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It gives me a little bit of pride to say that I've probably been playing Starcraft longer than most people here.
For a long time, that was it. I played BW. I looked up builds on TL and some other fansites which have since shut down. I didn't follow proleague of have a TL account, no, all I wanted to do was play. Eventually as I got older and had less time to actually play, I began to read TL more often and watch more pro games.
Then SC2 came out. I wasn't one of the lucky ones to get a beta, so I waited to get the game. With years of BW experience, I had a pretty good base to work off of-- by the end of the year I was high platinum, a little after I was diamond, and I made the push to Masters last winter break.
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with my SC skills. But there's one thing I'm not happy about. I am not a creative player.
Sure, I have my own style of simcity (warpgates all nicely lined u with a spine of pylons). I can make a decision based on what my opponent is doing ingame as well. But that's not really creativity is it? It's like I'm an AI which can respond to ingame situations, but not create them if that makes any sense. I've never really made my own build-- all I do is copy stuff I see. I guess you could say I've got a pretty decent library of various builds and cheeses-- books and magazines if you will.
All I've been doing is using things that have more or less been proven to work. There's nothing wrong with doing things that work, right? But good god, I've been playing BW for YEARS. In theory, I'm better than 90%+ of people who play SC2. I see guides by people in "high masters" or "mid diamond" for a certain MU. And yeah, I watch games by pros and see all the neat stuff they do. For the former, I can look and think and be like "hmm, this is a good build, but xxx might counter it", or "no, this build kind of stinks because of x, y and maybe z." The latter... well they don't matter in this post.
I myself cannot come up with a build to save my life. I know almost all the basic info for Toss, like how long upgrades and research take, how long units take to build, how much production I can support off a base, the works. Still, even armed with this info and a blank sheet of paper and pencil, I can't think of any build. I think the farthest I've gotten is advocating for use of warp prisms for harass. *puts on hipster glasses*. Even when they were kind of paper planes.
I think it might be a side effect of playing BW so long. In BW, builds and strats (at the lower levels) were pretty freaking established. Games took a lot longer (or at least they felt a lot longer). So, winning was comparatively more important. Every action-- micro, macro, whatever, FELT more important than in SC2, nevermind the one engagement and win design of the game. So, I just did what worked for so long, and that's pretty much hampered my ability to be truly creative.
But yeah. I'm uncreative. 
 
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I don't know if there's any solution to *not* being creative, unfortunately.
Play custom games against some of your friends who are fucking terrible at the game... the point being that you won't have to worry about winning, and so you'll be open to trying new and interesting strategies just for fun, and might stumble across some interesting timings or strategies that could be used in actual ladder matches.
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I think it is harder to be creative when you play to win. You use more solid builds, or what you know will work, to make sure that you will win.
Myself, I play completely for fun and play random. Every game, I just go with the flow and do something that I think will be fun. Ghost rush, burrowed roaches, mass spines, sky 'Toss, speed reapers. It's all in good fun and it actually works out some times.
I'm also only in Platinum, so that may have something to do with it.
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Just like the builds you're using now, any new build needs to have a goal or be designed to deal with something specific. Most one-base builds are simply "openers" that allow you to get set up for later in the game or just end it outright, and it makes sense to "copy" them because they're solid and flexible. As you play games, try to identify situations where you were beaten by your opponent and look to find a single way you can change your build to address that situation. This includes which units you builds, where you put them, how you scout, when you're aggressive, when to be defensive, etc. . .. Try to consistently make that same change every time you face the same strategy from your opponent in the future. These little variations to "basic" builds allow you to custom tailor your play into a "personalized" version that fits your abilities and personality.
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Creativity is overrated. I had way more fun in BW doing a 2base arbiter build every single PvT than anything else in BW or SC2
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On April 11 2012 12:31 kaisr wrote:
Creativity is overrated. I had way more fun in BW doing a 2base arbiter build every single PvT than anything else in BW or SC2
Or...the stove!
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I think creativity in making builds stems from knowledge of standard play and the inner workings of the game. Reactor hellion expand was once considered creative, but it wasn't made because someone was feeling hipster; it was made to solve early game problems like baneling busts and mass lings whilst keeping some pressure and scouting when not facing an agressive Zerg.
Sure there's still creative boundaries where someone comes up with solutions for problems others wouldn't, but overall all builds have an obvious goal.
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You don't have to be innovative to be successful. Just because you cant think of creative ways to defeat your opponent, there's no reason you can't win with straight up rehearsed, solid strategies with boss mechanics. Not all pros are creative either. The best thing to do is take what you see from streams and use it in your own games. Things won't go exactly how you saw it, and you will have to adapt. When you win, you will feel a sense of creativity, just by logically adapting to the game. Most 'creative' wins are gimmicky anyway, like 8 min dt warp prism drops or what ever. Just steal shit you see and try to re-enact that in your games.
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aah, back before the snipe nerf i had an awesome ghost cloak-snipe-drop expand play that was totally bitchin' in TvT.
Now it's just kinda bland T____________T;
I feel thy painigus
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EPT
