I have to agree with people who say it's "like" SC:BW. That would be the baseline comparison, and the thing to expand upon.

Comparing it to poker / chess / GO or anything like that is pretty ridiculous, IMO. They're turn-based and have no elements of information gathering. Considering the fact that there are decades of RTS titles to compare the game to, comparing it to anything else is silly. You can explain the concept of tactics / strategy through chess, or explain the concept of incomplete information and risk by mentioning poker, but they're just over-simplifications of something that is best compared to other strategy games.

You want to explain SC2 to someone? Tell them it's an economy-based real-time strategy game in a sci-fi setting. If they ask what it's like, tell them Age of Empires, or SC:BW. If that's not enough, they probably don't really want to know.

mprs

Canada2933 Posts

April 26 2013 17:18 GMT

#63

I think sc2 right now is most like Wings of Liberty

29 fps

United States5725 Posts

April 26 2013 17:19 GMT

#64

On April 27 2013 01:49 Saumure wrote:
I have read through the whole tread, and I am really impressed by how little TL knows...

What he meant was "much."

He just pronounced it as "little."

/russell peters

algorithm0r

Canada486 Posts

April 26 2013 17:28 GMT

#65

I agree with some the comparison is not fair, but I'd say sadly it is more like chess with its more rigid and limited variations on play.

I.e. the meta game shifts, but if you don't play the meta you are probably suffering.

In Go you can play any number of different styles each with a strong chance of winning.... this does not appear when the meta gets well settled.

Empedocles

United States47 Posts

April 26 2013 17:28 GMT

#66

what in the hell is "GO" ????

Charlie.Sheen

662 Posts

April 26 2013 17:31 GMT

#67

On April 27 2013 02:28 Empedocles wrote:
what in the hell is "GO" ????

Best board game played by mankind since the start of human history.

ne0lith

537 Posts

April 26 2013 17:31 GMT

#68

On April 27 2013 02:28 Empedocles wrote:
what in the hell is "GO" ????

Global Offensive (newest Counter Strike game)

Serek

United Kingdom459 Posts

April 26 2013 17:32 GMT

#69

No because it is not a turn-based game and, as someone said earlier you have incomplete information on the opponent's position.

Next question.

edlover420

349 Posts

April 26 2013 17:35 GMT

#70

On April 27 2013 00:26 AnomalySC2 wrote:
It's like a mix of Poker, Chess, Boxing, Nascar (your skill comes from how well you control a piece of "machinery") and WWE (your personality means a LOT in sc2 ^_^ ).

The imagination is strong with this one!

radscorpion9

Canada2252 Posts

April 26 2013 17:51 GMT

#71

This question used to come up pretty regularly, I'm glad its died down now. Artosis was the first one to think that SC2 was anything remotely similar to chess, I guess because he wanted really badly to make SC2 seem like an intellectual game. And I'm sure it does have that aspect as build orders can be very precise. But the lack of information throws a wrench into the whole equation. When you see pro-gamers lose to some rush that they didn't expect, you think: No, this is not like chess. These ridiculous "surprise" rushes don't happen, and lack of information doesn't leave a player crippled or produce an outright loss. Same with losses due to not having 300 APM that can handle amazing micro or macro.

Furthermore, I don't think there are quite as many twelve year old grandmaster/masters players as there are in the highest echelons of chess. The ones that did get that high (Magnus Carlsen) actually deserve it as they are true prodigies. So the difference in intellectual challenge is massive, which is a direct consequence of the game play, which clearly emphasizes the difference between SC2 and real strategy games like Chess or GO. Sorry if that sounded elitist, but there is a pretty big difference. I guess it just feels a bit insulting to compare one of the greatest board games of all time, that has stumped and been enjoyed by some of the greatest thinkers throughout history, being seriously compared to SC2. Its like Transformers to a great work of cinema, it just shouldn't happen

Rassy

Netherlands2308 Posts

April 26 2013 17:55 GMT

#72

Chess and go are two diametrical strategic board games. In chess, at the beginning of the game it is very easy to clearly foresee how the game will develop in the next few rounds. Simply, the game is not complex at the beginning, while in more later stages it becomes almost impossible to clearly foresee the consequences of each actions. In GO, on the other hand, there is not a limited set of very rigid rules to follow at the beginning, though there are some guidelines that ought to be followed. In more advances stages, instead, intuition is substituted by clear logic of how one should move.

You are wrong about chess imo, chess is in the beginning just as complex as it is after 20 moves if not more. It is just that there is alot of knowledge stored about the beginning of the game wich can be studied,but that does not make it less complex in anny way though, you can even argue that chess becomes less complicated the further the game goes, where the endgame allows for verry deep calculations due to the limited posibilities every move (less pieces), you are right about go though imo.
Annyway: if have to choose between chess and go i think sc is more similar to go in the sense that it is impossible to make calculations by logic (completely impossible in sc if you consider every pixel to be a field/square/point) and players thus skip calculations and use their positional judgement.

"It's like a mix of Poker, Chess, Boxing, Nascar (your skill comes from how well you control a piece of "machinery") and WWE (your personality means a LOT in sc2 ^_^ )."

Nice comparison, control is extremely important in sc and is absolutely not important in chess or go, noone has problems moving their pieces or placing their stones.
Maybe it can be compared to playing lightning chess or go, where you have to move the pieces or place the stones with some robot operated by your keyboard.

Arghmyliver

United States1077 Posts

April 26 2013 17:58 GMT

#73

Are chess and GO really diametric? I guess the board technically has a diameter but I wasn't aware they were referred to as such. Huh - I guess you could call SC2 diametric then also because of the fixed (in-game) map size. Weird!

Edit: Actually do squares have diameters? I think thats a stretch.

Kabras

Romania3508 Posts

April 26 2013 18:02 GMT

#74

idk about go, but it's nothing like chess. the closest a game of sc2 could come to chess is a mirror matchup with both players seeing the whole map including the opponents base/units. and even then it would be miles away from chess.

dirtydurb82

United States178 Posts

April 26 2013 18:03 GMT

#75

I think it is a fun comparison. I think SCII is closer to go than chess. Chess is matching the same units against one another, and attempting to find imbalances within the units themselves. GO is far closer to SCII in that it is a positioning battle. The clear difference is the vision piece. Fun question, obviously the internet decided to bring out all the knives because of the subtle differences between each game, but hey, interesting question!

mcc

Czech Republic4646 Posts

April 26 2013 18:17 GMT

#76

The biggest difference is in the fact that chess and go are purely intellectual games, whereas SC2 is mainly dexterity/multitasking, the intellectual part plays much smaller role.

EDIT:Although of course comparisons can be made. People saying that it is like comparing oranges and apples. They are both fruit and comparisons can be made, it just must be clear at what level of abstractions we are making them.

smogg

Bulgaria167 Posts

April 26 2013 18:21 GMT

#77

In my personal experience, it's closest to snooker - it takes incredible precision - both physical and mental, as well as high intelect and prediction ability.

algue

France1436 Posts

April 26 2013 18:27 GMT

#78

typical Sc2 game

AnomalySC2

United States2073 Posts

April 26 2013 18:32 GMT

#79

On April 27 2013 02:35 edlover420 wrote:

Show nested quote +

The imagination is strong with this one!

tyty *bows*

lol @ the battleships comparison

Grumbels

Netherlands7031 Posts

April 26 2013 18:34 GMT

#80

I hope someone will write a comprehensive article on game theory and starcraft 2, so that we can just refer to that article instead of having these threads all the time.

"Is *real time game with incomplete information X* more like *turn based game with full vision Y* or *turn based game with full vision Z*?" is a stupid debate.