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Short Story: I'm new, I suck and I was placed in platinum because I can beat a cheese. Now I just lose a bunch, and the game is not fun at all for me. How do you enjoy the game while learning essential skills? Key point: I want to have fun. Spending 6 hours a day practicing macro against a very easy computer so I can have fun a month or so down the road is not my idea of fun now.
Long Story: I have had Starcraft for a very long time (since BW), but I just recently decided to start multiplayer. I got sick of rocks in practice league, so I decided to work on a solid opening and macro and then jump into some real games. I lost one of my placement matches to a legitimate player. I won the other four because they cheesed and my solid opening saved me. To my simultaneous surprise and dismay, I was in platinum.
I can beat cheeses, but I hate playing against them. I like to play real matches. The problem is that I can't win any games that go past my opening because I just don't have good macro or multitasking yet. But it's not that I don't want any challenge, it's that the game isn't fun for me. It's even less fun because all of my friends are afraid of Starcraft, so I'm flying solo.
I am so sick of losing every single game. I don't feel like I'm improving very much at all when I prolong a game by building a futile army, but at the same time I don't want to just give up every time my macro falls apart. Sure, practicing would help me stay in platinum eventually, but I started multiplayer because I just want to have fun now.
Is there any way to enjoy the game while learning the ropes?
I would really like any suggestions you have. Not just legit suggestions like "practice your macro with a buddy" or "Develop your own build order". There are no stupid answers, because I want silly, fun things to do. If you think I should play Toss and spell words with my zealots until I'm in bronze league, I'll try it.
Edit: My additional information got lost in a sea of responses, so here are two key points I want to add.
1. My friends did not buy Starcraft and then become scared. They just ARE scared. They all play console exclusively, as in I suggest a PC game and they scoff and go back to codbops. Starcraft is something that they never want to get in to, because all they think about is 400APM and losing to Koreans (obviously the only people who play Starcraft). I'm not giving up, but I literally do not know a single person who plays. Once again, I request proxy friends/2v2/3v3/4v4 partners if you are willing.
2. I am not proud of being the worst Platinum Starcraft player (until the placement system screws over the next one). The silver leaguer that beat me a while ago wouldn't stop sending me messages about how awful I am at this game. I'm sorry, but telling me to swallow my pride does not help me. Allow me to say that again. I am not proud of making it into platinum. My 7 loss streak will attest to that. Telling me that I need to let go of my connection to my rank will not benefit me, because no connection is there. If you have legit suggestions, carry on. If this is all you have to say to me, your concerns have been addressed. Thank you for your time.
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Play custom games on XC / other maps in the map pool and go from there.
Edit: In case you didn't know, customs are unranked, unladdered 1v1.
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try playing another race
that's what got me remotivated
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Its extremely difficult to play this game and actually have a good time, unless you're playing team games with friends. As for 1v1 I don't think there is much fun to be had while learning.
All I play is 1v1 and by the end of the day I feel like going into baby punching mode, but yet I do it again the next day...
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As the above said, playing this game and purely enjoying it is hard for many. I enjoy the feeling of tournaments however: it has the idea of it being legitimate, on the line and worthwhile, but also absolving all feelings of anger, frustration or resentment (especially when you go in knowing you won't possibly win and it's more of a carnival strength game -- seeing how far or high you can get).
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I think just play 1v1, since youre new to ladder, your MMR should drop rapidly. Also playing against good opponents is good practice. And also save your replays and use sc2 gears to anaylze your stats, i think you would be surprised at your win %, when you feel shit, you will tend to notice your losses more.
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Unfortunately, to get better you need to practice correctly. There is no easy way. To enjoy starcraft you need to learn how to enjoy losing.
If you only want casual fun, play some custom games. I'm sure you can play nexus wars or something similar and mass thors or carriers.
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Your best bet is to just spell things with your zealots until you get into silver. After just grind your way back up till you can play in platinum. Once you get a hang of the game and play more things will come easier over time and your skill will increase and you will have more fun.
Drop yourself to a league where you can have fun with someone of the equal skill level IMO.
Should take about a solid half hour to 45mins to drop ranks... 
EDIT: OR... just play all your games out and still lose but improve in a way? (but then again LOSING is not fun, right ?)
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If you're playing to have fun, who cares if you lose or whether you are in Platinum ? If you get demoted, ok, so what ? Will it be less fun ?
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practicing AI just got macro O.o? Eh I think you can just keep playing games and eventually you'll be playing people more your level?...Not sure if ladder works that way but ya.
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attack all the time, expand every 5 minutes, work on a standard build order, mass your favorite unit, do some cheesy proxy building rush, play another race, invent your own build order, copy a build order you saw in a stream or replay, play customs, find a practice partner
choose one or more of the above. whatever you do, your win rate on ladder should converge to around 50%, so get used to that.
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Starcraft is a tough game, I guess unlike most games that come out today. There's no instant gratification for the new player, it'll beat you down until you get good. You should know this by now.
Since you are in platinum already, maybe you are just being too hard on yourself? Platinum is by no means horrible.Try to take a more relaxed attitude to losing, while still trying to improve at the same time.
You could try practicing your multitasking + mechanics in team games as well, those are alot more relaxed.
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Find some friends to practice with, team games can be fun for newer plays as well.
as of now, just play the game, don't practice.
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Don't they stress the importance of practice in schools anymore?
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This games not fun. If you want to have fun, Starcraft isn't for you. It's for people who want to live the dream of e-sports so if that's not your goal I personally don't know why you play it.
To answer your question though, if you want to improve watch a replay of a pro doing a "solid" opening, note the timings he gets things and try to mirror it in an empty game with yourself(create a game without an opponent and just hit return to game after you win). You'll see how far your shit is off. Keep trying to mirror that pro until you have it down. Note what he does after he gets past the opener safely and mirror it. That's the only way to improve in SC2, massing games does nothing if you have no direction or goal with it.
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Team games with friends, customs, free for alls, etc. Anything that is pressure free. 1v1 can be demoralizing and unfun, but if you switch it up once in a while you'll enjoy yourself more.
I stick mainly to 1v1 but I think I've been improving lately and I'm enjoying seeing situations where I would have lost easily before become more and more manageable. For example, my PvT has been greatly improved because of more active scouting, better unit movement/control and other measures to stop medivac drops. Before this, PvT made me want to punch a wall. If you can pick apart your play and find one thing to improve on, you'll be less frustrated in games and enjoy them more.
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In terms of having fun, the best thing I can suggest is to watch a bunch of SC2 casts, and find a playstyle that makes you say, "THAT looks like fun." If that means a race change or whatever, do it. Possibly the problem is the race/style you've been using just isn't for you.
That's where I would start, though, personally. Other than that, try some custom games, as mentioned. Phantoms is a really fun one you can try. Also, any of the various macro-oriented custom gametypes like Fastest Map Possible and Kulas Extreme are great for learning to macro, because they basically give you unlimited resources and the way you win is just by building more shit faster than anyone else.
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Try playing random; I do so because I think it's more fun and challenging, and it lets you get to know all the races better.
Also, people are hesitant to cheese random players, and tend to play safe.
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Definitely get practice partners. StarCraft is fun, but I actually suggest you demote yourself to Silver by leaving games.
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The thing that always brings me back is playing in those casual lower-league tournaments that are going on all the time and getting a nice repertoire of casted games to look back on.
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EPT
