EPTWell, Legacy ended up coming out, and my giant wall of text thread didn't make much of a splash, although I did get a few of the things from that wishlist... which you can read here (shameless advertising alert): http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/10311881685?page=1
Recently, a friend and I were talking about the state of the game again, and I started thinking not about what I wanted to change, but how I wanted to experience it, because that's what got me into thinking about these changes in the first place.
In the considerable narrative to follow, I will introduce you to the following characters:
-Billy
-Jeremy
-Jordan
-Jessica
-Jimmy
-Flash
-Jonathan
-Sam
and last but not least, Tim.
Please give them a warm round of applause!
So, without further ado, I give you..
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE NEW SC2 INTERFACE...
Billy is new to Starcraft. He opens the game for the first time, and after loading, is brought to an introduction screen where Totalbiscuit begins to explain to him how the interface works. He drops him into a quick game replay where he shows him, in a few words, what the point of the game is. He brings him to the main screen, looking through the various interface options, guiding him to understand the tools given to him within the game. Totalbiscuit then guides Billy to telling him more about himself, when his player profile appears, asking him to select his country’s flag, and a short description of himself
Excited, Billy wants to learn as quick as possible and have friends to train with. By opening the clan search icon, billy can narrow down a list of clans to play with that fit the criteria he is looking for. He is a beginner, so he would select a clan that has Bronze league in their requirements. He can train every night, so he wants to have an active clan that holds many events and has many clan members. He narrows the list by number of clan members, and average member login time. He sees a clan that he is interested in and opens up the feedback panel, where he can see comments about the clan from current clan members. He feels assured in his decision, clicks apply, and is immediately signed up to the clan and to all clan events in his personal calendar, and brought to the clan channel.
Jeremy is a veteran in Starcraft. He wants to join a team that is looking to compete professionally. He opens the clan search interface and selects a league requirement of master or higher. He also selects only clans that are currently participating in the official ladder Proleague, a team-required in-game managed set of group stages with top teams being televised on live TV! He also narrows down to the clans that are ranked in the top 100 of 1v1 Clan ladder, clicks apply, and shortly afterwards, a clan leader contacts him for a tryout match.
Jordan is not interested in joining a clan. He is currently at platinum level and feels like he is having trouble improving. He wants to spend dedicated time with someone who is willing to help him improve. Jordan opens the coaching interface and narrows the search with a coach accepting platinum level players, and the zerg race, and an availability of Monday and Wednesday evenings after 5:30pm. He then narrows coaches who are master level or higher, and currently online. He selects a player who fits the profile and a short description the coach has prepared pops up, along with the programs he uses to communicate with the students (skype), and feedback from players he has coached. He is interested in this coach, clicks on the coach’s icon and looks at his profile, then sends him a private message.
Jordan’s coach is available that evening and brings him through what Jimmy finds to be a brutal training session. Exhausted by the clear amount of information he has to recall, Jordan suggests that Jordan watch some replays to understand specific bits of information he has given. He sends him a link to certain replays that are stored in the replays interface tab in the game, and when Jordan clicks on each one, he is brought to a separate display that shows the information about the replay (time, build orders, chat, apm), and an option to save the replay to his game folder for later review, or to simply click to watch it. Jordan’s coach also suggests to watch top players’ replays, so Jordan opens up the replay search database and narrows his criteria for grandmaster zerg players versus any race.
Jessica is an up-and-coming female starcraft 2 player, who wants to build a following to gain popularity and a possible sponsorship. She opens up the gameplay settings interface and clicks on the streaming tab. Here, she toggles the “stream games” icon to on. Any player who opens up the stream interface will now be able to see Jessica play games. To avoid any cheating, the games are streamed with a reasonable time delay. Any players who are observing this player’s game can talk to each other in chat, as they would during observing a custom game. Should Jessica decide to play a custom game, the players would be able to see that too.
Jimmy is a master league Starcraft player who is currently in a competitive clan. He has been practicing daily, and hopes to be able to make it to a big tournament. He clicks on the event tabs and signs up for any notifications from all offline tournaments offering 2,000$ of cash or more, accepting master league players, within a 500 km radius from his location. He also signs up for notifications of all online qualifiers with the same prize pool, played on any server. A list of all tournaments applicable are populated in a list. He selects the “add to calendar” tab and all events are added to his personal calendar. The soonest event is on that night, the Dreamhack Leipzig qualifiers. Jimmy clicks on “sign up”, and is automatically placed into a bracket, where he can see the player he will play and view his profile. He waits for the tournament to begin by looking at the countdown timer on the main screen, and is automatically brought into a game lobby, where he can talk to the other player. When he is ready, he clicks on the “ready” icon, and when both players have done this, the game begins. Jimmy wins the first game, and sees the notification “...waiting for the next game” on the main screen timer. When the next game is available, he is automatically brought into the game lobby, and the process repeats itself, until he is either eliminated or obtains a spot to the main tournament. Good luck, Jimmy.
Flash is having the year of his life. He has won almost every major tournament he has entered, is part of the top ranked 1v1 clan on the server, and has his player profile chock full of accomplishments. He earns a special medal icon for being part of the top clan, a bunch of icons for winning all of those major tournaments. Jeremy, Jordan and Jessica are huge fans of Flash. One day, they log on to Starcraft 2 and notice that the main page looks different. On their screen is a picture of none other than Flash! It turns out, Flash was invited to the Hall of Fame, where he was given a Main Page wallpaper, and a special biographical profile page, full of videos of his individual and team accomplishments. Jeremy is so happy for flash, he makes a comment on his Hall of Fame profile page, where he can see the thoughts of every other Flash fan on this joyous occasion. The wallpaper disappears at the end of the week, but luckily for them, they can purchase it with in-game points or real cash in the microtransaction store!
Jonathan is a modder for Starcraft 2. He is excited to create new content for Starcraft 2 with the introduction of the Blizzard Workshop. Now, when he creates a skin or map, he can enter it into the Workshop where, if accepted, it goes into a database of every other skin or map in existence, where others can learn about his creation. Given that skins are considered a microtransaction item by Blizzard, players can purchase his skin with in-game points or with real cash, and for any real money spent, Jonathan nets a percentage of the profits. Cha-ching!
In addition, Jonathan recently entered a map in the Workshop that he was extremely proud of. Lucky for him, the player base thought so as well, as Jonathan’s map was selected to be in Blizzard’s new Ladder Season Map Contest through the Workshop as one of the most voted maps, where he will compete against other maps in the Workshop and existing ladder maps for the maps that will represent the ladder in the next season. If he wins, he will have a special icon as an accomplishment, and every player will see his player name and profile icon next to the map when they select it.
Sam loves to play Starcraft 2, but he is looking for players of similar interest to talk with. He has thought about joining a clan, but he is more into making friends to talk to while he plays the game. He opens up the player search bar, where he can narrow criteria of players based on their nationality (flag), ladder league, preferred race, clan, achievements, WCS points, and more.
Tim is a Starcraft 2 player who gets bored easily. He likes change, and boy are we going to give it to him! When Tim enters the game, he will have plenty of Special Events to keep him occupied. It’s Christmas time, and tim notices that the Main Screen is flooded with snowflakes, and the interface borders with candy canes. When he joins a game, the terrain is filled with snow, the weather is chilly, his steam tanks are shooting snowballs instead of rockets, his buildings are made of gingerbread and candies, and christmas-themed music is playing! Not only that, but the interface told Tim that today is a BONUS POINTS day, where he gets two times the in-game points for making 10 or more carriers in a single game. Carrier has arrived. Tim enjoyed the new interface, units, and songs, which disappear after the Christmas break and are thereafter available for purchase using in-game points or real cash in the microtransaction store.
One week later, Tim decides to log back on and receives a notification to participate in a Balance Test. Tim loves new toys! He agrees to participate, and is invited to a test server where he tries out a ladder game. At the game loading screen, a popup asks Tim for feedback on his experience in that game. Tim doesn’t really have much to say, neglecting to mention anything. A few days later, the private server is closing down, and tim is once again notified to comment on his experience. This time around, he has had a while to think about his experience and decides to share it, receiving a special icon and some in-game points for doing so. Good job, Tim!
...
That's all for now.
Thanks for reading!
