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Hello friends.
I initially set out to write a blog about how I think Starcraft is dying. As I got pretty far into writing the post which was becoming increasingly more depressing, I started thinking about the topic a bit more than ever really before and hit an abrupt stopping point which almost completely reversed my mindset of the entire situation. I realized how trivial it all sounded and pretty much scrapped probably 2 hours worth of writing after this sort of self revelation so to speak. The following hit me, which I'm going to transcribe into writing as best I can...Apologies for grammatical issues I need to fly as fast as possible before I lose train of thought.
I thought back to broodwar times when the community was MUCH much smaller than it is now. And yet how alive it felt. There was always so much energy and life despite there being so few events and so little prize money out there. The foreign scene was amazing despite the fact that there were probably only a dozen people or less who could even think about taking games off korean progamers. The people who were heavily invested in the broodwar scene were some of the most fascinating people I've known in any facet of my life. To have such a passion for a game and to have such a tight knit community form around such a game was unlike anything I'd seen before. To have an entire custom wiki solely for the game (liquipedia) and an entire database filled with game history, stats, links to replays and games and players (tlpd) was something far more special than anything I'd come across in my short gaming history before.
The community and this love for the game grew on me quickly and drew me in further. When I was surrounded by these people I could relate to so easily and as I made friends I began to realize the game hardly even mattered anymore. I had friends here that I've met through the game that will always be there regardless of what goes on in the world of Starcraft or ESPORTS. This will never die no matter what the next balance patch might entail or how the game might change. Sure the game is the core, but the people who let the game define them on such a shallow level are usually the people that come and go far too quickly to see and experience the true greatness of the community. One of the biggest issues with the early days of WoL were the hoards of casuals who would jump ship just as quickly as they boarded it. These people weren't true "life" they were simply a flash in the pan. The real fire grows over time. Throwing a few twigs on the fire might temporarily spark some large flames, but you need something that will do the real work over time and stick around for a lasting period of time, enough time to really make a difference in the long run.
These people who have been going around saying the game is dying or dead are people who have chosen to abandon the game. They're people who are choosing to leave for any number of reasons. Maybe they have burned bridges in the community and are choosing to get out. Maybe they were a former player who used to spend quite a lot of time trying to break into the scene and never really got there. Maybe they were a caster who never quite broke through and really got noticed. Maybe they're just a bitter fan who realized he would never get out of Gold and rage uninstalled the game and now spends his days talking about how terrible the metagame is, how infestors will always be completely broken and how there is no hope for the future. These people have made a choice, and now they may wish to push some sort of self justification for having left or ditched out of whatever they used to be invested in. They need a reason to justify their decision to quit and instead of finding fault within they need something to blame or point at.
The fact of it is there is always hope for the future. The game doesn't even really matter if you see through it and keep a positive outlook. Starcraft as an ESPORT has already succeeded and will continue to do so if people stay to see it through and help turn it into all it can be. Something like the collegiate starleague (CSL) is about so much more than just playing Starcraft. Sure it uses the platform of gaming and specifically Starcraft as the core of it's driving point but all of the underlying elements that come about through the playing of the game. Elements of teamwork, socialization around a common cause, camaraderie, finding success in something in life, applying yourself to achieve a goal in life. These are basic core life principles that transcend far beyond the confines of a mouse and keyboard. Teams and communities forming around the country at various colleges, all growing and building on these principles which at the end of the day means SO much more than just a silly game living or dying.
When you queue up on ladder, you may be there to play a game but you're also there to apply your mental and physical abilities to turn what your thinking into reality. What you get out of it is up to you. Some may see it as simply playing a video game, but others will argue it's so much more than that. Others will argue you are doing something that not just anyone else in this world can do. You're thinking at thousands of actions a second, and your hands are moving at hundreds of actions a minute to turn these thoughts into reality (assuming you have at least 100apm)
Perhaps those who say Starcraft is dying have not had much success recently or just simply stopped having fun playing. That's alright. Games and people are constantly changing, they have growth periods, they have highs and lows as with anything in life. fluctuation and change is natural. As old people leave new people will fill their places. As some players retire new ones are found. The lows in life only become failures if you quit and allow it to be the end, otherwise there will always be a future. There is always light at the end of the tunnel no matter how long that tunnel might seem. Through any pain in life there can be success with the proper mindset and actions you take that follow.
other games will rise and fall, ESPORTS will change as does regular sports or anything in life. Your interests may change, but overall in life these principles will always exist. No matter what game you choose to play, no matter what others might think of the game you play. Keep doing what you believe in and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. People who can't do something or think they might have failed at something will be the first ones to tell you that you can't do it. (I'm sure I'm stealing from a combination of movie quotes here) People who have given up on something will turn and try and get others to make the same decision to quit that they did. These people should be ignored. Successful people don't let others tell them where to go in life because they already know where they're going. Do what makes you happy and what you enjoy and don't spend your days trying to take it away from others.
Starcraft dying? Only if the community lets it. And this isn't a community that would just let something like that happen.
 
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This isn't the blog Plexa wanted. o; Man it's getting really old. PB you think BW is dead? There's your answer. It's only a decline and you're right. This community won't allow it to.
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Oh LuckyFool, you have put words where I needed them, but could never find them. I'd be lying to myself if I hadn't had once or twice thought, "maybe... maybe it's all going down from here", but you're right. Dammit you're right, it's only gone when we've chosen for it to be gone. And I'll be damned if I let something as shallow as a few opinions steer me from the game and community that I've grown to love over the years. There's too much awesome to toss it aside!
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You do know that Warcraft2, a game which was created 1995 still is being played online, right? I'm one of those people 
I guess it all comes down to on how you choose to define a online game as being dead.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
Good read luckyfool. Thanks for this 
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Very nice blog, not what I was expecting but everything you wrote definitely resonates with me. I've been involved with my school's CSL team for almost 3 years and it's true that the game itself is not what matters most -- it's ultimately about the competition and the community. Our scene won't "die" because even if SC2 falls flat on its back as a viable competitive game (aka blizzard nukes the servers) then we will find another game to play. But for now SC2 has been good enough for us and HOTS is only showing improvement. I'm personally so excited to install the game on Tuesday and just practice all week for the CSL qualifier, I've even done all my work in advance so I can skip all my classes.
We're not oblivious to the flaws in the game, but we deal with them. The feeling of winning a CSL match (after spending friday+saturday night practicing) or laughing at one of Artosis' jokes during SOTG or playing Mafia after an MLG makes it worth it.
I'm sure as hell not going to quit anytime soon.
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The blog I spoke of last night had turned into such a convoluted mess I realized after taking a step back and asking myself what the larger picture really was, and what I really thought was going on...I realized my answer was 360 degrees different.
After getting over that mental roadblock this seemed to pop out of nowhere in less than half the time. Effortlessly too, Without having to make any edits or changes whatsoever. Can't remember EVER writing anything in recent times that came out as easily as this.
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Very interesting. I get what you're saying and I think it's true. The community would never just die and through that neither would the game.
Indeed I am one of the many who got relatively good playing sc2 ( and I loved playing so much) but eventually lost interest. I think the game is very stale right now, even top level games between my favorite players aren't that interesting anymore.
I won't just leave this community however since it's the best community I have ever seen. And maybe someday sc2 will peek my interests again and I'll get back into playing and discussing.
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In my opinion, the excuse of 'the community let the game died' is used simply because the people who love the game want to delay the inevitable death by gathering community support. Truth is, we cant do shit. I have been one of the most active poster in the sc2 strategy forum, most of my blogs at that time were mainly rotate around the meta game at top high master NA level and my prediction on the game future. But eventually i start to realize the truth: Blizzard is the one who is killing their own product. The initial paywall into starcraft2 has already set it back hugely compare to its direct competitors on the esport market. Regions like SEA, China have extremely limited access to the game due to the price compare to the low average income plus lack of infrastructure(sever, internet, PC, etc...). All the patches of the game are aimed toward higher tier computers and steadily increase the minimum requirement to run the game for players in these regions thus our community missed out on a huge talent pool.
Beside failing to attract new players to the game, blizzard paid little to non effort to keep existed players in the game in a long run. The initial BNet 2.0 is horrifying with the ininite famous quote "Do you really want chat channel?". Name change, clan tag, in game spectating and tournament support are pretty much non-existent. The first time the BNet got a huge improvement was about a year ago and all they did were move stuff around to get a new UI instead of actually solving the existed problem. Meanwhile, on the same time line, Valve and Riot constantly improving their system and steadily attract new players while making sure that the experience of current players live up to standard. Complain or critical bug or HACKERS(lol there is almost 0) on http://dev.dota2.com/ are solved in days, longest problem are solved within month while blizzard simply denying their players from a simple name change.
But all of those didnt make me lose hope in Blizzard. Until NASL Toronto, i still following the pro scene religiously with hopes that one day Blizzard would understand. Rumors was they are saving all the good stuff for Diablo 3 and HoTS, that they will be release the game when its done, that it will be something that i have never experience before. And then come Diablo 3 running on our infinite Bnet 2.0. Custom chat channel doesnt even exist while the default ones were being filled with hackers and spam bots. Their marketplace(which was rumored to be the Custom Maps Market place for HoTS) used SYSTEM CLOCK and filled with flaws compare to their previous World of Warcraft title. Until today, people still think that it was /r/diablo who killed their own game... Yeah right! If Blizzard could have done what Valve did, nothing would even happened from the first place.
I am holding my money right now. HoTS gona have to prove itself that it will be worth my time and money. Meanwhile I will stick with DotA2 and give my trust into the Icefrog i have known for almost 8 years. Fun fact: even though DotA2 is free, cosmetic items trading has earned me enough money to buy myself a nexus 7 to read ebook.
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Awesome blog luckyfool! You really hit on some great points! I feel like the people crying about the game dying won't be around long enough to try and support it and bring it out of any "decline." Heck starcraft is bigger now than it was in the past couple of years, so if we do lose a few fans because they have given up on the game then maybe we are better off without them
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On March 11 2013 16:35 solidbebe wrote:
Very interesting. I get what you're saying and I think it's true. The community would never just die and through that neither would the game.
Indeed I am one of the many who got relatively good playing sc2 ( and I loved playing so much) but eventually lost interest. I think the game is very stale right now, even top level games between my favorite players aren't that interesting anymore.
I won't just leave this community however since it's the best community I have ever seen. And maybe someday sc2 will peek my interests again and I'll get back into playing and discussing.
Well honestly if hots doesn't do it it'll be a long time (if ever) before sc2 will peek your interest again xD.
I was same way though wol got really stale, I pretty much stopped watching tournaments and looked at results. The only stream of wol I could ever bother watching was jaedong, otherwise I watched no wol streams.
Hots is looking really good (a lot more entertaining then wol was at the end that's for sure) and I have pretty high hopes for it. The fact blizzard has stated they are working with tournaments and updating map pool more (and if the image of the hots map pool is true it's a sick map pool). The games are more fun and hopefully if there is ever a turtle to deathball like bl/corr/infestor (like sky toss is looking right now in hots) it gets nerfed properly and all that.
I feel if blizzard doesn't drop the ball and let deathballs like bl/corr/infestor, sky toss, etc become pretty much standard then hots should be way more exciting then wol ever was. Here is to hoping!
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I got really invested into sc2, but I've waited 3 years for blizzard to fix fundamental issues with the gameplay.
So I am pretty mad about hots, it was a promise to fix everything that was wrong with wol and they only added more problems.
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Wow i must have misunderstood that completely or something, because after reading it twice most of what i get is :
- the bw community was freaking awesome ( i wasn't around back then but right the fu*k now i can tell you it's pretty friggin awesome with total badasses like largo or just really really nice guys with cool mustaches like bakuryu and sayle as our iconic chineseman caster )
- casuals stopped playing
- people who stopped playing ( but aren't casuals ) are either mad, bad or stopped having fun ( cf your whole paragraph about guy not getting out of gold ; caster not getting recognition etc etc )
- The community is what that's all about, and the game doesn't really matter ( that whole paragraph about the csl ; "The game doesn't even really matter" )
- And a whole lot of generic life philosophy ( "Games and people are constantly changing... bla bla bla " ; " other games will rise and fall, ESPORTS will change as does regular sports or anything in life ... bla bla bla " ; " Keep doing what you believe in and don't let anyone tell you otherwise ... bla bla bla ")
I'm sorry if i come off as negative or anything, as i'm genuinely trying to understand but, what is this blog about ?
Seems like you're just celebrating the community, somewhat belittling those who stopped playing, and completely putting the game aside as if that's completely irrelevant.
Telling people to simply enjoy the game is fine and all, but the very reason people whine / rage / complain, the very reason you see so many of those threads and blogs pop up ( " Terran too hard " ; " foreigners not good enough " ; " SC2 dying " ; " game not fun " ; " game mechanics bad, revert to bw style " etc etc etc ) is because people aren't really enjoying it, or aren't having fun " enough ". It doesn't necessarily means people don't get ANY enjoyment out of it, they might get SOME but not that much. The game might not be bad, but it might "not be good ENOUGH".
Now the community won't instantly disappear or anything, but the interest of people might shrink slowly. The game clearly did not live up to expectations. The people telling to " give it time " ( as in " you're right the game isn't very good right now but it will get better " ) have had 3 years, now what ?
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hots aint too shabby atm so here is to hoping :D
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Nice blog. The same goes for Broodwar now as well! Although the tone of the blog makes me wonder why you play a game that you don't seem to really like or care about as a game in itself.
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Well put, LuckyFool!
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so much passion Luckyfool! I also think the newer generation is a little bit more spoiled compared to the old school players, nowadays every kid has an iphone and more modern computers and people are whining about graphics, gameplay, balance in game etc. It's just utterly retarded and those kids deserve a spanking in their ass. Maturity is one of the keys to e-sports success and not complaining!
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To be honest (and I don't know if I should say this), I've never even seen a SC2 vod much less played the game.
While following the game development I was disappointed in a number of the game design things, but what really killed it for me was all the battle.net stuff in addition to those issues. So in other words, I was one of those people that made good on the not-buying-it-threat.
My current plan is to wait until all three titles are released and get a battle chest for $20 or so and have fun playing through the campaigns and having a fun and balanced game.
So in support of the OP, even though I've never seen a single SC2 game, I'm still on the forums and in the community. However, does that mean esports isn't dying for me, simply because I'm here? Well, from my perspective bw has fallen off the cliff and I have nothing interesting to watch anymore.
I do look forward to playing SC2, and I think it will be awesome when I do. But I think it will be more from consuming the product rather than spectating which I enjoyed from bw (but I guess who knows though until I try?).
As a side note, Diablo 3 has brought me lots of entertainment in the form of reading reviews on amazon, threads all over the internet, etc....lol. I don't plan on playing it ever though.
Anyway, I'll miss the 1v1 python obs games with my korean buddy on bnet back in the day, then when I got bored of that watching vods on tl.
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Best way to revive esports is to figure out how to sell poor gamers with little money more than 1 new keyboard every 4 years, and upgrading from mountain dew to Patrón.
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EPT
