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StarCraft II and Brood War Belong to Different Genres

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
1 2 3 4 5 11 12 13 Next All
HyralGambit
Profile Joined February 2014
2439 Posts
December 30 2016 11:11 GMT
#1
https://illiteracyhasdownsides.com/2016/12/30/starcraft-ii-is-not-a-successor-to-brood-war/

A new blog post by @BrownBear_47 on Twitter

Interesting read. Please share.
Passion overcomes corporate stupidity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX9hbbA-WP4#t=4h2m
Ej_
Profile Blog Joined January 2013
47656 Posts
December 30 2016 11:14 GMT
#2
Buzzfeed would be proud of the thread title
"Technically the dictionary has zero authority on the meaning or words" - Rodya
mantequilla
Profile Blog Joined June 2012
Turkey781 Posts
December 30 2016 11:31 GMT
#3
age of mythology rulez
Age of Mythology forever!
Liquid`Ret
Profile Blog Joined October 2002
Netherlands4514 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-12-30 11:59:14
December 30 2016 11:55 GMT
#4
Really nice post, been having some of these thoughts myself lately as well.

Just the other day I after playing a SC2 game I was thinking of how much I miss just managing my bases/macro everywhere and being occupied with that almost entirely, and finding it very fun to keep busy with.

When I played SC:BW I would focus almost entirely on macro and getting my economy near flawless as possible, and then as a result of that I could just awkwardly control my units into a win, and it was very satisfying/fun to me.

The actual fighting/micro was a lot less appealing to me than the base management/macro aspects, and even in Sc2, I've felt that way. Just that sc2 offered a lot less in that department than sc;bw did. There's creep spread and injects, but after years it became so boring, BW had so much more to offer in that regard, and even though most tasks completly mundane and largely thanks to outdated interface, it never got boring for some reason. BW also did offer a lot in micro, say with mutalisks or some smaller group of units, but it was a lot different than the type of mass armies control in SC2.

Looking back now, I think I've had so much more fun with BW than SC2, and I think I've always felt that way since switching to Sc2, even throughout being a pro and all that, there was always part of me that felt it just wasn't that fun. Maybe it was just nostalgia.. I don't know.

That said, when I go back to BW now I find it almost impossible to deal with the unit pathing, lol. Despite having played it for so long before and never having a problem with it then.
+
Team Liquid
thezanursic
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
5497 Posts
December 30 2016 12:01 GMT
#5
I'd agree that SC2 is not a successor to BW, it is only in name, and I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that *generally* a lot of players who switched from BW to SC2 were unsatisfied.

Essentially what I'm trying to say is that SC2 is a good game, but it isn't good for the exact same reasons that made BW good, meaning that it has a different appeal.
http://i45.tinypic.com/9j2cdc.jpg Let it be so!
kAra
Profile Joined September 2004
Germany1391 Posts
December 30 2016 12:21 GMT
#6
no highground advantage - no successor




+ello jos
mada mada dane
Strelok
Profile Joined January 2006
Ukraine320 Posts
December 30 2016 12:23 GMT
#7
Well said, Ret. I would've add, that because of that the gap between top pro player, pro player, semi pro, e.t.c. was way bigger. Now almost every good player can win every bit-better-player.
hitthat
Profile Joined January 2010
Poland2276 Posts
December 30 2016 12:25 GMT
#8
I comfirm.
It's not.
Shameless BroodWar separatistic, elitist, fanaticaly devoted puritan fanboy.
SCHWARZENEGGER
Profile Joined July 2016
206 Posts
December 30 2016 12:38 GMT
#9
yeah I have only 800 games in sc2 since may of 2012, it's boring.
OmniEulogy
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Canada6593 Posts
December 30 2016 12:41 GMT
#10
that's a really interesting article. It really touched on some things that I couldn't put into words myself.
LiquidDota Staff
Qwyn
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States2779 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-12-30 12:56:31
December 30 2016 12:53 GMT
#11
The worst thing to happen to LOTV is that Blizzard decided to go with their silly economy design instead of the one TL members worked on for months...I regret it every single time I play.

Had we had something like that then zerg players could actually get by on more bases with the same amount of workers as their opponents and there could be so much more depth to build orders...

That and the high supply costs of everything (no 1 supply unit for zerg) really do it for me .

Honestly, Blizzard could just give the game a higher supply cap and that would keep me happy for a few more years...
"Think of the hysteria following the realization that they consciously consume babies and raise the dead people from their graves" - N0
shadymmj
Profile Joined June 2010
1906 Posts
December 30 2016 12:59 GMT
#12
one thing where i disagree with the article is the claim that sc2 has more strategy.
i've played a lot of sc2, watched a lot of BW.

i can always call games in sc2 with decent accuracy, say which strategy is good against which because it's fairly cut and dry as to what beats what.

i have learned not to call BW games too early except in zvz and pvp. so often you can win a battle but lose the war.
There is no such thing is "e-sports". There is Brood War, and then there is crap for nerds.
RoomOfMush
Profile Joined March 2015
1296 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-12-30 13:11:26
December 30 2016 13:10 GMT
#13
Although I agree with some of the points raised I have to disagree with others. I dont think SC2 is more strategic than BW. And I also dont think SC2 puts more focus on micromanagement than BW. The author wrote he didnt really play BW and doesnt know it too well, I think thats the reason. I still think the arguments of the author are largely correct though; they are just not enough when comparing SC2 with BW.

In my opinion Strategy is much more important in BW than it is in SC2 because there is more options in BW with more impact. You can not choose to go for bio or mech or bio-mech or some air-ground hybrid in pro level SC2 but you could in BW. These different unit compositions require different economies and expansion patterns and thus a completely different strategy for the entire game. Not saying it doesnt exist in SC2 at all but I dont see it nearly as much as in BW.
DrunkenSCV
Profile Joined November 2016
76 Posts
December 30 2016 13:39 GMT
#14
SCBW is the result of many years RTS genre development, while SCII is, potentially, the new start.
TwiggyWan
Profile Blog Joined December 2013
France334 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-12-30 13:47:45
December 30 2016 13:45 GMT
#15
On December 30 2016 20:55 Liquid`Ret wrote:
Really nice post, been having some of these thoughts myself lately as well.

Just the other day I after playing a SC2 game I was thinking of how much I miss just managing my bases/macro everywhere and being occupied with that almost entirely, and finding it very fun to keep busy with.

When I played SC:BW I would focus almost entirely on macro and getting my economy near flawless as possible, and then as a result of that I could just awkwardly control my units into a win, and it was very satisfying/fun to me.

The actual fighting/micro was a lot less appealing to me than the base management/macro aspects, and even in Sc2, I've felt that way. Just that sc2 offered a lot less in that department than sc;bw did. There's creep spread and injects, but after years it became so boring, BW had so much more to offer in that regard, and even though most tasks completly mundane and largely thanks to outdated interface, it never got boring for some reason. BW also did offer a lot in micro, say with mutalisks or some smaller group of units, but it was a lot different than the type of mass armies control in SC2.

Looking back now, I think I've had so much more fun with BW than SC2, and I think I've always felt that way since switching to Sc2, even throughout being a pro and all that, there was always part of me that felt it just wasn't that fun. Maybe it was just nostalgia.. I don't know.

That said, when I go back to BW now I find it almost impossible to deal with the unit pathing, lol. Despite having played it for so long before and never having a problem with it then.


Did you play total annihilation or supreme commander forged alliance? If you like base management and macro you could like it.

Don't forget guys that BW was an accident, so much bugged stuff is in the game because the devs did not have time to fix their shit, and now people praise the bugs and spit on sc2 mechanics implemented as the programmers wanted it back to BW lol
No bad days
Charoisaur
Profile Joined August 2014
Germany16021 Posts
December 30 2016 13:49 GMT
#16
On December 30 2016 21:59 shadymmj wrote:
one thing where i disagree with the article is the claim that sc2 has more strategy.
i've played a lot of sc2, watched a lot of BW.

i can always call games in sc2 with decent accuracy, say which strategy is good against which because it's fairly cut and dry as to what beats what.

i have learned not to call BW games too early except in zvz and pvp. so often you can win a battle but lose the war.

I think what the article means isn't that sc2 offers more strategy but that strategy is more important and decides more games.
in BW a lot of games just get decided by mechanics, there's a lot of strategic decisions you can make but I feel it doesn't make the difference between win and loss as often as in sc2.
In sc2 when I analyze a replay of me or a pro-level game it's most of the time a few errors in decision-making that made the difference between win and loss. Of course it also happens that you lose just because your opponent has better mechanics but I feel it's not as often as in BW.
Many of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment
Freezard
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
Sweden1013 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-12-30 14:07:15
December 30 2016 14:06 GMT
#17
Curious why the author says that BW feels easier to play than SC2. Makes no sense to me. Also remember when you could build Barracks before Supply Depot in SC2 beta? Well you can still do that in BW, I hate how they limited the strategy in such ways in SC2. I think the game was actually at its best during beta.
Ziggy
Profile Blog Joined June 2013
South Korea2105 Posts
December 30 2016 14:16 GMT
#18
The ease with which micro and macro can be executed in SC2 would make it difficult for future games (e.g. SC3, bound to happen sometime in the future) to switch back to the previous model used in SC1. Though it would change the gameplay drastically, I find it hard to believe rudimentary solutions such as limiting the number of units in a control group or removing multi selection of buildings would appeal to a modern gamer. And despite the competitive aspects of such solutions one must not forget a professional scene has no right to exist without a casual playerbase.
WriterDefeating a sandwich only makes it tastier. @imjustziggy
outscar
Profile Joined September 2014
2832 Posts
December 30 2016 14:21 GMT
#19
Somehow after so many years BW never gets boring whenever you login to iCC/fish for some ladder. But when I login to battle.net and start SC2 after 4-5 games I start feeling bored. Nostalgia? No. Paradox? Maybe. You can say that SC2 is better & X (put your word here)but you will never deny the fact that BW never gets boring; period.
sunbeams are never made like me...
RoomOfMush
Profile Joined March 2015
1296 Posts
December 30 2016 15:03 GMT
#20
On December 30 2016 23:16 ZiggyPG wrote:
The ease with which micro and macro can be executed in SC2 would make it difficult for future games (e.g. SC3, bound to happen sometime in the future) to switch back to the previous model used in SC1. Though it would change the gameplay drastically, I find it hard to believe rudimentary solutions such as limiting the number of units in a control group or removing multi selection of buildings would appeal to a modern gamer. And despite the competitive aspects of such solutions one must not forget a professional scene has no right to exist without a casual playerbase.

I dont think intentionally dumbing down the interface is a good way to go. SC:BW didnt have such a bad interface because they thought it was a good idea but because they just couldnt make it any better back then. (for any reason: time, money, skill, processing power, etc)

But there are many things they could change. The soft-cap on bases mentioned in the article (any many articles before) can easily be improved in various ways, just look at the different SC2 mods that are already out there. The pathfinding can be changed to favor more open formations instead of those tight circles with all units huddling together. A bigger highground advantage and more area-of-effect spells with long durations would make the terrain and movement more important during engagements.

There are probably a dozen other ideas that could be tried to improve the game but blizzard isnt willing to do it. Maybe they are scared, maybe they already gave up, maybe its pride or maybe they actually like the game the way it is, but I refuse to believe the game could not have been much better without making the interface intentionally horrible.
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