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So I recently started playing Sc2 again because I really enjoy the competition it offers but as I struggled in gold and realized how many no names were at the top of the ladder I started to ask myself, is it worth it? I am 27 now and attending college so my days of being a popular gamer are passed, I could never go pro even if I really tried and got really lucky, I will likely never be extremely competitive at a video game because I am just to old to dedicate the time to a game like I used to, However, This isn't to say that I still don't aspire to be involved in a competitive gaming scene whether through streaming or amateur tournaments etc, but my problem comes in deciding if Sc2 time investment is really a smart way to spend my limited gaming time.
The game itself is somewhat fun, I enjoy it even though it's mentally taxing and I really enjoy laddering however recently I realized that getting to the top of the ladder is going to take a lot of work and there isn't really anything at the top to make the effort worth it. There are very few people watching Sc2 streams, even fewer watching no names stream, so right off the bat the main reason I would want to get high masters is gone, There is also not really a large amateur NA scene so I would likely just be a ladder hero if I ever go there. I am attending school right now and have a GF so my time is fairly limited.
Contrast this with Dota 2, which is what I was going to put on the back burner for Sc2, it's a lot more casual in terms of effort required and time consumed and it's a more fun game at the base level. If I ever got good at Dota 2 I would have a slightly better chance of being able to stream since people are more interested in watching personalities in those types of games where as Sc2 personalities don't get massive viewers unless they are outliers (incontrol/destiny/etc).
Since Sc2 requires such a huge time and practice investment I am starting to ask myself if getting involved in the game again is worth it, I won't enjoy a game I am not improving at and it seems like I would be a lot more likely to slowly improve at Dota 2 and since it's better game client/social wise (More interesting outside of the game) than I would at Sc2 with limited time.
So, any other people out there with limited times or a similar situation that might be able to shed some light? Is it really worth the time investment trying to get good at Sc2 when there is so little reward? Is someone with limited time and age against me better off sticking with a game that requires less effort to enjoy like Dota?
 
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Play the game if its fun / addicting. Its as easy as that. Don't think about it as "work". You should never plan to be a "pro-gamer" but if you like improving, think its challenging and fun, feel free to do it.
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I'm your age and work a very demanding full time job, so I can relate. I love playing and watching SC2 and I can still maintain high master's in 1v1, but I've been playing on and off from WoL beta so a lot of the time/effort to get better was spread out over a long period of time. If I wanted to start off now and work my way up, I don't think i could justify the time expenditure - and you're right that there's basically nothing waiting at the top anyway, except for the very top, and even then it's probably not much. As it is, I still love this game but being our age, it's getting increasingly difficult to justify spending any more time on SC2 than any other hobby. That's basically the problem - SC2 will never be more than a hobby for me, but the time I spend on it is much more than that of a normal hobby. I don't really enjoy any other games though, so there's really nothing that's pulled me away from SC2 yet.
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You guys will find out what being busy really means if/when you have kids someday...
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On November 15 2013 07:23 ReketSomething wrote:
Play the game if its fun / addicting. Its as easy as that. Don't think about it as "work". You should never plan to be a "pro-gamer" but if you like improving, think its challenging and fun, feel free to do it.
Therein lies the problem though, drawing a line between fun because of the challenge and fun because of the game. I already know Dota is a more fun Game at its base level however it's deciding if at 27 in school starcraft is enjoyable enough over other less time consuming games (Hearthstone/Dota/eventually Heroes of the storm)
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I always get really confused by this mentality.
Why is your ranking on the ladder of any importance? Just play the game for fun, if ranking is going to determine how much fun you have in the game you won't have that much fun and you won't improve that much anyway.
27 is not old at all to be a good amateur. At 27 you should be able to get to high diamond/masters just playing a few games a day for fun. Its going to take some time, but if you just play frequently when you feel like it you'll get there eventually. Best of all it won't even feel like a chore and you don't rage when you lose because it doesn't matter to you.
What makes you improve is how efficient you learn, not how many games you play. Force out more multitasking, sharpen your build orders or create new builds, learn how and when to react. Someone with all this knowledge will always do better than a macro machine.
Beating gold is basically knowing how to defend all ins and being able to macro to punish them as soon as they fall behind. Not much APM required.
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Starcraft is probably the worst game to play if you are results oriented. I think that if you don't enjoy the process of growing as a player, you'll burn out in no time.
I think you have a lot of limiting beliefs about what it takes to improve. Some people have played 5,000 games and are still in bronze. Some get to masters in 200 games. It's all about training smarter not harder.
That said, like all worthwhile endeavors, you have to grind a bit to get the basic mechanics under your fingers. You won't get good at soccer without hours and hours of practice kicking and running with the ball. You can't get good at guitar without poorly playing easy songs over and over. That doesn't mean it can't be fun to learn the fundamentals, but it certainly won't be fun if you are constantly thinking about how you aren't where you want to be (a mental fault to begin with since you cannot possibly know what it will be like to be where you want to be until you get there!).
Take solace in the fact that the no-names at the top of the ladder are there in spite of their training methods. If you train smart, you've got an edge over 99% of players who just grind the ladder and loosely copy the pros.
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EPT
