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I'm posing this question and I expect to get a variety of answers rather than a resounding agreement. Even though this is TL, the largest website devoted to SC2, I want to try and get as many different answers as possible.
So here's the bloggy part of this blog. I've stopped playing SC2 almost completely now. Not necessarily from any sort of ladder anxiety, although perhaps partly, but because I don't really find it fun or addicting. Perhaps there was a time where I found the game legitimately enjoyable, but a large part of that was just me devoting time to get better at it, looking for the next win essentially. So what's so bad about this?
The thing is, I've never really played a game solely for that reason. When I play other games they're just fun in general. Whether I win or lose, whether I feel a sense of satisfaction after the game, it was just fun to play and go through the mechanics of the game. Personally, I think this applies to physical sports more for me. When I play tennis, I absolutely love just hitting the ball. I could probably play hours and hours to no end just hitting around with no real goal such as winning games/sets if I had the stamina.
There's also the fact that many other games are "social" games. MOBAs, MMOs, etc. RTS's on the other hand are strictly business. 1 on 1, you vs. random guy you don't know, a small glhf at the beginning, but afterwards there's most likely nothing else besides BM or gg. Sure, I've had sociable games playing with other friends and such, but how often do you get time to talk in the middle of games when you need to devote every bit of attention to the game being played?
The game can also frustrating to many because of balance issues always being in the back of your head. If you really believe something is imbalanced it becomes difficult to enjoy the game. Next to WoW pvp (lol), balance is something that is constantly discussed in SC2. Losing to something cheesy can also be very annoying, although personally I don't mind it more than just losing in general.
I don't feel like I'm the only one who feels this way. Everything I see on TL seems to revolve around some sort of competitive aspect of the game. How do I get better? What's the best strat to win? How do things need to be balanced? Is X race harder to play to masters? Do things need higher skill caps so the better player wins? Stuff like that. What about just enjoying the game whether you get better or not? It seems like once people hit a wall, they stop playing or get discouraged from playing.
I'd like to hear how other people approach the game, and how it compares to how they approach other games.
 
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I feel the biggest draw of SC2 is that it is a competitive outlet. Not everyone has the ability to play sports competitively, so playing SC2 is one way to be competitive at something.
Is SC2 fun? This is how I believe certain groups of players think:
High level/pro players - play for the money/glory. SC2 is tolerable, but not incredibly fun (would rather play BW  )
Low/mid level players - SC2 is pretty fun. it's also fun to try to get better and beat my friends
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I play because I find enjoyment in self improvement; though I know some people who play it because they like the competition, the leagues and ladders and all that.
Personally I think caring only about self improvement is the most stable way to enjoy the game; this is because you can always find ways to improve your game; (whether it's a bronze player learning to spend his money well, or a Grandmaster player refining timings on builds) where as, you can't always win, because (as white-ra says) "you cannot win all game"--so frustration and disappointment are much easier if you only care about winning.
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I play more for the community, mlgs, events, to compete in something and as a hobby outside of work and other stuff in life.
I have more fun for all of the reasons above than the actual game, the game isn't bad though, not as good as broodwar was but definitely interesting enough and playing good games against good players is still pretty intense.
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Generally, I feel that feeling you get is resolved by custom games, but the problem is that b.net 2.0 really spoils a lot of the fun in customs too...
Still, I feel that SC2 is fun in its competitive way. Although you say SC2 is unique in that way, that doesn't necessarily seem true, the same seems to apply to FPS. No one has fun with a 4-34 kill-death spread xD.
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i don't find it enjoyable at all aswell. but i do keep on playing and it's important for me to be better at this game because i view it as some kind of a challenge. this is a very hard game, especially mentally. like the OP described, it just demands too much. and it requires a highly competitive individual to be good at it. i want to beat other people on a hard platform like SC2 because i need to know i can do it.
that is my sole motivation. otherwise i would never play 1v1s because it's not fun.
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i don't find the game enjoyable at all to play at all anymore since its not a game its a commitment. I'd rather play a videogame I can drop for however long (due to real life actually being a big deal) and not be penalized for it by lack of practice. but to watch its really really entertaining so i still stick to that
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The better you get, the more fun it becomes imo. I think that 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4, particularly at lower levels, can be quite crazy and you can do a fair bit of random stuff, though once you hit diamond/master in those modes you better hope you are good enough to beat teams you get matched with.
As for 1v1..well again, if you do actually play to improve, then it will become more fun the better you get. Just remember to stop if you are getting annoyed, I generally say that you ought to stop if you have lost 3 in a row, and just go and do something else. If you are not having fun, eh, all games sometimes have that, but if you are getting angry, then it is time to step away, at least for the time being.
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It's definitely a fun game. I think, however, the macro aspect of the game is inherently frustrating in that there is a constant list of somewhat menial tasks you are punished for not doing, like building supply and injecting larva. So while it is satisfying to macro perfectly, the best you can do is not make mistakes and all the rest of the time you are messing up.
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I think im the complete opposite of the OP. My sense of fun, or what I get enjoyment from, is working towards something. I've never found a game I enjoyed where my main goal wasn't working towards something. Even in my childhood playing games like pokemon I would always set a goal and try to achieve it, which is partly why when I found out you could just put in cheat codes the game lost some of its value. I guess its why I like games which are a challenge (especially old style platformers like super meat boy, jumper, vvvvvvv, IWBTG). Even when I played console games like CoD, I played to win. I would do gamebattles and play MLG playlist in halo 3, but CoD was really too simple and halo 3 slowly died (fuck reach) so I now play SC2. Its by far the most competitive game I've ever played, and I think the reason I enjoy it so much is because its so hard. Getting to masters isn't easy, which makes getting to masters even more alluring.
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I quit SC2 almost immediately and went back to Brood War.
I honestly think it is fun to play 2-3 games a week. I usually just jump on when I'm too tired to play Brood War, or have had a few drinks. But unlike Brood War, where I can hammer out 20-30 games in a session at times, I find myself quitting at 2-3 or SC2.
I'm really not even sure why I don't find it as fun. I guess I just don't find the units very interesting, or the strategies very fun to pull off, or the 'watered down' feeling I get playing it compared to Brood War. Another feeling I get when watching Professional Brood War is like, "Wow, I could probably never pull that off", but watching SC2 is just like "meh, I could probably do that".
Also, to touch a little bit on what you were saying, when I was playing SC2 alot when it first came out, I too was playing mainly for the reason of getting better. I think that's a big thing that ruins the fun of the game. I guess there was always this thought in my head like 'This game is way easier than Brood War, you should be awesome at it'. And losing to people who have probably never played Brood War, just made me feel like crap.
I don't know though, maybe it's just because I don't enjoy the game, I don't play it very much, and I'm not very good at it (only diamond level), the game doesn't make sense to me.
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its only fun until you get back into BW then you realize wtf was i thinking.
edit: same goes for someone who just quit BW and is really into SC2 all of a sudden, it works both ways once you drop one game for the other. so i guess sc2 must be fun for that to happen.
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I love the competition, and think playing a competitive game is super fun. This coming from mid/high masters Z. I find the game very frustrating when I play poorly, but I really enjoy well-played, hard fought games (win or lose, although winning is obviously the most fun).
If it's not fun for you then I'd say you probably should find a different game to play.
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I find playing random really helps me to keep enjoying the game. 9 matchups provide more variety than 3 and it removes so much of the balance anxiety. If you find yourself not enjoying games any more try playing random for a while. Sure you'll suck for a bit and lose some ladder position but it will increase your enjoyment in the long run.
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to be honest it gets kind of boring if you just want to play for fun. custom games are still fun though. been playing for a few months
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I didn't like the design of sc2 units, buildings, etc. first so I was a bit reluctant to buy the game. I did nevertheless, also because of my friends who wanted to play games with me. Then I got used to it and I liked few games I played, especially 2v2 
I hadn't played BW competetively nor WC3 so I didn't have good mechanics then. I did have some dexterity (I can play some musical instruments) and enjoyment for fast typing and fast clicking and doing crazy things with units.
I also enjoyed the idea that the game itself should be focused around microing battles and taking decisions. However later it felt like I don't have a lot of space what I could do with units - they do everything by themselves and my interventions seemed to not have the same amazing effect that they used to have in BW. There are two types of units - flying units (very clumsy) and land units (not clumsy but you can't do much with them apart from their special abilities).
Shortly, it's not fun to control units for me.
I liked playing 2v2s until it got too repetitive. Also my friend was obsessed with the competitive idea of the game and the only reward for him was to win games. His goal was to get better and to be able to resolve every situation that could happen. I, on the other hand, just wanted to have fun. I regarded the game to be flawed, not complete and didn't share his attitude. Then I quit playing altogether.
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I like SC2 not because I can get better, as I can do that with almost anything, but because it is simple yet infinitely complex like chess. I like realistic flight simulators for the same reason. There is no limit on how deeply you can go into it, so it feels that I don't need to buy another game any time soon. Another major factor for me here is that the game is mathematical and deterministic. I also like cheesing and allins, not because I do them, but because it makes the game much more exciting to try to see it coming and defend. Finally, I am old enough so that the attraction of many games I used to enjoy is simply gone: I have seen and experienced too many already, and it's mostly just repetition of the same stuff.
My type of play might be different from most other players. I basically pick up a build and go to ladder in order to check how it works. I basically don't care about my MMR, league and rank. Often I lower my MMR on purpose by doing the naniwa rush. When the build doesn't work, I try to optimize it further. Also, if I make some simple mistake in the build, I can sometimes just GG and try again. Of course, it's satisfying to get better, but that can be done with anything, so SC2 is not special in that respect.
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intrigue
Washington, D.C9935 Posts
it's really not that bad. let's say my rating for bw is 100/100 (LOL! don't get mad plz), it's the perfect game. it is the only game i have never tired of, and also the game i've played the longest. sc2 would be.. maybe 60/100? 65/100? this labels it as really fucking good compared to the general field of all games - remove bw, and it'd likely be the new 100. it's just that there's this one game that just towers above everything else =[
for reference (just wildly throwing out numbers i didn't think too hard about) i'd put dragon age 2 at 10/100, mass effect 2 at 35, tf2 at 50, bf3 at 45, league of legends at 30.
sc2 just seems so mortal compared to its predecessor, you know? it doesn't feel like an untouchable piece of art yet. it's like the difference between Flash/Bisu/JD and A-team bw pros. i'm excited for the final version.
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I cannot empathise with you.
I feel like every other game is a waste of time. I play them, get bored and by the end of it I feel like the game developers stole 3-4 hours of my life that I will never get back. It's unfulfilling and I hate it.
Starcraft is completely different. I may feel tired,or in a bad mood and not want to ladder. But as soon as I get going, it feels like I'm alive again. The thrill of the win is like a sort of bloodlust and I can see the overall strategies and the individual tactical plays stretching before me as the match starts.
The losses sting, but getting revenge is so sweet.
Then there's custom 1v1. Practice matches are like sparring. You know what your opponent is doing and what you will do, your job is to turn your amateurish half learnt moves into a surgically precise dance of destruction.
Or custom games amongst friends to see who's best. You know your friend's mind as well as s/he knows yours. It's a test of your psychological skills as much as it is a game of finesse.
And then when you win, you feel like a champion.
And sometimes, not only do I win, but I get the indescribable feeling. Like I just levelled. My hands are faster, my mind is quicker, I am closer to perfection.
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I used to like it but the more I understood it the more I grew to hate it.
I'm not going to go into why I dislike it, because it's personal preference, but I feel it doesn't reward the better player as much as BW did. IdrA has addressed this before in interviews but to simply put it: a worse player can beat a far superior play due to many variables, where as in a game such as chess or BW the better player will almost never lose.
I'm talking about playing btw not watching, watching pros is still fun.
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EPT
