to deal with. But above all, for me, the game has lost its charm. I'm not trying to be a martyr when I say this, because I know that I am an insignificant player in the whole scheme of things, and my words should not and will not have an impact on anyone. I am just saying what I truly feel about where the game is currently at, and where it's headed.
If you're reading this blog, you probably already know that I play Zerg. If you think this is going to be a Zerg QQ thread, then you might as well stop reading right now, because, to some people, it may very well be. Throughout the beta, Zerg got hit with nerf after nerf. Some of these nerfs were called for, some were not. Some went overboard, some were small pushes that compounded into a significant change. Some changes were completely nonsensical, and as a result, some of those changes got reversed entirely. The point is that even beyond balance, Blizzard was aware that there was something wrong with the race, and during the beta they were still experimenting with ways to make it "complete." They tried putting spells on the overseer, shifted around spells on the corruptor and the infestor, did a complete rework of the ultralisk, even towards the very last days of beta testing. But in the end, they only had ten units to work with, to make a complete race. Ten extremely underwhelming units.
As I have said before, the current state of Zerg is that it relies on its macro mechanic to win games. For the most part, the actual units that Zerg has to work with do not contribute to the win (currently the only exceptions are brood lords and banelings in a few situations) - in fact, in some situations, the Zerg must actually overcome the fact that the units available to them are just bad for the situation with pure macro. The problem is that Zerg just has less options to work with, and thus may or may not have a viable "solution" for a particular situation. In fact, Blizzard has actively been patching away from Zerg options (for example, neural parasite and the corruptor's old corruption). But still, upon the game's release, I was hopeful because I thought that Blizzard would do something about the race. Not necessarily buff the units, but just give more options. Unfortunately, though Patch 1.1 addressed some balance issues, it did nothing with the deeper issues of the race. And the worst part is that Blizzard seems content with the results, with 1v1 play as a whole. It really disappoints me that now Blizzard just seems to be focusing on changes based on tweaking numbers so that at the end, we'll see roughly even statistics across the board. They do not seem to care whether or not Zerg is a "complete" race, and though "drastic" changes are likely required to keep the race not only competitive, but interesting to play, in the long run, Blizzard is explicitly staying away from them because the game has already been released. In the end, the race that was left unfinished during the beta is left largely unchanged in the release. And I don't want to wait for a fix that will never come.
So yes, I've given up on SC2 for the time being. I just don't see it having "longevity" that Dustin Bowder is so fond of talking about. Unless change happens, the extremely large pool of talented Zerg players will start running into brick walls. There's just too little to experiment with. And the stance Blizzard has taken on this issue doesn't offer any promise or hint of change.
Also, I hate that every single time the something Blizzard didn't intend to have in the game is discovered, it gets patched immediately, regardless of whether or not it has the potential to actually improve the state game.
@Plexa and riptide: I will still be available to discuss the article assignment via PM or MSN.
http://caltechrankmaniac2012.wordpress.com/
 
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5003 Posts
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I understand a lot of your points, I'm mostly hoping that the expansions can give it the depth and longevity that starcraft 1 had. Good luck in your studies!
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i think one of the main reasons i dont play sc2 is becuase of how much they assraped zerg. there's just not a single interesting unit in the race now :\
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
Nooo who would I practice TvZ with now? 
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Vatican City State2594 Posts
Ok I hate SC2 but honestly maybe they are just saving up for the expansions. If they introduce new units now, they will have less to work with in the expansions. Also, new units will probably completely modify even non-1v1 aspects of the game like campaign. So, think of it as Blizzard's extended marketing tool to get people to buy the expansion where they will introduce some cool-ass units to SC2 and claim that it is finally balanced!
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Please tell me you'll be there for our showmatch with Caltech!! We must have our revenge!
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Vatican City State2594 Posts
On September 29 2010 09:29 thedeadhaji wrote:I prefer watching C- players play iccup broodwar than watching GSL! 
QFT
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5003 Posts
On September 29 2010 09:44 Murderotica wrote:
Ok I hate SC2 but honestly maybe they are just saving up for the expansions. If they introduce new units now, they will have less to work with in the expansions. Also, new units will probably completely modify even non-1v1 aspects of the game like campaign. So, think of it as Blizzard's extended marketing tool to get people to buy the expansion where they will introduce some cool-ass units to SC2 and claim that it is finally balanced!
don't you find anything wrong with that mentality?
it's like they purposely made a bad game so they can charge you 30 dollars for a fix -_-
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Saracen,
Can you please be a little bit more specific? Is it only Zerg that is flawed or all of the races or Starcraft 2 as a whole? What about Zerg would you change? What are your thoughts about OCs, Queens, and Chronoboost? Don't you think these are too close to "heros" that we see in WC3?
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Vatican City State2594 Posts
On September 29 2010 09:51 Milkis wrote:Show nested quote +On September 29 2010 09:44 Murderotica wrote:
Ok I hate SC2 but honestly maybe they are just saving up for the expansions. If they introduce new units now, they will have less to work with in the expansions. Also, new units will probably completely modify even non-1v1 aspects of the game like campaign. So, think of it as Blizzard's extended marketing tool to get people to buy the expansion where they will introduce some cool-ass units to SC2 and claim that it is finally balanced! don't you find anything wrong with that mentality? it's like they purposely made a bad game so they can charge you 30 dollars for a fix -_-
Everything is wrong. I hate SC2, and this new direction for Blizzard. I don't play. And it's 60 dollars afaik lol~
I wasn't saying I agree with it. I said there is some semblance of dark corrupt hope for the people who care enough to stick around.
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United States10654 Posts
On September 29 2010 09:26 Milkis wrote:
gimme your MSN/gchat
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On September 29 2010 09:51 Milkis wrote:Show nested quote +On September 29 2010 09:44 Murderotica wrote:
Ok I hate SC2 but honestly maybe they are just saving up for the expansions. If they introduce new units now, they will have less to work with in the expansions. Also, new units will probably completely modify even non-1v1 aspects of the game like campaign. So, think of it as Blizzard's extended marketing tool to get people to buy the expansion where they will introduce some cool-ass units to SC2 and claim that it is finally balanced! don't you find anything wrong with that mentality? it's like they purposely made a bad game so they can charge you 30 dollars for a fix -_-
Well, after reading the article about Kotick saying that nowadays, you can charge up to 500$ dollars for a game...*
And who would buy an expension if there wasn't any major improvement, only a new average quality campaign mode. IIRC, the expension is 60$, not 30 
There is indeed something wrong with this mentality, but I'm afraid that's what Blizzard has planned for us :|
*In the last cycle of videogames you spent $50 on a game, played it and took it back to the shop for credit. Today, we’ll (charge) $100 for a guitar. You might add a microphone or drums; you might buy two or three expansions packs, different types of music. Over the life of your ownership you’ll probably buy around 25 additional song packs in digital downloads. So, what used to be a $50 sale is a $500 sale today.
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I swear I read an article today saying you were joining a team >_>
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Holy crud you gave me a heart attack with that "Goodbye TL". Spunky Fadunky.
Sad to see another good zerg bite the dust. But alot of your points are valid, I'm really hoping that by Legacy of the Void it will be amazing.
But perhaps SC2 is simply Icarus, trying to fly too close to God and crashes defeated. As of now, I don't know.
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5673 Posts
Don't kid yourself. You don't need a social life beyond IRC.
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My heart nearly stopped when I saw this blog was by you! I would've been really sad to see you go D=
I don't have SC2, so I don't think that I can make a sound judgment on the balance of the game. Though I think that from what I have seen, I kinda agree with you about what you say. Well then, good luck in school and whatnot this year!
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United States11393 Posts
On September 29 2010 10:16 riptide wrote:
Don't kid yourself. You don't have a social life beyond IRC.
keke
Also, you know that you want to BW again~~
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The one thing is we are at the "Starcraft vanilla" phase of game development in SC2, not even at "early BW" yet, and with expansions coming, it's not going to be like this forever.
But yeah, what we have now seen as an almost final product is disappointing at best.
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EPT
