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Papua New Guinea152 Posts
Since I'm short on time and just had an epiphany, I'm going to keep this short and sweet. I realize most of this may seem boring and/or common sense, but for what it's worth 
Starcraft is appealing and continues to be exciting simply because:
3 UNIQUE AND DISTINCT RACES WITH DIFFERENT STRATEGIES/STYLES
This ensures the gameplay is rich and deep and never stale
MIX OF MACRO AND MICRO
TvT for example is macro intensive, ZvZ is micro oriented and PvP is a mix of macro and micro
Of course, every single game, no matter what race, features a delicate balance between macro and micro, and no two players will have the same attributes (some players will have stronger macro to compensate for weaker micro, or vice versa)
THE BALANCE BETWEEN ECONOMY AND ARMY
As any good player will tell you, it's just as devastating to the opponent (if nor more so) to devastate his economy and resource harvesting as it is to kill his army (because he can always keep reinforcing his army given a strong economy)
Without this the game would be boring (it would turn into a game of who could make the bigger/stronger army, so the econ/production balance makes the game more nuanced and multi-dimensional)
THE FACT IT'S AN RTS GAME (and the 'fog of war')
Obviously, without the real-time component, it would turn into a turn-based game and, without fog of war, we would be able to see all the opponent's 'moves' (so called maphacks). At this point we would be better off playing chess (which is an awesome game in its own right!!)
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SO that's just my 2 cents about what makes Starcraft so awesome 
I know I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of what makes Starcraft so amazingly epic, but I have to go now, and venture into the deep and dark and mysterious night. Bid me farewell, my friends.
And remember to stay warm, you don't want to catch a cold.
  
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And don't forget the pro scene. Before I discovered the SC1 pro scene on TV in Korea, I thought this was a lame 10 year old game that no one played anymore. But then, I saw an OSL match, and the intro, the players, and commentators were AWESOME!!! Thats what really got me into Starcraft so much
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SC is great because it rewards intelligent players, while making the results of those intelligent player's actions very visceral.
The complexities you mentioned help achieve this, but a game that is just complex is not always a game that is good.
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I agree with what the OP wrote. Even though BW is pretty damn popular is makes me sad to know that most people will never appreciate the beauty of it at the highest levels. There's just something hypnotic about the game, some progames have surpassed what is to be artificially produced war and into a form of art. Few examples...Zealots being dropped over tanks to set off mines, putting racks over mines to allow the toss to move command right into them(See Iris vs Grandpatoss in some Blizzard event) and the good old boxer marine > lurker.
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The true art of watching BW players was their army movements. They would have fully maxed armies, they moved as a single unit. Stork and Bisu come to mind for me, just seeing them effortlessly move 4 or 5 control groups of units near instantly....God damn I miss BW late game minimap watching xD
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On November 23 2010 15:00 N3rV[Green] wrote:
The true art of watching BW players was their army movements. They would have fully maxed armies, they moved as a single unit. Stork and Bisu come to mind for me, just seeing them effortlessly move 4 or 5 control groups of units near instantly....God damn I miss BW late game minimap watching xD
Indeed sometimes watching that minimap change is just mesmerising.
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10387 Posts
On November 23 2010 15:18 ShadeR wrote:Show nested quote +On November 23 2010 15:00 N3rV[Green] wrote:
The true art of watching BW players was their army movements. They would have fully maxed armies, they moved as a single unit. Stork and Bisu come to mind for me, just seeing them effortlessly move 4 or 5 control groups of units near instantly....God damn I miss BW late game minimap watching xD Indeed sometimes watching that minimap change is just mesmerising.
Sauron Zerg!
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