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I read the Flash interview transcript with some disappointment. When asked what difficulties he had so far encountered, he said he thought the game was not balanced. If any outsider (someone who has not played SC2 and has a fresh perspective) has the credit to make a statement on the balance of the game, it would be Flash. But is it right to label balance as a “difficulty” that he had been encountering?
Many things can be fixed. We can always improve our macro, map awareness, force fields, stutter step, larva injects, etc. Yet, most people insist on ignoring these aspects that they have control over and focus instead on aspects they do not. You almost always see someone ragequit a game with “wtf toss 4gate so op”, and never “wtf why did I forget to scout”.
My point here is that we have everything to gain and nothing to lose, if we forget about balance and just fucking play the game.
One of my friends, who is high masters and ladders about 50 games a day, plays Zerg and constantly complains (albeit humorously) about how Terran and Protoss are OP. I asked him, why don’t you switch to Terran so that you can win more? He says, I like Zerg, it’s more fun to play, I’ve been playing Zerg since BW and don’t want to switch.
In fact, every one of you reading this right now, ask yourself the following question. Which race do you think is most OP? Why don’t you switch to that race so that you can win more? Isn’t winning nice? And you will find yourself answering, I think my race has cooler units. I think it’s more fun to play my race. I like professional gamer X who plays my race. I’ve been playing P/T/Z for a long time and don’t want to switch.
Everyone feels an allegiance to their own race. That’s why there are so many balance whines in the first place. Everyone wants their own race to be more powerful. It sucks to feel like you’re playing a race that gets dominated by another race X. There are three options to get rid of this crappy feeling. You can 1) switch to a more powerful race, 2) qq and hope Blizzard buffs your race / nerfs someone else, or 3) look for some undiscovered tactic or strategy that can crush whatever you think is imba. When Boxer started playing BW, everyone thought Terran was underpowered. He responded by innovating and creating new tactics such as his signature high ground siege tank drop. And he didn’t turn out so bad did he?
Starcraft 2 has been out for less than two years. Think about how many years passed before the Brood War metagame became stabilized. We still have a long way to go. By complaining about balance, we’re not helping our own cause at all, which is playing the game because we enjoy doing so. I remember an incident during a high school varsity volleyball game, where our team was losing points because of a crappy ref. Demoralized, we turned to our coach, who responded, “You guys play your game. I’ll deal with the ref.” This translates roughly into, “you guys play your game. Let the pros deal with Blizzard”.
I play Zerg and I approve this message.
tldr; less qq, more pewpew
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If only more people had this mindset..
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is awesome32274 Posts
I think Flash already has this mindset, else he would be throwing keyboards against the wall and not winning all the time in BW.
Take a PR interview on a league switch for what it is, nothing more.
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This sounds like a blog.
But yea I tell people this same thing all the time since I play random and I encourage anyone who hasn't tried random on the ladder to do so to get a better sense of game balance.
That said, Flash is a bit of a different example altogether because he's coming from Brood War. Which was a much better balanced game than SC2 is currently, so I can understand the frustration.
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I've considered long and hard to switch race, especially with the current state of matters (I play terran). But once you reach a certain level - I'm high master atm - it's quite an effort to switch race, and could be months work before you get the same feel for a new race that you have with your main race.
Also I continue playing in the hopes that blizzard are in the process of making things right. But it seems that every patch it just gets worse :\.
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On May 12 2012 05:02 IntoTheWow wrote:
I think Flash already has this mindset, else he would be throwing keyboards against the wall and not winning all the time in BW.
Take a PR interview on a league switch for what it is, nothing more.
This.
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I find it interesting that people always find their own race the weakest and it is always the other races that are OP, this just shows how limited and biased people can be. They want to believe that when they win, they did it because of how skilled they are, overcoming the odds stacked against them. It also gives them a nice convenient excuse when they lose, they get to blame it on balance instead of looking at their own mistakes. Ultimately it all comes down to the human ego. People that can't overcome their ego will always be prevented from achieving their true potential.
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Flash is a bonjwa. He is just having fun and answering questions.
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On May 12 2012 05:03 Vindicare605 wrote:
But yea I tell people this same thing all the time since I play random and I encourage anyone who hasn't tried random on the ladder to do so to get a better sense of game balance.
Yeah, as a random player, you really get a sense of perspective. Instead of "zerg sucks", it becomes "I suck at zerg".
Can you imagine Garry Kasparov whining about how chess is imbalanced because black sucks? If your race sucks, then either learn to deal with it, or play a different race. Even at the top level, there have been plenty of players who've switched race with great success. As long as every race is well-represented at every skill level, by definition there is no balance problem.
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People don't switch races because re-learning 90% of what they know is extremely daunting, especially for players who have stuck to one race for a long time
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Good post OP, and like so many others already said, the article was for PR.
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It's incredible how widespread this belief is, yet it always seems like the person presenting it seems to think they're breaking new ground.
Right off the bat I want to just squash this notion of "well if _____ is so overpowered, why don't you switch?" This bothers me to no end everytime somebody suggests it because it makes no sense in the context of the game we're playing. Each race plays vastly different and supports vastly different playstyles. I will never play protoss in a serious way. Ever. Not because I think they're the weakest, but just because it seems incredibly boring.
That being said, balance is a problem. Just because you always have a plethora of things you can improve upon doesn't mean that one of the things holding you back isn't balance. It's not even necessarily which race is overpowered or underpowered in general, it could be a certain unit composition in relation to your playstyle or it could be the learning curve in executing a strategy in comparison to how effective it is. I read a poll recently (don't remember where, sorry) that basically said 60% of zergs say their worst matchup is zvp... and oh by the way, 60% of protoss say pvz is their worst matchup. That isn't because zerg is OP in zvp AND protoss is OP in pvz. It means certain strategies on both sides are really really hard to deal with. The answer isn't for protoss players who die to 12 min roach max to switch to zerg and for zergs who die to 6 gate robo or any other 2 base timing to switch to protoss.
The thing about SC2 is the very way it's designed, at its core, is going to make it extremely hard to balance. It's so much more about strategy and sneakiness than it is about "skill-based" factors like mechanics. Also the units are just so much stronger and easier to get without much "economy management" involved.
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On May 12 2012 05:03 Bulugulu wrote:
I've considered long and hard to switch race, especially with the current state of matters (I play terran). But once you reach a certain level - I'm high master atm - it's quite an effort to switch race, and could be months work before you get the same feel for a new race that you have with your main race.
It's certainly no secret that Terran takes the most skill of any of the three races. What I don't understand is why you would throw that away just to make it easier on yourself with another race?
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On May 12 2012 05:15 SolidMoose wrote:
People don't switch races because re-learning 90% of what they know is extremely daunting, especially for players who have stuck to one race for a long time
People need to off-race more. Not necessarily to prepare for potential race switches, but to get some perspective so we can stop hearing opinions like "your race is so easy".
Can you imagine this situation happening in any other sport? Can you imagine a striker in soccer saying "goalies have it so easy, they can use their hands, fix the imba plz"?
On May 12 2012 05:21 monkybone wrote:Show nested quote +On May 12 2012 05:14 pirsq wrote:
Can you imagine Garry Kasparov whining about how chess is imbalanced because black sucks? That's not a proper analogy to starcraft. No race is supposed to be statistically weaker than others. It would be a fair analogy if everyone was forced to play random in sc2.
Okay, fair call. But I'd support forcing everyone to play random =)
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I don't think the game is ever gonna be balanced until legacy of the void is out with the new units they create to deal with hots imbalances. Until then, people should not worry about balance so much and just play and have fun, and try to come up with new ideas to deal with things. Example, late game TvP, protoss is super strong, even imba. So as a Terran player we must do a ton of damage or kill before they get to this stage.
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I think it's well established that most of the balance whining is just excuses for your own failure. It won't disappear as long as there are people who look for outside reasons for their own inadequacy.
And balance whining is always louder and more obvious than not whining. Say, you don't think the game is too imbalanced or you don't really care. How much time are you going to spend arguing your position? Contrast that to someone who wants to prove to himself that he only lost because his race is underpowered.
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Aren't you pretending as well?
Flash: I could be pretending as well or I might not be. It's true that I'm lacking in skills at the moment though.
- subtle hint that Flash might be trolling us a little bit in this interview.  Don't take all 100% serious.
Which race OP? Answer always the same: My race, so I play it!
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I too thought it was a bit rich of Flash who has been playing the game for 5 minutes.
People whine about balance through self-interest, bandwagonism, fanboyism, frustration at their own abilities, "passion", there are plenty of silly reasons. I'm not naive enough to think there is never a balance issue but whining so hard about it has far less affect on changes than people think and it just makes most people look stupid really.
Dunno, random player here too, obviously pros get a more "legitimate" say in balance discussion but then again they are the most likely to complain out of self interest and their words have more weight so that always makes me sceptical.
At the end of the day it's human nature, most people who complain about balance are still able to hold rational conversations and are perfectly decent people who can enjoy the game anyway so I wouldn't worry about it. Those that are beyond help just never learned to think critically and view things from other perspectives than their own and are therefore probably idiots.
Long story short, yes you are right, but it's not such a big issue and part of Starcraft for plenty of reasonable people.
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The old "Lets accept things the way they are" approach. I'm sorry but if the world worked like that we would still be cavemen, Everyone wants a fun and exiting game, they don't want their race to be overpowered, they just perceive their race as the weakest. Its the perception that matters, frankly if you perceive your race to be balanced, it is most probably overpowered.
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