It's too hard for most people to see the reward of playing a lot. In other games you get guns, badges, or just the ability to top the scoreboard in a pub server for example. In SC2 you get... the same 50% win ratio you've gotten since you started playing, even if you are in fact playing vastly better players. Outside of portraits and a couple icons on your profile, there's nothing else to show for it.

JiYan

United States3668 Posts

July 28 2011 01:35 GMT

#25

the reward system is simply very different. in other games you play a lot and get in game rewards in a very material way. in starcraft you play a lot and get better as a player. your main prize is your own skill improvement.

hmunkey

United Kingdom1973 Posts

July 28 2011 01:35 GMT

#26

I'd be curious to see what number of players are active enough to play at least 1 game a week or so.

Nihilnovi

Sweden696 Posts

July 28 2011 01:37 GMT

#27

I'm not surprised, b.net 2.0 is a very isolated and lonely place and I can't help the feeling of being completely alone even though I'm online.

Highways

Australia6106 Posts

July 28 2011 01:37 GMT

#28

On July 28 2011 10:29 Penecks wrote:
It's too hard for most people to see the reward of playing a lot. In other games you get guns, badges, or just the ability to top the scoreboard in a pub server for example. In SC2 you get... the same 50% win ratio you've gotten since you started playing, even if you are in fact playing vastly better players. Outside of portraits and a couple icons on your profile, there's nothing else to show for it.

True:

In Dota you have a bad day you still get kills and socialise with friends.
In Modern Warfare you have a bad day u still get kills, experience etc..
In SC2 you have a bad day you will waste hours getting no wins, screw up your ladder stats, where is the fun in that? Not to mention SC2 is so mentally exhausting, all this on a lonely battle.net.

Blizzard needs to make SC2 more of a social experience.

WArped

United Kingdom4845 Posts

July 28 2011 01:42 GMT

#29

Glad the game is still relatively strong, it wasn't surprising to be honest, it just seems the guys who picked up the game, thought it looks interesting and just found it too hard have dropped out. I don't see me ever dropping out and stopping to play. StarCraft is still a passion for me to this day, the fire is still burning baby.

Eknoid4

United States902 Posts

July 28 2011 01:42 GMT

#30

On July 28 2011 10:37 Highways wrote:

Show nested quote +

in sc2 when you have a good day there are no bad teammates to bring you down, and when you have a bad day there are no good teammates to carry you.

Retgery

Canada1229 Posts

July 28 2011 01:44 GMT

#31

I wish I could join a clan

Ridiculisk

Australia191 Posts

July 28 2011 01:45 GMT

#32

I'd say that's all fairly accurate. Lots of casuals don't play much anymore.

I know from experience since all my partners for 2v2 etc are casual and none of them have played since season 1...

orBitual

United States96 Posts

July 28 2011 01:45 GMT

#33

I agree with everything said so far about the social experience. It needs some sort of presence because it feels invisible right now. Anything like the automated tournaments, game trackers, a ticker listing recent results from the top 200 or anything that gives you a sense that other people are playing the game.

short

Sweden148 Posts

July 28 2011 01:46 GMT

#34

I am one of those who did not play even a single ladder game in season 2, but I'm still definitely part of the SC2 community. I regularly watch the SC2 shows, major tournaments and even user streams here on team liquid.

I suspect there are many, many people like me out there. Starcraft 2 is so much more than just playing some games on the ladder.

TheFrankOne

United States667 Posts

July 28 2011 01:48 GMT

#35

Where did you get these numbers? Its a very cool effort I am just curious how you managed it.

windsupernova

Mexico5280 Posts

July 28 2011 01:49 GMT

#36

Ehhh, srry to be the one to say it but this data does not mean there is less people playing Starcraft 2 its just that there are less people playing ladder.

For anyone familiar to games with ranked matches this is pretty normal as in a ranked environment there is a lot of pressure. By nature only the more dedicated people will be still playing ranked matches while the not so competitive(and in many cases the majority) will only play casual matches with friends.

I know a lot of people who spend all their SC2 time playing custom games with friends(and I don´t mean only casual stuff but 1v1 maps etcs) I am a victim of that myself, last season I played like 300 Koth maps with friends while I played like 50 ladder matches.

I guess all of this was to say that this doesn´t mean that this is not a really good indicator of the total fanbase of SC2(and as many have said some, even if they didn´t play much anymore they still follow pro matches)

GhostFall

United States830 Posts

July 28 2011 01:53 GMT

#37

with the giant panel chat rooms of bnet1.0 if you were having a bad day you could just vent or mess around in the general chat.

bnet 2.0 folks, it's attempt to be more social with facebook, has made it less so.

dtz

5834 Posts

July 28 2011 01:54 GMT

#38

Yes the social experience is really lacking imo. Coupled with the fact that SC2 is a very demanding game, no wonder a lot of people ( casuals) got filtered out.

It's so weird since bw and wc3 bnet gave such a social feeling too.

RinconH

United States512 Posts

July 28 2011 01:59 GMT

#39

I'm surprised there wasn't more attrition tbh.

Most people don't stick with a game for more than a few months.

ThaZenith

Canada3116 Posts

July 28 2011 01:59 GMT

#40

Until they add the social aspects, people will likely continue to leave. It does get tiring feeling like it's me vs the rest of the continent. Chat channels barely count as such, and clans still aren't in game. And if they are ever put in, I doubt they'll be implemented very well.