Starcraft. Starcraft is what I do, even though I am horrible at this game I do have an extraordinary love for it. The only problem is, how do you tell people about what you love so much? I told my mom I want to be a progamer and she gave me "the look" while she said, "oh, well, um, do what you love." She didnt like the sound of it, I could tell. My dad I have never really tried to get into starcraft with, me and my father don't have the most... ok well we don't get along. My brother, my only brother, hates Starcraft with a passion, I have tried showing him videos, we got into a fight about the game, we have never got along. Lets just say I don't have that daily 100 family like Day[9], but totally the opposite. My friends don't think Starcraft is cool either, they hate on it every chance they have, so I usually just can't wait to get home and play and talk to some friends. Starcraft is so hard explaining to the real foreigners, the ones that don't even know what the game is. I don't think anyone will fully support me until I bring home that 90,000 check from GSL.. Thats what I am shooting for anyways. Making this game more than a game, but a lifestyle. Thanks for reading, let me know how you told your family, friends, etc. how starcraft was to you or if you even have. I am just giving up on trying to persuade them, thanks.
Ever since I've been following the pro scene I've gotten funny looks. Tcheh, it's understandable, when I tell them it's a professional video game sport played by Korean teenagers, there are few that can grasp what it is let alone the entertainment value. The demographic for real time strategy games is rather small anyway. The older generation in general is completely lost in these sort of things, for obvious reasons. At least your mom let's you do whatever. One thing I can tell you: when you show some real passion and work hard for your goals, your parents and friends will support you whatever it is. My parents and I don't see eye to eye on many things, but by god are they proud when I achieve something, how strange or unimportant they might think it is.
STARCRAFT: fast paced, reflex intensive competitive arena where participants test their strategical, analytical, and psychological abilities against one another to decide which is the superior human being in a mere 20 minutes. -ilnp
The key to explaining it is understanding how someone else will look at you. Explaining the game and the units is fucking boring to everyone who doesn't play Starcraft. You need to explain the scene, the physical difficulty, the mental struggle, the team houses, the live events, the finals meetups, the prize money, the streams, the shows, the commentary.
At a low end, you can explain it as a strategy game between to people... or something fun to do by hittings buttons. How people perceive it is all in how you present it to them.
Like to give you a slightly more familiar situation... imagine a fake game company was developing a fake game that was 50% Starcraft-inspired, 50% Call of Duty-inspired.
Would you be more interested in checking it out if i said "It's like Starcraft but..." or "It's like Call of Duty but...." ?
You need to present the hook that will interest them. Do they like drama, focus on the players. Do they like pretty looking things, show them a well produced grand finals match. Do they like thinking games, focus on the mental side of it. You should be able to think of something to get people interested a little bit.
If not, venture out and try to find new people that share your interest a little more.
I have explained it to people as a "fun multiplayer video game that gets really deepif you dig into it" and that was enough for them.
Who cares about what your family and friends think? Think about how much money they earn and the accomplishments they have in life. Its not an accident. They don't have the mindset of someone who originates an idea and achieves great things. This thinking was passed down to you at birth, and is called a paradigm. When you want to change or do something out of the ordinary your friends and family will try to hold you back. Go for it anyways. If you really sucked the truth out of your parents, all your parents really want for you is for you to be happy. Your parent's conditioned way of thinking doesn't allow them to see how you can sustain yourself and be happy playing SC2. That lack of awareness by your parents should not prevent you from doing what you want, however. You are responsible for your thoughts, feelings, and actions. When you let other people control your thoughts, feelings, and actions you are placing yourself in a mental prison where personal growth and creativity are almost nonexistent.
I think most people's family aren't that supportive when it comes to competetive gaming. Gaming itself is only just getting acknowledgded as an acceptble pastime, and that's amongst the younger generations.
If I were to be honest I'd frown too if my (hypothetical) son told me he was going to be a progamer, and that's coming from someone who knows (and loves) the competetive gaming scene. But obviously you don't need your parent's approval, if you time and time again show how much you're invested in becoming a progamer and can show them results they'll eventually get to a point where they get it and start supporting you in your passion. Thing is that lots of people have dreams and few are really (REALLY) capable of bringing up the diehard mentality that's needed to succeed in a highly competetive scene. Once your parents see that it isn't a "I want to be a police officer when I grow up" kind of dream and that you're really putting in the effort, they might come around. Parents just rather want their kids to pick a "standard" and secure kind of job that is guaranteed to pay the bills.
Most people aren't going to care much to be quite honest, but I've never really gotten shit for it past people who just have an irrational hatred of video games in general. It helps to explain it a few certain ways and not to come off embarrassed or ashamed by it.
On June 04 2011 03:17 Chill wrote: The key to explaining it is understanding how someone else will look at you. Explaining the game and the units is fucking boring to everyone who doesn't play Starcraft. You need to explain the scene, the physical difficulty, the mental struggle, the team houses, the live events, the finals meetups, the prize money, the streams, the shows, the commentary.
That's the shit that's interesting to people.
This x1000 more or less. I've explained this too friends I follow regular sports with and they understood it, evem if most of them didn't get into it. I even eventually was able to explain TvZ (BW and SC2) to a very close friend of mine who I've played/watched sports with since I was a kid and he was very interested because I used the mental struggle, teams, live events, etc. as a base for it.
You can't go up to people bringing it up and tell them about the advantages of Infestor-Ling versus Muta-Ling-Bane (or 2 Hatch Muta versus Lurker-Ling to use a loose Brood War example) without giving them a reason to give a shit about the strategy involved. Thats why I always pick games where you can literally see the excitement and drama.
the way i manage to convince most people that starcraft is cool is by telling them it's like chess with laser beams, where instead of thinking for 20 minutes about your next move you need to make 300 moves a minute
i've found the best way to persuade people that the game is awesome is to hype the mechanical aspect of it. yes in TL we know that apm isn't everything, but back when i was playing a lot, my modest 150 apm would absolutely baffle my roommate who couldnt even beat a computer to the point where one day he asked how many mice i break a year
You make me feel quite blessed so to speak, seeing as my father who I suppose being in his early 40s now introduced me to RTS(C&C stuff) and pretty much taught me how to play an RTS. Then again he manages what passes for a PCbang around these parts.
Starcraft is one of those games that I call: SPACE CHESS ON STEROIDS!
I don't exactly need to spread the word to people how awesome Starcraft is, because where I live, people used to play the hell out of that game ever since Brood War, til Warcraft 3 came along and DotA became popular.
But should I persuade someone to get into Starcraft 2, I would do something like this:
EPT
