EPTMy first RTS game was warcraft 2, this was about 13-14 years ago, with my first ever RTS lan experience. I considered myself a competitive gamer, but back then the only games I knew were for the console for which everyone shared the same screen. So when I got to play against my friends, each person on a seperate computer, in a game where you built awesome bases and castle walls and fought with massive armies, my mind nearly exploded. I remember massing lots of archers and ballistae, and building walls around all my towers, and then the late game with the poly-morph mages and gryphen riders. But what inspired me the most was my friends younger brother, when I wasn't playing I got to sit over his shoulder and watch as he built multiple town halls. I had to ask, where is your army, why did you build a second town hall? He said to me, by the time they get to my base I can have an army, the town hall will allow me to build more workers. The more workers I have, the more money I get, and if I get enough money it will take two of them to stop me.
From there my love for RTS games just exploded. I remember searching stores for the game, but at the time it was so old, they did not carry it anymore. It wasn't until Warcraft 3 came out, that I got my first copy of Warcraft 2 and had my own computer to run it. I remember playing a couple games of chess, and a game of warcraft 2 every night up until high school. That was when I got my next rts game, Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne. I remember meeting up with my friend (the one who originally introduced me to warcraft2) and talking about how great warcraft 3 was. We talked for a bit, and he mentioned how he did not care too much for warcraft, that he was hooked on starcraft. And me, being as stubborn as I was asked why. Why when warcraft has better graphics, there are 4 different races, you get awesome heros that can level up... and he said, with starcraft even your most basic units, are kind of like heros.
Up until my final year of high school I had completely forgot about what he had said that day. The school I went to was very small, and very open to starting any club that gained enough interest. So a friend of mine asked to start a professional gaming club. Our game was going to be Unreal Tournament 3, but because it was not out yet, we would play another professional game to help improve our teamwork and ability to learn / adapt.
I remember him suggesting a RTS game, and I immediately suggested Warcraft3. He said, not everyone here has Warcraft 3, it is an expensive game, and I'm not sure with everyones computers that we will all be able to run it. I was thinking something more along the lines of starcraft. Of course, me being stubborn towards new ideas gave the same speech I did to my old friend a couple years back, but my friend woudln't have it. He said Starcraft is only $20, everyones computers can run it, and it is the most professional game out there. The next week I bought my first copy of Starcraft...
I took it hope to try out the three races. First starting with Terran, I played for about 5 mins and was convinced that this was my race. I decided though I should atleast give the other races a try first before making up my mind. So next I tried zerg, took me a while but I got the basic mechanics and decided to test my armys strength by diving my army of zerglings head long into the computers base... and then two archons appeared from the fog of war... and by the time I got around to picking my jaw up off the floor, each archon had about 30 kills.
After many games of swapping between races I discovered that each one has its own strengths and weaknesses, and it would be best if I just picked a race that best fit my playstyle. In warcraft 3 my favorite race was the Nightelves and if I had to have a second favorite, it would be Orcs. I loved the micro management and spell casting abilities from the nightelves, and I loved the brute strength that orcs had despite their high cost. Thus I fell in love with Protoss.
So after school we would all meet online through battle.net and would play a modded starcraft map called Fastest. You started with 50,000 minerals stacked and touching your cc/nexus/hatch, did not have to worry about expanding, but every second mattered. We took it to the next level and optimized everything: building placement, building timing, additional nexus to produce more probes, optimal cannon placement to avoid ling rushes. Another friend and I would hang out after school to play even more games, and one day he showed me BGH (Big Game Hunters). He said that all the competitive players choose this map over fastest. The minerals are not touching your base, but you still do not have to worry about expanding. Then we got interested in the pro scene...
Most of the games hosted on battle.net were in Korean and due to latency we could not join them to download the maps, but we did find out about sc2gg.com. We would stay up till 5 in the morning watching games casted by Klazart and Diggity, write down the names of the maps, and then download them and practice.
The real tipping point for me, that transition from BigGameHunters to playing on maps such as python, bluestorm, gaia, othello, etc, was watching pro players like Reach, Bisu, WhiteRa, NalRa, NonY, and Stork (< notice my Protoss bias<3 jk ilu Mondragon,Boxer,IdrA,July,Flash,Jaedong,FBH... list goes on). It was watching players do things, that we didn't even think possible, or things we were simply not fast enough to pull off. But the best part, was the enthusiastic commentary from Diggity, Klazzart, Moletrap, Husky, and the Korean casters.
Looking at where we are today, I am not as excited about how WoL turned out. I think that we should all look back at what made broodwar so great, and try to revive those moments. I think my biggest disapointment is in the casting. If I had the choice, I would much rather listen to casting in Korean then in English. To me, a caster is a part of the game. They are not the third wheel that sits off to the side, their role in the game must be as fluent and consistant as the gamers playing in it. I would like to see English casters cast a game knowing that there may not always be people watching the game, but they're definitely listening. To pretend like they are casting a game over the radio, how they describe the match should put the visual image in the viewers mind.
My other disappointment was the comparison of skill curves. I felt that broodwar was a perfect balance of Micro and Macro, and with WoL blizzard toned down many of the tedious micro chores and made the game more Macro oriented. How many units you could have in a selection, workers auto mining upon rally, and multiple buildings in a hotkey are only a few examples. Without having these extra steps there is not much left to make a pro-player stand out. I believe that there are still individuals out there that have the potential, but struggle with standing out over the crowd.
I have great hopes for HotS. I feel that blizzards changes are in the best interest. I hope that with their new additions we will see the game open up to more multi-tasking and micro intensive battles. This is my first blog by the way. I want to encourage you to share how you were introduced to starcraft, what your thoughts of the game are, and what you hope to see in the future. Most importantly: Thank you for reading
