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I'm sure you've all heard many people say that playing video games are a waste of time (which i agree to some extent). For example just in my personal opinion, i really believe that those games on miniclip, addictive games.com are there to waste time. But if a person's REALLY enjoys spending their time on those games on miniclip, then its completely different.
Everyday we make choices, and we make sacrifices. If we chose to play SC for 1 hour, we're giving that hour up for something else. Now to a spectator that knows nothing about SC, sure that 1 hour might seem wasted, but however to people that have experience with this game a lot would think different.
The person that tells you you're wasting your time trying to rank up on iccup or massing games to practice for cw's is only speaking out of his perspective. He might choose to use that time to watch a movie, to study, to get a job. Those are the things the stereotypical guy would do to tell himself that he's using his time efficiently.
But if we look closer to why in our society things like "Finding a job, studying, workin" is considered "NOT WASTING TIME" you might think different. I'm not saying that people should play SC all day and not find a job or studying or anything, i mean i do think finding a job or working is great. But right now im just viewing this in a different perspective, and perhaps i can get you to do the same.
Our folks always told us that, you do good in elementary school = you get good head start in middle school, and if u do good in that = you get good start in high school, if you do good in highschool= you get in to a good college, and if you get in a good college = you find a job that pays well = ??
SO what happens after you get a job that pays well? Thats right you buy stuff with it. And all the stuff you buy is for you to get a feeling. That feeling can be gotten in many ways, if you look for it. We buy big plasma TV's because the TV brings us a feeling, we buy a luxuries house, because again it brings us a good feeling. And often times we fall into the flow that Money brings in happiness (which somecases is true).
All those luxuries stuff you can buy does bring you happiness. But however if playing SC also brings that happiness then perhaps its not wasting time? After all, we spend all that money for a simple emotion, there's obviously other ways of attaining it.
(Again i'm not trying to tell people to quit their jobs, and throw their books away for SC, i'm just trying to get people to see in a different perspective.)
I think of starcraft sort of as a cheat to get that "good" feeling when i do not have the money to buy for it. Its inexpensive and works pretty well. Obviously if you're homeless can barely afford food, have relationship problems, then you'll have to deal with those fundamentals before SC can be fully enjoyable. 
 
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this is such a hard question to answer. i started writing this post about three times and each time i'd erase it and start over with a completely new (and opposite) angle and in the end i'll be into my second paragraph and thinking "sure there's this aspect of it but what about.." and re-write the whole thing =/. a quick summary then, is in order:
on the one hand i agree with you in the sense that it's not a waste of time if you enjoy it -- doing enjoyable things falls significantly higher on my priority list than striving for a larger paycheque. on the other, and this has something to do with inherent materialistic focus in everyone, looking back on my days of playing a crapload of games, i can't help but think it was a waste because i have nothing (material) to show for it. but then i think of how many things prove that wrong, things that aren't material but definitely worthwhile, so there goes that idea out the window.
in the end i just don't know =/
hell, i still waste time playing dota. i should stop, but if i were to pick something that holds value in the eyes of society, who's to say that holds any value to me? w/e
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every single thing we can do as humans, if there isn't a god, is as pointless as every other single thing. Whatever matters to you is what's important. Being able to look back and say 'I did everything I wanted to do' is the greatest achievement.
It's just very important to strike a balance between things that grip you with interest now and things that you know you will be proud of in the future.
It DOES annoy me when people I know say 'get a life!' when I say I'll be going back to mine to play video games for the night instead of joining them to get drunk and try it on with semi-attractive girls who they can't even hear in a noisy club. If I could be bothered, I would get into relativism and realism and existentialism but I think nah fuck it just let them be cunts and spend 20 quid a night trying to get lucky; wasting just as much time as me except their only achievement is getting venereal disease, whereas mine is 5000 gamer points oh yeah.
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Valhalla18444 Posts
playing this game is a distinct pleasure i find very difficult to replicate by other means. there's lots of stuff that's more fun and more productive, but those things aren't always available, and starcraft has its own brand of enjoyment
i've been at this for many years and i wouldn't call a single moment 'wasted time'
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Reminds me of a story:
The Mexican Fisherman
+ Show Spoiler +
The Mexican fisherman
An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, "only a little while."
The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs.
The American then asked, "but what do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life."
The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."
The Mexican fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"
To which the American replied, "15-20 years."
"But what then?"
The American laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions.. Then what?"
The American said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."
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Like that story , reminds me of the song in Fallout 'bongo bongo bongo he don't want to leave the congo oh no no no no no'
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On June 01 2009 13:03 HamerD wrote:
Being able to look back and say 'I did everything I wanted to do' is the greatest achievement.
pretty much all there can be to life. You honestly have to stop looking at the capitalist linear "good life" everyone around you tells you to have (study, get a diploma, work all your life, retire) especially if it doesn't make you happy. Sure money kind of dictates the level of life you'll have, but being happy all your life with a lower salary beats being a middle-management worker who hates his job and will most certainly fall into depression in his mid 30's
Edit~
On-topic: if you enjoy playing, then it's a good investment.
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On June 01 2009 13:00 JeeJee wrote:
in the end i just don't know =/
hell, i still waste time playing dota. i should stop, but if i were to pick something that holds value in the eyes of society, who's to say that holds any value to me? w/e
I think those materialistic things can be good or bad if you posses it. The good part is that yeah you'd get a lot of attention (everyone wants attention, there's no hiding to it). But on the other hand all those friends and attention you'd get are from people that only like you for the things you posses.
But the other perspective is that, people tend to generalize a lot, so we general tend to want to get to know people of higher status, and those people show their status with their materilistic things. Then after a while, they would get to know each other more on a personal level than only relate to the stuff each possess.
So i suppose those materialistic things spark interest in people when meeting them, but it can get the wrong type of attention.
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i read in a reader's digest magazine that it was found that playing strategy games increases your IQ and improves your planning and executive function skills that you can apply in other areas of your life. makes sense i suppose, so that adds to your point. on the other hand too much of anything is not good, and sc players have the tendency to get obsessed with the game to an often unhealthy level. discipline perhaps?
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This game is like a love hate thing for me.
Starcraft is beautiful, I mean no one here will deny that. It definitely brings people (and cultures) together and stuff. Watching progaming is great.
However, sometimes ill find myself sitting in my room, smoking a bowl, losing on iccup (and continuing to join games and continue losing) and i've found that the whole day is gone, I feel like shit, and I lost like 600 points in one sit down.
Sometimes I wish I had never found SC, and sometimes it's love.
Also
It's just very important to strike a balance between things that grip you with interest now and things that you know you will be proud of in the future.
Pretty good advice.
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You got the wrong concept there buddy.
They say SC is a waste of time (which I accepted some time ago) because they know it ain't going to help you shit in your future (unless you're planning on going to Korea and becoming the next top progamer). There's always time for everything, but if you spend all your time on that game, then you will be screwed and you will be regretting it hardcore.
The money you get for the well playing job you got is not just so that you can buy shit with it and feel good or something. It is for that to some extent, yes, but it is also so that you can support yourself and your family and be known by others as a responsible, mature, and real person.
I'd hire a hard-working garbage collector a million times over a nerdy gamer anyday.
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Well if SC(or any game for that matter) is a waste of time, then so is watching movies, hanging out with friends, etc.
If you don't have work, don't have any schooling, don't have anything you need to do at that moment then it is basically free time. So therefore you are just using free time. People say video games are a waste of time, but how do people say hanging out with friends or watching movies isn't? You're spending time with others, so what?
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On June 01 2009 13:18 EsX_Raptor wrote:
The money you get for the well playing job you got is not just so that you can buy shit with it and feel good or something. It is for that to some extent, yes, but it is also so that you can support yourself and your family and be known by others as a responsible, mature, and real person.
I fail to understand how your salary defines who you are. Like 2 of my cousins never finished HS and make over 50k a year (which they most of the time spend on ridiculous things like an used G35 which had engine issues barely 2k miles after it was bought lolgg) whereas I make just enough to pay for college/food/rent when I have A/A- in most of my classes t_t
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They are extreme cases then! But I bet you at least 80+% of the people that didn't graduate from HS are either flipping burgers @ McDonalds or doing God knows what.
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>_> I'm 19 I've been in college for...3 years? and the first year is basically wasted because I was majoring in something I didn't like
edit: misread what you wrote lol but yeah I agree diplomas do all the work for you these days t_t
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On June 01 2009 13:18 EsX_Raptor wrote:
You got the wrong concept there buddy.
They say SC is a waste of time (which I accepted some time ago) because they know it ain't going to help you shit in your future (unless you're planning on going to Korea and becoming the next top progamer). There's always time for everything, but if you spend all your time on that game, then you will be screwed and you will be regretting it hardcore.
The money you get for the well playing job you got is not just so that you can buy shit with it and feel good or something. It is for that to some extent, yes, but it is also so that you can support yourself and your family and be known by others as a responsible, mature, and real person.
I'd hire a hard-working garbage collector a million times over a nerdy gamer anyday.
you obviously dont enjoy playing SC anymore.... it doesn't necesarily ruin your future, tho it does have an impact. Then so would watching TV, hanging with friends and all other "fun" activities.
but yah def, if u spend too much on anything its not good... (in general)
When one looks back at their old life, they automatically assume that it was SC that ruined their future. But all those TV hours watched, and all the other things and times wasted can also be a result of not "succeeding" in your terms. No one ever blames it on TV, because everyone does it and its accepted socially.
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Yes and No.
Sure after spent a day playing on iccup I often feel like its been a waste of time and I will probably not have any gain from it in the future, and often I wonder why I bother spending so much time playing a 10 year old computer game.
On the other side, the exact same things can be applied to when I played soccer for 10 years even tho it was clear early that I would never be collecting any paychecks from it and not really have anything to show for from it in the future, beside a better health (tho when I played the time spent playing soccer would probably have been spent doing some other form of physical activity outside anyway had I not played it) and nobody ever suggested it was a waste of time...
Looking back soccer brought me the exact same things that I have gotten from StarCraft lots of good memories and several good friends (a few people in my highschool I met through BW that don`t play anymore have stayed lifelong friends since then and I would probably never have gotten to know without BW). Of course the rest of the online friends are a bit different than the soccer friends since I can`t just hang around with them (Tho most of my soccer friends are scattered around the country by now)
I guess in the end its all about what makes you happy and finding a good balance.
Also that Mexican fisherman story is really great.
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if starcraft makes you happy, it's not a waste of time. Happiness is more important than almost anything society values highly, education, job, money, and the like.
As long as sc makes you happy, its time well spent. Its only a waste of time if, after your hours of sc, you feel worse than when you started.
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Playing games gives you short-term, not long-term, gratification. This is great in moderation, but it is considered a "waste of time" because the happiness is temporary and will quickly disappear if you cannot be successful enough to buy food, a house, etc..
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Yeah it's probably a waste of time. That hour could be used elsewhere. If you enjoy it though it isn't really a waste of time.
Same thing with other games like wc3/wow/whatever.
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Everything is a waste of time. Life has no intrinsic purpose and we are all just carbon-based flesh sacks under the delusion that what we are doing day in and day out is connected to some chain of events that will eventually bear some sort of relevency to the universe, never considering that our means never truly fulfill any ultimate ends but only feed into other futile efforts to make some sort of mark on a small planet that will one day be returned to the space dust from whence it came along with all other matter in the universe.
Starcraft is pretty fun, though.
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I agree that you should do what makes you happy, but when it comes to WoW on Team Liquid...Every time I see a WoW related thread, a large amount of people always say that it's a waste of time, it will "steal your soul" and other crap like that and generally burn WoW players, which frustrates me because when it comes to SC here, everyone is okay with spending hours playing that but when applied to World of Warcraft, it suddenly becomes a waste of time.
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Im 25 and my dad will always hunt me down for what I do: Play StarCraft in my free time nOn stOp!!! lol
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Everyone should do whatever they want to.
ppl are too afraid of life in general and play too defensively.
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If it's getting into other things you would probably value more in the long run then definitely.
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On June 01 2009 13:05 FakeSteve[TPR] wrote:
i've been at this for many years and i wouldn't call a single moment 'wasted time'
I'd have to say the same. And I've always had the feeling that time was never wasted as long as you are enjoying yourself.
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I just say everything is a waste of time. Or you can say everything you do is time consuming. I mean even if you're not doing anything, time is still going by. I'm already spending time thinking of this post and typing it. I should probably be sleeping right now, but it seems like it's a waste of time when you could be doing something "productive". Sigh, I need to get myself out of this wasting/consuming/spending time loop =(
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If you don't make anything good out of it (money, new real friends, etc.), or if your life quality decreases as a result, or if you're not really having fun anymore but still playing, then yes.
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Life is simply the pursuit of happiness, might as well get a head start!
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infinity21
Canada6683 Posts
We should all have a main means of achieving your goals in life. For most people that's studying hard and getting a good job after university. In that sense, SC is a waste of time since most skills you learn in SC are not transferable to school or can be better learned from other methods.
But as long as you put in sufficient effort into school so that your main goals are met and you play SC on your free time, then I think it's completely acceptable.
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On June 01 2009 15:16 3clipse wrote:
Everything is a waste of time. Life has no intrinsic purpose and we are all just carbon-based flesh sacks under the delusion that what we are doing day in and day out is connected to some chain of events that will eventually bear some sort of relevency to the universe, never considering that our means never truly fulfill any ultimate ends but only feed into other futile efforts to make some sort of mark on a small planet that will one day be returned to the space dust from whence it came along with all other matter in the universe.
Starcraft is pretty fun, though.
That basically describes exactly how I feel about life. It's utterly pointless but it doesn't make it any less enjoyable!
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SC builds character, lets you interact with people from other cultures, and develops a lot of skills that can translate to other parts of your life. Anyone who thinks SC is a waste of time is mad.
I would not be the same person today if I did not play SC, regardless of how entertaining it was 
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my problem with this is that playing SC does not add to human wealth (as well as watching TV, etc).
so, when you divide your time to joy and something productive, then for joy you can do whatever brings you that thing
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Valhalla18444 Posts
On June 01 2009 17:05 infinity21 wrote:
We should all have a main means of achieving your goals in life. For most people that's studying hard and getting a good job after university. In that sense, SC is a waste of time since most skills you learn in SC are not transferable to school or can be better learned from other methods.
But as long as you put in sufficient effort into school so that your main goals are met and you play SC on your free time, then I think it's completely acceptable.
or you're me and you use starcraft as a means of achieving your goals hahaha sup i just owned the whole forum
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I kinda don't play the game anymore at this moment in time (plan to restart during holidays ^^), but I do spend a lot of time on TL / VODs. I wouldn't call it waste of time at all, because:
a) I thoroughly enjoy it so it creates that happy feeling, makes me more productive
b) it complements studying a lot better than other past times since you can easily watch a VOD while taking a 10-15 minute break or just speed browsing TL, this in contrast to watching TV series or movies since I tend to get hooked really fast, the result being me ending up watching 10 episodes of Stargate and not studying a damn thing.
It just complements "useful" things really well for me personally.
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On June 02 2009 13:24 Chef wrote:SC builds character, lets you interact with people from other cultures, and develops a lot of skills that can translate to other parts of your life. Anyone who thinks SC is a waste of time is mad. I would not be the same person today if I did not play SC, regardless of how entertaining it was
If you enjoy what you're doing, it's not wasting any time. But I'm pretty sure SC doesn't build character
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So I have a question, how do you balance work and play, specifically? Or do you just do it...?
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On June 03 2009 03:06 obesechicken13 wrote:
So I have a question, how do you balance work and play, specifically? Or do you just do it...?
The question is sorta ambigous, because the current "Work" you're doing might not be actually leading you to the goal that you want. You must first realize your goal and then decide if what you're doing is the "work" leading up to it. But in all honesty, you should probably enjoy the work leading up to your goal anyways. (But not always though, sometimes of course there will be boring moments).
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konadora
Singapore66307 Posts
On June 01 2009 17:05 infinity21 wrote:
We should all have a main means of achieving your goals in life. For most people that's studying hard and getting a good job after university. In that sense, SC is a waste of time since most skills you learn in SC are not transferable to school or can be better learned from other methods.
But as long as you put in sufficient effort into school so that your main goals are met and you play SC on your free time, then I think it's completely acceptable.
Who the heck invented school 
People should be able to do what they want as they please (as long as bound by moral codes, such as not going on a killing spree, anything that annoys others, etc), and not be forced to live 30% of their life studying, 60% of their life working, 10% doing what they truly want.
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On June 03 2009 09:56 konadora wrote:Show nested quote +On June 01 2009 17:05 infinity21 wrote:
We should all have a main means of achieving your goals in life. For most people that's studying hard and getting a good job after university. In that sense, SC is a waste of time since most skills you learn in SC are not transferable to school or can be better learned from other methods.
But as long as you put in sufficient effort into school so that your main goals are met and you play SC on your free time, then I think it's completely acceptable. Who the heck invented school People should be able to do what they want as they please (as long as bound by moral codes, such as not going on a killing spree, anything that annoys others, etc), and not be forced to live 30% of their life studying, 60% of their life working, 10% doing what they truly want. gl getting to do what you truly want in a society like that
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On June 03 2009 10:11 IdrA wrote:Show nested quote +On June 03 2009 09:56 konadora wrote:On June 01 2009 17:05 infinity21 wrote:
We should all have a main means of achieving your goals in life. For most people that's studying hard and getting a good job after university. In that sense, SC is a waste of time since most skills you learn in SC are not transferable to school or can be better learned from other methods.
But as long as you put in sufficient effort into school so that your main goals are met and you play SC on your free time, then I think it's completely acceptable. Who the heck invented school People should be able to do what they want as they please (as long as bound by moral codes, such as not going on a killing spree, anything that annoys others, etc), and not be forced to live 30% of their life studying, 60% of their life working, 10% doing what they truly want. gl getting to do what you truly want in a society like that
Oh please, as if you wouldn't want to live in the world described above. Oh, wait, you kind of do already.
Edit: To clarify, I would love to play video games all day rather than work/study.
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On June 03 2009 09:56 konadora wrote:Show nested quote +On June 01 2009 17:05 infinity21 wrote:
We should all have a main means of achieving your goals in life. For most people that's studying hard and getting a good job after university. In that sense, SC is a waste of time since most skills you learn in SC are not transferable to school or can be better learned from other methods.
But as long as you put in sufficient effort into school so that your main goals are met and you play SC on your free time, then I think it's completely acceptable. Who the heck invented school People should be able to do what they want as they please (as long as bound by moral codes, such as not going on a killing spree, anything that annoys others, etc), and not be forced to live 30% of their life studying, 60% of their life working, 10% doing what they truly want.
You are not forced to work after you finish school, except for military service. If you let every kid decide whether they want to go to school or not, our society would not work.
However, you can go unemployed if you want to, where is your problem? If you don't agree with having to work some job to earn money, think about which of the things you have now (from clothing to internet) you would have if you would live autarkic.
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sc is a waste of time IMO unless im playing w/ my friends then it's quality time... that's y i don't go to iccup and play w/ strangers... it's a waste
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On June 03 2009 12:18 R3condite wrote:
sc is a waste of time IMO unless im playing w/ my friends then it's quality time... that's y i don't go to iccup and play w/ strangers... it's a waste
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Russian Federation8 Posts
Nice topic. Nice comment from 3clipse, very pessimistic perspective.
I'd like to point out, that in conscious way of playing SC a player gains experience on how to manage life in general, how to treat with any kind of a system, that runs its own laws and develops itself somewhere.
In sc you get those skills, that help you take a look on whatever running system, determine key laws in it, and manage your steps to operate those laws to your own profit.
That's why generally SC players perform well in poker. Poker is just that kinda system, that needs be studied and operated like a SC game.
An important step to conscious perception of SC is not to play dumb, but play trying to remember your moves in game, watch over your replays trying to figure out what you've done wrong, set goals to practice for fill your weaknesses.
Just to start you can simply set a rule: after any game ALWAYS rise your ass from a chair and spend some time for analysis. Determine right steps and wrong steps, set mind rules, think of what you should improve in you to play better.
This is, IMHO, a very positive experience, that will serve you well almost in any area of life. So don't waste your time and just play consciously.
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I know there is people that facebook more than I play starcraft! Is that okay? or is starcraft not okay just because it is a video game? Than again what is the purpose of life? I say if you are playing starcraft when you could be doing something else at that time than it is a waste, but if you don't abuse it and enjoy the game its just a form of great entertainment. This is something I couldn't figure out my first few years of SC when I was somewhat addicted to the game.
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EPT
