EPTBut yeah, short introduction, and maybe explain why I’m such a lurker and hardly post, and why I felt the need to make a blog about this…actually I can’t explain the former, so I’ll just stick to explaining the latter.
So, as I said, I don’t post much, and I’m not one to write blogs often. However, I love TL and its community ever since I started visiting it, I’ve found out about it when I started playing SC2 last year, I really wish I’d find out about it sooner. The common interest for Starcraft has put together such a great and varied group of people, I just love to read (and sometimes posting) the various blogs and posts in the General section. Seriously, TL is what makes me keep such an interest in Starcraft.
Moving on. I loved BW. Hell, it’s all I’ve played for about 2 years. Back when I was about 11 years old, a friend showed me Starcraft. Me, being a sucker for RTS (especially from Blizz, spent huge amounts of time playing WC2), I started playing it. And I loved the campaign. And then we started installing it on our school’s computer and sneak there to play whenever we had time. And it was awesome. I remember we used to play some funky 4-player map all the time, can’t even remember the name. Then we discovered The Hunters, and we moved there. I loved it, every race was unique and it had its own feeling. Back then, I thought cannon rushing was the best strat (cannon rushing 5 people in a FFA on The Hunters? Damn fun! Ensuing 1v5 and surviving for 20 minutes before my inevitable death? Priceless), DTs were by far better than zealots, and Archon was pretty much the most OP unit (what can I say…I was a kid), so yeah, I did play Protoss.
![[image loading]](http://classic.battle.net/images/battle/scc/protoss/pix/units/screenshots/a01.jpg)
That's right, mah boy, Archons. gg no re
Sometimes I’d play T, I loved their tanks and nukes. Never got into playing Zerg though. For some reason, I hated them. I’ve never had the luck to play online, back then I didn’t have any connection, either at home or in my school, so we limited ourselves to LANs. Eventually, I was lucky enough to have 2 computers connected by LAN at home, and me and my friends would take turns to play there. Sometimes we’d go to another’s friend house, who had also a couple of computers in a LAN, and play there. But, as all games, my friends slowly started moving away from BW (I think we moved on to AoM, and eventually off from RTS), and so did I. Several years later, I’d learned about the pro scene in SC, but I didn’t really follow it. I was too busy playing WC3, and then DotA.
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/wow/es/images/c/cf/GromHellscream.jpg)
I played Orc. All because of this guy. My hero ever since WC2:ToD
Fast forward several years, and I start to hear about SC2. I wasn’t very interested at first, but I thought it was amazing they’d finally make a sequel after all these years. Thought that maybe I’d try it for old times’ sake. A couple of friends got into beta and started talking me into buying it, and eventually got my copy shortly after it was released. And I loved it. It wasn’t quite BW, sure, but to me it felt like it was. I started playing it, found out about TL, and since then I’ve been playing it, on and off (mostly on) till a few weeks back. Started with Protoss, decided to try Terran.“Damn those T, they’ve got so much harass! How hard can it be to play T?”…yeah, wasn’t so easy, but I loved playing T, and stuck with ‘em ever since.
“Well, great, you play SC2 now. What about BW?”
Well, damn you, hypothetical blog reader, I’m getting there!
A few weeks ago, my laptop (and only gaming machine) was stolen. Yeah, bad story. Makes me wish I had a portable baseball bat…or a lightsaber…actually screw that, force choke that mofo.
Ahem…well, here I am now, a broke college student with no gaming rig. I’m saving on getting a new one, but meanwhile I’m stuck with a laptop a friend lent me. But (and not that I’m complaining, it’s more than I bargained for), this thing sucks for gaming. Like, Core Duo, 3 GB, integrated video card kind of suck. Can’t really play anything here, and I don’t have a console (moved on from console gaming, mostly stuck with PC gaming and camping my friend’s PS3 when I hang out with him).
So here I am, having to get my SC2 (and occasionally DotA 2 and BW) fix through streams and such. Then, all of a sudden, I thought “Well, this thing should run BW. I could give it a try on Iccup”. And so I did. Decided I’d try to play as T rather than go back to P, checked out some threads on BW Strategy, checked a few games, checked Bw Liquipedia for a basic BO, installed BW and there I was, getting back into the game. Started playing a bit with the AI, decided I familiarized with the game enough to play an online game…and I got stomped. And again. And again.
![[image loading]](http://multiply.com/mu/diesel67/image/1:diesel67pix/photos/6/500x500/54/Silva-stomping-Kondo.jpg?et=Lgne8%2CHwvYx1sGe3djrNsQ&nmid=123005635)
Pretty much like ths guy
Yeah, wasn’t really surprised, I knew it would be this way. But the replays helped. Gave me an idea of what to watch out for, what I should work on, I got the improved AI for BW and I’ve been practicing my mechanics a bit. However…sure, the UI is atrocious when compared to SC2, it’s more APM intensive (not that is a bad thing, just might be a turn off for some people), but…I’m having fun. Like, tons of fun. SC2 is fun, sure, and I don’t even want to start a comparison or a flame war between the 2, TL is full enough of those and I appreciate each of them for what they are. But BW has something about it that I really missed. I’d like to think it’s the units, they have a certain fun factor. For example, Colossi are nice units and all, but every time they pew pew with their lasers, you don’t go and think “Wow, it hit all those marines! That’s gotta hurt!”. It does its job, but it’s by no means exciting. A reaver shooting SCVs or goons or whatever gets in its path? With the uncertainty it’ll hit? And the big explosion when it does? Now that’s fun. Or tanks melting enemy units so badly it makes you all cuddly and happy. Or the scream of goons and zealots when they enter a minefield.
It’s something about the design, I’d guess. Back then, Blizz didn’t base their design on whether it was balanced or not, they’d base on whether it was fun, and balance it from there. HTs are fun, and storming the other guy to oblivion is still as satisfactory in SC2 as in BW (sure, less APM intensive, but that’s outside the point). Stalkers are even more fun to use than goons, since they have Blink. But units such as Colossi, or Immortals…they’re not bad, but not particularly “fun”. Same with Hellions and Vultures. A freaking space bike that lays mines? Now that’s freaking awesome! A car with flamethrower? Sure, it’s pretty awesome as well when you burn their workers to oblivion, but their design is a bit…lacking, I’d guess.
Ahhh…I guess I did end up comparing them. Well, SC2 is still awesome in its way and not all of its units suffer from the “not-as-fun” syndrome. Also, HotS looks like it will be a huge improvement on that regard, with a better unit design and more micro involved for the new units (if the units make it to release, that is) and as soon as I get my new laptop, I’ll get back to play it.
But, a suggestion to all those people that are playing SC2 and have never played BW before… give it a try. Just a few games. Yeah, the UI is pretty old, but get past that. See the game for what it is, for the genuine fun it provides. If anything, to see where SC2 came from, and how TL started out
P.S. Yeah…I guess this turned out to be longer than I thought
tl;dr? BW is fun and I missed it. If you have never played it, go do that like, right now
P.S.S. English is not my first language, so I apologize for any mistakes.
