EPTOn May 23 2012 06:17 Falling wrote:
See that's funny because I think the exact opposite. I find SC2 incredibly hard to view when they have all the healthbars on because that's all I can see. An entire screen of green/yellow/red lights. All the units get covered up and it's impossible to tell what's happening in the battle. Battle of the Healthbars is what I call it. I guess people like it because they keep demanding for healthbars on, but to me it's just like watching a screen of decreasing numbers which would be about as exciting. Except green lights are a little more flashy.
As for no unit tab. That's probably more a personal thing, but I love the story telling aspect this allows for the commentator. Too little information and you're in the dark- having unit supplies and resources is good. But noticing that the factory shop is spinning then lends itself to predictions whether it will be siege, fast fultures or mines.
There's also incredible tension built when you see the Templar Archive at work so your presume storm is on the way. You see the Protoss retreating, retreating, biding it's time. And you're asking when is storm coming? When's it coming? Is it coming?
Then boom, the screen get's covered it in storms and it's super exciting. I guess I can see why people like the unit tab, but I prefer the middle ground of knowing a bit, but not too much.
The observer also needs to be much more active in story telling. Rather than the a little icon appearing telling you that an armoury is being built and that's all, the observer needs to go to the base to show you. So it forces a little more camera movement to tell the whole story. Same with unit production- to pop back and see zealots and high templar piling out of the gateways or masses of dragoons. Rather than a little icon switch, the observer will show you the huge zealot lines that are crossing the screen to reinforce.
See that's funny because I think the exact opposite. I find SC2 incredibly hard to view when they have all the healthbars on because that's all I can see. An entire screen of green/yellow/red lights. All the units get covered up and it's impossible to tell what's happening in the battle. Battle of the Healthbars is what I call it. I guess people like it because they keep demanding for healthbars on, but to me it's just like watching a screen of decreasing numbers which would be about as exciting. Except green lights are a little more flashy.
As for no unit tab. That's probably more a personal thing, but I love the story telling aspect this allows for the commentator. Too little information and you're in the dark- having unit supplies and resources is good. But noticing that the factory shop is spinning then lends itself to predictions whether it will be siege, fast fultures or mines.
There's also incredible tension built when you see the Templar Archive at work so your presume storm is on the way. You see the Protoss retreating, retreating, biding it's time. And you're asking when is storm coming? When's it coming? Is it coming?
Then boom, the screen get's covered it in storms and it's super exciting. I guess I can see why people like the unit tab, but I prefer the middle ground of knowing a bit, but not too much.
The observer also needs to be much more active in story telling. Rather than the a little icon appearing telling you that an armoury is being built and that's all, the observer needs to go to the base to show you. So it forces a little more camera movement to tell the whole story. Same with unit production- to pop back and see zealots and high templar piling out of the gateways or masses of dragoons. Rather than a little icon switch, the observer will show you the huge zealot lines that are crossing the screen to reinforce.
One advantage of the Proleague is that OGN knows how to put on a show. If anyone can make an SC2 game exciting, they can.
The other thing about the Proleague I find intriguing is that KeSPA is requesting to have their own server for private practice, meaning that KeSPA (and perhaps only KeSPA) would be playing SC2 on a LAN. Tournament servers is something Blizz promised a long time back, and I'm really interested in seeing how that pans out. On things besides LAN, Blizz tends to concede to community pressure if it's hard enough (see: The ladder map pool), so if KeSPA gets Blizzard's ear, it could potentially have a big impact on how Legacy of the Void turns out.
That, I think, is the big potential silver lining in all this, that Blizzard increasingly has a bigger financial interest in keeping the pro scene happy than they doing in selling to casuals. Not that they'll take out automine or anything that extreme, but....we'll see how that goes. Maybe I'm being overly hopeful again, but it's interesting to hear that KeSPA is trying to get Blizzard to give the pro scene things.
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