This gives a great perspective and understanding of games and the theory behind them! You're giving me more material to write another song Sean ^_^. Thank you for sharing this, it gave me a lot more interesting theories to discuss.

dave333

United States915 Posts

June 12 2011 23:39 GMT

#103

Great article, but I think there is one thing to keep in mind that looking at computers play that makes things different. The psychological impact of winning big.

Humans have emotions, computers do not. A crushing defeat is definitely more strongly felt than a close one, and getting demoralized can seriously affect ones performance in later parts. Obviously part of being a pro is dealing with psychological effects (this is why top pros, in tennis for example, are pretty calm in terms of never being too angry/negative, but they are always there)

Vulture174

United States74 Posts

July 03 2011 14:00 GMT

#104

Great read for someone trying to learn to be more competitive like me. This article really shows the decision making difference between a pro and a newbie. I am defiantly going to try and become more comfortable playing with a marginal advantage rather than trying to all in an opponent once I get a lead. As always day9 you are a beacon of knowledge to us newbies.

OriginalBeast

United States709 Posts

July 05 2011 17:27 GMT

#105

This was sickly good to read, quality writing. Truly inspiring as well.

MichaelJLowell

United States610 Posts

July 05 2011 21:06 GMT

#106

Excellent piece. Nice to have another Seth Killian type writing about the games, a freakishly-talented player who can also articulate his thoughts.

Gako

Canada22 Posts

July 06 2011 04:11 GMT

#107

While I mostly agree with the article I would put a greater emphasis upon foresight than a marginal advantage. While in some sc2 games the match is decided from the very beginning of the game I would argue its more important from a strategical point of view to analyze the games in which someone was behind and yet still won. This is based upon a tradeoff of advantage early on for advantage later (ie having an army *just* big enough to hold of the opponents push but droning like a boss). A marginal advantage is important, but being able to predict when one is actually necessary, is vital.

AmericanUmlaut

Germany2594 Posts

July 07 2011 10:43 GMT

#108

Wow. What a gem of an article. This is a concept I've been trying to be aware of in my play, and you've expressed it so much more clearly than I ever could have.

veechee

United States15 Posts

July 15 2011 00:50 GMT

#109

Really great read, thank you.

RBlass

United States16 Posts

July 15 2011 05:41 GMT

#110

Some people can articulate their thoughts so well!
Not me. I try to explain some simple little thing, such as the big bang theory, and all that comes out is a bunch of "Um," "Like," and "Yeah's".
Naaaaaaah, It's not that bad. teehee.

Nice article though! Very interesting.

Holgerius

Sweden16951 Posts

July 17 2011 07:12 GMT

#111

Great read! This is something I've noticed Flash do to almost perfection, and I've been trying to implement it more and more in my own play recently.

Cutter48200

1 Post

July 18 2011 18:24 GMT

#112

I find this article very itneresting. I think it goes very well with your intrview with PC gamer's podcast

WINter0

8 Posts

July 19 2011 04:23 GMT

#113

sdgsdgasdg

User was warned for this post

esre

Ireland109 Posts

July 19 2011 16:33 GMT

#114

Just posting to say great read and I'm glad it was bumped.

RoyalFlush

Canada109 Posts

July 22 2011 18:40 GMT

#115

Bump! This is why both starcraft and day9 are respected so much in the community. Excellent read! Now Im gonna go play sc2

HTZhypher

United States10 Posts

August 04 2011 12:10 GMT

#116

Very nice post, very insightful ^_^

Losacio

10 Posts

August 16 2011 00:52 GMT

#117

"There is no best race, no best strategy, and certainly no best way to win."

BRB 1/1/1 vs 99.9% of protoss just sayin.

I would argue that this is indeed a "best strategy" in almost any given situation against virtually all builds protoss has at their disposal at this point.

btw I was a bronze protoss for a while but I just got promoted to silver 2 weeks ago and have experience with the game.

Zantim

Canada4 Posts

August 20 2011 00:31 GMT

#118

Wonderful read, as always Day[9] shines.

Shadyf0o

63 Posts

August 21 2011 01:15 GMT

#119

I myself have played a wide variety of competitive games and have found myself wondering what makes a great competitve game quite often. I've come to the same conclusions you have, except marginal advantage. Very good read. To pull from an experience in my own life where I was beaten by an expert employing marginal advantage, I was playing against arguably the best super smash brothers brawl (which is an exeptional competitive game) player in the world at a tournament last year. His "tag" is ally. He barely beat me, but he beat me every time. I played him multiple times for fun after he knocked me out of the tournament and he beat me literally every time by a pretty small margin. Facinating that I am only now realizing how he was beating me, from the most unlikely source.

EcterA

United States949 Posts

September 02 2011 22:14 GMT

#120

Wow, how is Day able to plant new ideas and thoughts in my head all the way from 2007. I really want to play some BW right now....or some Mancala