The idea that many people refuse to accept a "fact" concerning Mr. Obama has nothing to do with SC2. For me, the fact is that SC2 is far from balanced. It's a game, not life, you can blame and fix the system, you don't have to put up with bad design. The problem isn't that people refuse to accept that SC2 is balanced, the problem is that progamers can't progress without ignoring design flaws and as such we lack the "trade union" which would say "Hey Blizzard, fix this, this and this or we'll stop playing your game". The only way to enjoy and improve is to ignore the design flaws, but it’s much more important to fix the obvious issues because it’s a game, not reality, it’s not set in stone.

archonOOid

1983 Posts

January 15 2012 13:54 GMT

#102

The game can be broken or imbalanced for one race or a certain strategy as you stated. The large question is whether it's good gameplay. Look at PvP for instance those changes were a result of gameplay although linked to a certain strategy. I think that gameplay should have the highest priority above balance. That's why the HOTS, the expansion, will improve gameplay not balance.

Rockztar

Denmark210 Posts

January 15 2012 14:13 GMT

#103

I liked the message you were trying to bring, but I have a few things about this read I'd like clarified.
First of all, which race do you(the OP) play? League? What's your background in gaming etc.
Are you in any way affiliated with Blizzard and so on.
It's important to me, when you write this saying people make statements with little research behind it that you make it clear to us who you yourself are, and what should give you credibility in your points. If I just accepted what you wrote, because I'm of the same notion we're at the exactly same point as "Imbalance Theorists".
What kind of research did you exactly do before writing this? Because you seem to think you know a lot about the mindset of players, and what kind of actions should/could be made. Be careful you don't walk down the same path the exact same path the people you're calling out to in this post did. When all comes to all, this read has zero statistics, and is just a bunch of assumptions making it comparable to "Imbalance Theorists" statements.

Acritter

Syria7637 Posts

January 15 2012 15:04 GMT

#104

I really hate to say this, but I stopped reading when the OP said that 5RR wasn't imbalanced and had been "solved". The reality is that it HADN'T been solved. There was no new build order that fixed it, no modifications to play that made it easier to hold off. Terrans screwed it up because their micro wasn't up to par (just like everyone else). I'm sure that if we'd seen it develop further, Terrans would have refined the build by harassing with one early Reaper to force Zerglings and then building up a critical mass at home. You know, like Protosses do with Corsairs in Broodwar.The reason the build died out wasn't Zerg innovation, it was multiple sweeping changes from increased Reaper build time to delayed Reaper speed to the huge increase in Roach range. Furthermore, there was no reason to assume that it was possible for Zergs to develop a way to counter this build. It hit early enough that there were no tech options beyond Zerglings and Roaches. Zerglings were a fragile option, and only worked as long as Terran didn't have a critical mass of Reapers. Roaches could be kited, and were actually what the build was trying to force in the first place so that the Terran could switch into Marauders and instantly win. Your misconception that it was going "out of fashion" or that Zergs were learning to counter it invalidates your entire post, because it shows that you don't understand that there have been incredibly imbalanced builds. 5RR was the most imbalanced of them all, and saying that it had been figured out is vastly ignorant.

ThomasHobbes

United States197 Posts

January 15 2012 23:20 GMT

#105

Should players focus on improving their own skill? --> Yes

Does this have anything, at all, to do with the balance discussion? --> No

Imbalance exists, whether you focus on it or not, you should not, for the sake of your sanity and your skill level, focus on it to the exclusion of practice, but that does not mean that imbalance either doesn't exist, or that individuals who point out imbalance ought to be dismissed as whiners.

Tortious_Tortoise

United States944 Posts

January 16 2012 03:20 GMT

#106

On January 15 2012 23:13 Rockztar wrote:
I liked the message you were trying to bring, but I have a few things about this read I'd like clarified.
First of all, which race do you(the OP) play? League? What's your background in gaming etc.
Are you in any way affiliated with Blizzard and so on.
It's important to me, when you write this saying people make statements with little research behind it that you make it clear to us who you yourself are, and what should give you credibility in your points. If I just accepted what you wrote, because I'm of the same notion we're at the exactly same point as "Imbalance Theorists".
What kind of research did you exactly do before writing this? Because you seem to think you know a lot about the mindset of players, and what kind of actions should/could be made. Be careful you don't walk down the same path the exact same path the people you're calling out to in this post did. When all comes to all, this read has zero statistics, and is just a bunch of assumptions making it comparable to "Imbalance Theorists" statements.

My tag is Morte, I'm a Diamond level Terran on NA who is majoring in International Studies with a double minor in Economics and Political Science at The Ohio State University.

With regards to my background in gaming, in my experience there are two types of gamers-- those who explore the depths of as many games as they can get their hands on, and those who invest all of their time into one game and one community. I am of the latter category. When my brother buys FPS games for x-box, I beat the campaign on easy and never touch them again. Almost all of my extra-curricular time is devoted to StarCraft.

I have no affiliation with Blizzard except a special fondness for their games-- BW, WC3, D2, WoW, and, now StarCraft II.

Essentially, I have no empirical evidence to support my claim-- it's incredibly hard to find empirical evidence that can clearly prove my affirmative or its negative. It's much more of a StarCraft weltanschauung-- a philosophy. It's almost impossible to effectively argue a philosophy, so my OP was more of an attempt to structure the little evidence I have in such a manner that it's understandable, and hopefully, mildly persuasive.