"[...] Case's consciousness divided like beads of mercury, arcing above an endless beach the color of the dark silver clouds. His vision was spherical, as though a single retina lined the inner surface of a globe that contained all things, if all things could be counted.
And here things could be counted, each one. He knew the number of grains of sand in the construct of the beach [...]. He knew the number of yellow food packets in the canisters in the bunker (four hundred and seven). He knew the number of brass teeth in the left half of the open zipper of the salt-crusted leather jacket that Linda Lee wore as she trudged along the sunset beach, swinging a stick of driftwood in her hand (two hundred and two)."
William Gibson - Neuromancer (1984)
I'm watching a FPVOD of Bisu vs. Jaedong, Bisu's point of view. I'm taking a day off my zerg sympathies and root for the macho race today. Starcraft 2 got me interested in the Brood War scene, and this is the first pro BW I watch first person.
Once his natural is on the way, a lot of zapping between different viewports starts to occur. The scouting probe, the main, the natural probe, the scouting probe, the main, send the idle probe to mine, the scouting probe, harass a drone, the natural, the main, the scouting probe is out of shields, the natural, the main.
When Bisu pulls 6 probes to transfer to his natural, he clones 5, then zooms to the scouting probe. Then, he clones the rest of them -- which he had hotkey'd the split second before resuming the scout.
It ramps up entering the midgame. The locations between which zapping is occuring are constantly changing. Random units are hotkey'd and then something else takes their place. The minimap is generally not clicked unless the area has no units in it -- in all other cases, those units have hotkeys, and Bisu knows that hotkey. He knows it as Case knows the number of grains of sand in the construct of the beach. He knows it as I know how to tilt my feet when walking.
Bisu sees the two scourge on the screen. He needs to pick up a single templar and try to escape with the shuttle. By the time the scourge catch up, he needs to use the templar to storm something, before they're picked off. By the time I've realised this, Bisu has already done it, moved two zealots back, moved ten zealots forward, and started another Stargate cycle.
Moving the shuttle is not something Bisu needs to think about. Dropping only templar from a zealot/templar filled shuttle is not something he needs to think about. The actions have clumped, they've formed patterns in his brain.
Starcraft is a game. Other games have similarities to Starcraft. But Starcraft has a depth of possibility that makes it something completely beyond most other games. When things get complex enough, when they achieve the greatest space of possibility, they become, in a way, magical. Mathematics, music, programmers' tools emacs & vim, Starcraft. It is argued in "Goedel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstader that a specific form of complexity: self-reference, is integral to sentience itself.
Starcraft is a matrix. It's a map, a translation table, an artform. It's a constellation of nerve cells in the fingers; it's a constellation of neurons in the brain. The essence of Starcraft is beyond balance, fast expands and OSL victories.
Watching the entire game makes me dizzy. Not Bisu. Bisu has the perception adapted to playing Starcraft. When he zaps between the scout, the main, and the natural, he doesn't need think in terms of "Need to press 00. There, need to pull the probe. Need to press 11. Need to check the drones health.". He's not dazed for a single millisecond as the screen zaps back to his main -- he knows exactly what he's going to see. It probably gives him confidence and cool.
For me, there's the main, the natural, and the scout. For Bisu, it's the earlygame. It's looking at Jaedongs build. The other things are handled automatically by his brain. I'm sure this is true for many Teamliquid members as well, but the phenomenon stretches more deeply for Bisu, and it's present in other aspects of the game as well.
When I started playing Starcraft 2, I had serious issues pressing "5s" "1" while shoving a bunch of MM down my opponents throat. I couldn't afford the lapse in concentration. Later, I learned not only to press "5s" but also "4aaaad". Later, I learned to press "5s" "4aaad" "55" /build depot/ "11". Still, I find it hard to do basic macro such as 5s while managing an important engagment, even having climed from silver to diamond (analogous to iccup F to D-).
Those things wouldn't require concentration from Bisu. To him, I imagine, it's about as difficult as keeping your heart beating.
These are the things that fascinate me so much about BW, and lack counterpart in SC2. It's the adaption of the human brain and body to an interface probably designed to be used at such complexity. There isn't even any automining. Either Blizzard were genius enough to foresee the power of a high-apm high-perceptive player, or short-sighted enough not to see the incredible power of big macro.
Seeing a bunch of mutalisks enter a base in SC2, then hellions and marauders coming to defend it -- it makes me cringe. When Bisu has the precense to hotkey his transferring workers so he can scout the single second it'd take to clone them, SC2 players put their entire army on a single hotkey. That single hotkey steering more units than hotkeys 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0 could ever do in Broodwar.
My goal here is not to complain about SC2. But even if the players and Blizzard make SC2 more dynamic, more strategic, and more entertaining to watch as BW, Starcraft 2 will never be as interesting from a cognitive point of view.
You hit upon a really good way of looking at it that we often neglect here in the forums.
When I started playing Starcraft 2, I had serious issues pressing "5s" "1" while shoving a bunch of MM down my opponents throat. I couldn't afford the lapse in concentration. Later, I learned not only to press "5s" but also "4aaaad". Later, I learned to press "5s" "4aaad" "55" /build depot/ "11". Still, I find it hard to do basic macro such as 5s while managing an important engagment, even having climed from silver to diamond (analogous to iccup F to D-).
Those things wouldn't require concentration from Bisu. To him, I imagine, it's about as difficult as keeping your heart beating.
This should be your end goal in basically any pursuit - the point of understanding that is far deeper than conscious thought. That is one of the many reasons BW pros practice so much, getting to the point that this is all internalized takes thousands of hours and many years. They play day in and day out to reach a point of total immersion, they can concentrate on 3-4 things at once while using the forefront of their mind to think about the big picture.
There isn't even any automining. Either Blizzard were genius enough to foresee the power of a high-apm high-perceptive player, or short-sighted enough not to see the incredible power of big macro.
Honestly its neither, things like automining just didn't exist in 1998. I don't remember any game from that era having much in the way of automation, you can't even queue units in most of those games.
Seeing a bunch of mutalisks enter a base in SC2, then hellions and marauders coming to defend it -- it makes me cringe. When Bisu has the precense to hotkey his transferring workers so he can scout the single second it'd take to clone them, SC2 players put their entire army on a single hotkey. That single hotkey steering more units than hotkeys 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0 could ever do in Broodwar.
You're talking about a few different things here. Even in BW its rare for someone to hotkey probes while transferring, typically you bring over 6 and do the whole thing in one fluid motion then go back to probes. Bisu is unique in this regard. I've always wondered why more SC2 pros don't hotkey workers for later though, in BW people do it to quickly move them away when they get harassed but its rare in SC2 (maybe because even storm doesn't kill workers for shit in this game).
The army thing I dunno, people are just lazy. The better tosses keep blink stalkers separate to fend off mutas but even that isn't very common.
Very granular but with some beautiful insight into the poetry of the game.
Interesting read! The poetry of the game is how I'd describe it too. We should talk about it more.
There isn't even any automining. Either Blizzard were genius enough to foresee the power of a high-apm high-perceptive player, or short-sighted enough not to see the incredible power of big macro.
Honestly its neither, things like automining just didn't exist in 1998. I don't remember any game from that era having much in the way of automation, you can't even queue units in most of those games.
Automining would be limited only by how RTS games are understood, not by technical considerations. The game metagame, so to speak. I'd guess Blizzard were short-sighted in not understanding the usefulness of such a thing -- point is I'm fascinated how humans have adapted to such a crippling limitation and made it natural.
Seeing a bunch of mutalisks enter a base in SC2, then hellions and marauders coming to defend it -- it makes me cringe. When Bisu has the precense to hotkey his transferring workers so he can scout the single second it'd take to clone them, SC2 players put their entire army on a single hotkey. That single hotkey steering more units than hotkeys 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 0 could ever do in Broodwar.
You're talking about a few different things here. Even in BW its rare for someone to hotkey probes while transferring, typically you bring over 6 and do the whole thing in one fluid motion then go back to probes. Bisu is unique in this regard. I've always wondered why more SC2 pros don't hotkey workers for later though, in BW people do it to quickly move them away when they get harassed but its rare in SC2 (maybe because even storm doesn't kill workers for shit in this game).
The army thing I dunno, people are just lazy. The better tosses keep blink stalkers separate to fend off mutas but even that isn't very common.
I think the laziness is the very problem. It requires heavy mental construction work to make hotkeys intuitive; Bisu has it that way. Putting everything on 1 is indicative of the opposite -- strategy might have taken priority over control in such a way that the psychological rocade doesn't win you any games. I want to highlight that the constant remapping of keys fascinates me most, and it's the only thing I've been practicing in BW. I love the sensation of setting up 10 control groups of zerglings and hydras, and then overriding them, remapping my hatcheries, and then my mutas, and trying to instantly remember what went where. It's like playing a piano with only one octave, but the ability to temporarily shift a key to another octave.
I hope this clarifies how I feel SC2's "1a" syndrome is opposite of Bisu's probe transfer.
Very granular but with some beautiful insight into the poetry of the game.
Thank you, I'll try to be more elaborate if I continue writing on the subject. I'd say musicianship rather than poetry though, for me, poetry is more analogous to strategy.
On November 10 2011 07:36 sapht wrote: I think the laziness is the very problem. It requires heavy mental construction work to make hotkeys intuitive; Bisu has it that way. Putting everything on 1 is indicative of the opposite -- strategy might have taken priority over control in such a way that the psychological rocade doesn't win you any games. I want to highlight that the constant remapping of keys fascinates me most, and it's the only thing I've been practicing in BW. I love the sensation of setting up 10 control groups of zerglings and hydras, and then overriding them, remapping my hatcheries, and then my mutas, and trying to instantly remember what went where. It's like playing a piano with only one octave, but the ability to temporarily shift a key to another octave.
I hope this clarifies how I feel SC2's "1a" syndrome is opposite of Bisu's probe transfer.
I agree with laziness, but tracing the problem back even further is I think SC2 is still too "young" to have the same level of refinement you would expect from Broodwar; at this point in the game overarching strategy and unit composition still trumps the hundreds of minor execution details that propelled the BW S class over the average BW progamer and each other.
As the game gets more mapped out and understood, I expect the level of importance of the execution details you pointed out to emerge in SC2; given equal understanding and overall execution of strategies in general, pro players will be pushed into improving in small ways in order to win. If they can't hang with this new wave, they will be pushed into the wayside the same way the strategic geniuses of early BW were muscled out by the macro monsters of today who had the same level of strategic understanding as them, but incorporated all the Bisu execution details we marvel over.
Excellent stuff, very much enjoyed reading it. It's always fascinating to look at the mental processing of a master at work.
While I do think SC2 is a good game worth playing at a high level, I also agree that this is one aspect in which it will never be as interesting as BW. I think it's a shame so many view BW's UI as dated, to me it makes more sense to view UI sophistication as a spectrum on which there is no single optimal point but rather a range that produces playable yet sufficiently challenging games.
On November 10 2011 07:36 sapht wrote: I think the laziness is the very problem. It requires heavy mental construction work to make hotkeys intuitive; Bisu has it that way. Putting everything on 1 is indicative of the opposite -- strategy might have taken priority over control in such a way that the psychological rocade doesn't win you any games. I want to highlight that the constant remapping of keys fascinates me most, and it's the only thing I've been practicing in BW. I love the sensation of setting up 10 control groups of zerglings and hydras, and then overriding them, remapping my hatcheries, and then my mutas, and trying to instantly remember what went where. It's like playing a piano with only one octave, but the ability to temporarily shift a key to another octave.
I hope this clarifies how I feel SC2's "1a" syndrome is opposite of Bisu's probe transfer.
I agree with laziness, but tracing the problem back even further is I think SC2 is still too "young" to have the same level of refinement you would expect from Broodwar; at this point in the game overarching strategy and unit composition still trumps the hundreds of minor execution details that propelled the BW S class over the average BW progamer and each other.
As the game gets more mapped out and understood, I expect the level of importance of the execution details you pointed out to emerge in SC2; given equal understanding and overall execution of strategies in general, pro players will be pushed into improving in small ways in order to win. If they can't hang with this new wave, they will be pushed into the wayside the same way the strategic geniuses of early BW were muscled out by the macro monsters of today who had the same level of strategic understanding as them, but incorporated all the Bisu execution details we marvel over.
This may be true. I would love it for you to be right, because SC2 may become a huge spectator sport, a sport I might actually care about. It's not -- however -- important to my point, which is to glimpse into the automation and internalization of Starcraft from a perceptive perspective.
EPT
Bisu vs. 
Jaedong, Bisu's point of view. I'm taking a day off my zerg sympathies and root for the macho race today. Starcraft 2 got me interested in the Brood War scene, and this is the first pro BW I watch first person.
