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Words of the Worlds -- What SC Lore Means To Me

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zarepath
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States1626 Posts
July 22 2010 03:49 GMT
#1
I'm a lurker who's creepily stalked Teamliquid.net through the kitchen window ever since the inception of the SC2 Beta, and while I gather that there are many rules that guide this great community, I'm sure that I'm breaking some kind of convention that I'm unaware of as part of this post. Sorry if it's in the wrong section/font/taste – let me know, and I'll try and do better as I keep posting.

Words of the Worlds – What Starcraft Lore Means To Me
by Zarepath

+ Show Spoiler +
Professionals probably balk at mainstream coverage of Starcraft wherein journalists describe a game where “there are three different alien armies that fight each other, and you are one of their commanders.” My imagined refrain is always along these lines: “This isn't effing Dungeons and Dragons, lady. Don't rope is in with that ilk. Starcraft is a game of intense strategy and tactics, much like chess!!!!11onez” But frankly, if that were the only important aspect of Starcraft, then we would all just play chess.

The fantasy element of Starcraft, its universe, worlds, cultures; its fiction, its story – in a word, its lore – is what brought us all to the game's strategy. While it's not nearly the intellectual exercise of Starcraft's actual game, it's the white rabbit that we chased down into that wild, twisting hole. Starcraft's story has brought us all somewhere—whether perfecting openings on ICCup, or late nights at a friend's trying to beat the last level of Brood War without cheats, or embarrassingly long games of Big Game Hunters, or so on.

This is about where Starcraft's story took me.

When I was growing up, my mother would read aloud to me and my older sister each night. We took turns reading pieces of The Hobbit. Because I was still learning to read, we'd skip my turns for the majority of the story. But by the time Bilbo was creeping cautiously into Smaug's den, I was launching those words from the page into the air like fireworks.

My parents nurtured and raised me with books: the Prydain Chronicles, the Giver, Ender's Game, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the Chosen, the Foundation series, Dune, Sphere, countless more. But I never cared as much about these foundational stories as I cared about the Starcraft universe.

Needless to say, if I'm posting this at a Team Liquid forum, then I was fairly anti-social growing up. I read my books, and I also spent a considerable amount of time with church activities and doing intense algebra problems as part of a math program called Kumon. I was an odd, excited kid who was prone to bouts of randomness, who was slowly becoming more and more reserved in the face of a teenage peer group. I wonder how important an adventure Starcraft was for me at that time.

Every few years, I go back and replay those campaigns--not necessarily because they're fun or challenging, but because I want to feel thirteen again. I want to gasp at Kerrigan's treachery and gape at Fenix's death(s), to feel the weight of desperation as I try to kill the Overmind. Most of all, I want to remember feeling as if I were in another universe, where epic struggles occur and I am (in two senses) a player. Surely, there would be more to this universe?

Let me introduce you to a community whose memory I'll treasure for years to come: the Starcraft campaign community.

I wanted more story, and the first thing I found was a third-party sequel to the Brood War levels, something called War of the Tribes. The levels were hard, for me, but most importantly the story was ambitious. Artanis and Zeratul struggled with the disintegration of their race and other conflicts equal to those of Brood War, and more complex. I found that all kinds of people were experiencing what I was: a desire for more of this persistent scifi universe. Creative, ambitious people took to the task of creation, people like Desler and Auspex, whose stories sidle right up next to the Brood War canon in my mind.

The campaigns were, by and large, the standard fare of campy scifi: clones, infested reincarnations of protagonists, conniving rogue cerebrates (you could almost see the top hats), resurrected dragoon heroes, Fenix coming back from the dead (again), clumsy attempts at explaining the Xel'Naga, and the obligatory ghost hero. One campaign rose above these, though, and that was The Antioch Chronicles.

The Antioch Chronicles were the most professional levels created outside of Irvine. Others could never quite emulate Auspex's quality of sound editing and voice acting, and as it went into its second episode, the ambitious writing and plotting of ZeusLegion. If people as talented as they found it worthy to dedicate hours of their lives to extend the Starcraft universe, maybe it made sense that me and many others found it worthwhile to populate the Antioch Chronicles forum and eagerly speculate as we awaited the third installment. We theorized, played games together, had our own IRC channel, and even collaborated on our own forum stories. Yes, that's correct: we wrote fan fiction about fan fiction.

Those familiar with TAC know that Auspex gave up on Thoughts in Chaos after nearly 4 years of “production updates” and audio clips. He'd gone to college, got a girlfriend, and started a fairly involving progressive rock band called Paradigm Blue. In the end, ZeusLegion announced that episode III would never be, and posted its entire script, a wonderfully written piece that, if paired with the engine of Starcraft itself, would've been amazing.

But, it was never paired. As a forum, we remained for over ten years, and still do despite the lack of our mother content, mostly acting as a postmodern, cynical crew of 80's offspring. But as we waited for Thoughts in Chaos, we engaged in our own projects. A Canadian named Codebreaker and I spearheaded the story writing for our own campaign, Armageddon's Call. We had rebellions, treacheries, weaponized plagues, insane cerebrates, cliffhangers, and a female firebat hero. Brainstorming that campaign with Codebreaker was one of the coolest experiences that Starcraft's ever given me.

Needless to say, our team never finished the darn thing. And while there's still bitterness about how Auspex never finished TAC, it's easy to understand. It's easy to understand how the inception of an idea, of a story can capture your imagination as easily as the description of Smaug's lair did me, and how something so fantastic just can't be fully realized. It's easy to understand how, really, everything I just detailed is nothing but interactive fan fiction; and once you're in college, you have to study, you have to have a real life and a girlfriend and a progressive rock band.

I went to college and majored in English, reading literature and learning how to write short stories. I wrote some fairly hoity-toity papers about Keats and Coleridge, learned why Titus Andronicus is actually awesome, and said crap like “narrative” and “hegemony” on a daily basis. I studied Hemingway and O'Connor's stuff—y'know, real stories.

Then Starcraft 2 was announced.

All of the sudden, there was a burst of activity at the Antioch forum, a place which is usually a mix between a morgue and a bad comedy club. We'd all popped in every now and then, but we all remembered what really brought us together, what chained us together as complete and utter nerds: the story of Starcraft.

And so when Auspex comes around and says he's thinking about doing an Antioch Chronicles for Starcraft 2, we all roll our eyes and say “So does this count as Production Update #5?” And yet, we're still intrigued, us 20-40 year-old men, returning from a real, sprawling life experience to the magically preserved science fantasy of Starcraft.

My mother eats libraries for snacks, which is a cooler way of saying that she reads a lot. She's read almost every piece of great English literature, but her favorite book is still and always the Lord of the Rings. She first read it when she was a young teenager, trying to figure herself out, the things she wanted to do, who she was going to be. The struggle of good against evil resounded so strongly and emotionally for her, that she has read it every three years since. It's a story that, at this point, not only reminds her of the importance of doing right things and facing dark times with courage, but also of herself, and the journey she's taken in this life.

Every now and then I go back and replay those Starcraft missions, including the Antioch Chronicles, and not because they're fun or challenging, but because I want to remember the story. I want to remember myself from the formative years of my life, and how I cared so much about something I loved.

Starcraft 2 won't energize the Antioch Forum nearly as much as the first stories did; those were the stories that raised us, inspired us and kicked us out of the nest. But it reminds us of something precious that we once had, and still carry with us, in a way. While my English degree lets me know how very derivative and awful a lot of Starcraft's story actually is, it doesn't really matter to me at all. All my English major got me was a higher brow, while Starcraft gave me a love for story.

The Starcraft universe is a part of my life, the same way that certain stories are parts of other people's lives. The slow-rolling dialogue, the crisp voice acting—those are the words that not only shaped the fictional worlds of Koprulu, but worlds of imagination in a young nerd in Oregon.

So when you're debating the merits of a 2 gate opening or a 14 hatch, remember that there's a Starcraft universe, that Day[9] used to name his marines, that all of us at one point were giddy kids who saw an alien with glowing blades attached to its wrists and went, “Cool!”

Hopefully, Starcraft 2 doesn't just shove a retcon samurai sword through our faces. Hopefully, when Starcraft 2 comes out on Tuesday, its universe, its worlds will be alive and well, and that for some teenager out there, it'll make fireworks.
"Your efforts you put in will never betray you." - Flash | "If I'm not good enough, I don't wanna win." - Naniwa
StreetHeat
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States225 Posts
July 22 2010 04:40 GMT
#2
Great read. I think the we all sometimes get so wrapped up in the competitive side of this of this game that we forget that really we're just nerds that prob bought the original game because there was an alien on the cover and spaceships and lasers are fucking cool. People can call the campaign cheesy all they want but I can't wait to revisit this world, blow shit up and escape for a good 30 hours before being called a dildo by some noob I cheesed in the bronze ladder. I'll prob never be great competively but I get to tell little marines to go kill bugs and that's good enough for me.

Btw I loved the book Armor as a kid and this game is as close to that story as I can get.
“If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you” -Bruce Lee
TheDrill
Profile Joined February 2010
Russian Federation145 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-22 05:05:23
July 22 2010 05:00 GMT
#3
I read your post with the same attitude I'd read a clever craigslist troll, with this awesome feeling of "is it even possible for someone to actually be this naive?" And then I remembered that I'm reading the tl forums and that I'm not on craigslist, so I already know the answer to this question. (yep)

You see, the story in StarCraft makes about as much sense as someone who has a high-school level grasp of science can muster on the minimum salary allowed. Obviously anything with the terms "science" and "fiction" is going to skimp on the science and gravitate heavily towards the fiction. StarCraft 2 and other competitive video games are fairly unique though in respect of the fact that the story isn't central to the goal of the game. So someone who wanted to beat others in a game of strategy could safely ignore the retardation of the "science" fiction plot.

With that said, can you explain to me why the Dominion or why the Protoss don't just slap some ion drives on the nearest asteroid they find and send it directly for all of the Zerg infested worlds? We have the technology to do this today.

Step1: Calculate the asteroid orbital trajectory and target it for whatever planet you hate the most.
Step2: Send up a saturn5 rocket with an ion drive as its payload.
Step3: Attach ion drive to asteroid and accelerate to some hilarious overkill velocity, such as .1c
Step4: Wait a thousand years and you can now safely mine all of the blue crystals/green gas you want for all eternity.

That's just the first plot hole I can think of right now. These little gems just demolish any suspension of disbelief I am willing to put up for a game that I like.

TL;DR:
Gauss Rifles - guns that utilize the Lorentz force to accelerate a slug down the length of two conducting rails. They deal 6-(X) damage to spaceships idling in low orbit in the future. Where X is the armor rating of the ship. (X is usually somewhere from 0-4)
TERRAN MAROIDER RAGE
rS.Sinatra
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada785 Posts
July 22 2010 05:17 GMT
#4
On July 22 2010 14:00 TheDrill wrote:

Step1: Calculate the asteroid orbital trajectory and target it for whatever planet you hate the most.
Step2: Send up a saturn5 rocket with an ion drive as its payload.
Step3: Attach ion drive to asteroid and accelerate to some hilarious overkill velocity, such as .1c
Step4: Wait a thousand years and you can now safely mine all of the blue crystals/green gas you want for all eternity.



I don't think that would work or is even unstoppable...

Step1: see the astroid coming from a mile away
Step2: send huge force to destroy asteroid
Step3 (if step 2 fails) move your own astroid to incept
Step4 (if step 3 fails) move your base off the planet, since you can see the asteroid coming 10 years away...

Not to mention, it would probably be faster and more productive to send 50 battle cruisers with nuclear payloads... which they obviously can't do either b/c of the vast zerg force... but if you are one of those people that questions every continuity error in movies, there's no hope for you.
www.rsgaming.com
Ploppytheman
Profile Joined April 2010
United States248 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-22 05:29:16
July 22 2010 05:28 GMT
#5
On July 22 2010 14:17 Paramore wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 22 2010 14:00 TheDrill wrote:

Step1: Calculate the asteroid orbital trajectory and target it for whatever planet you hate the most.
Step2: Send up a saturn5 rocket with an ion drive as its payload.
Step3: Attach ion drive to asteroid and accelerate to some hilarious overkill velocity, such as .1c
Step4: Wait a thousand years and you can now safely mine all of the blue crystals/green gas you want for all eternity.



I don't think that would work or is even unstoppable...

Step1: see the astroid coming from a mile away
Step2: send huge force to destroy asteroid
Step3 (if step 2 fails) move your own astroid to incept
Step4 (if step 3 fails) move your base off the planet, since you can see the asteroid coming 10 years away...

Not to mention, it would probably be faster and more productive to send 50 battle cruisers with nuclear payloads... which they obviously can't do either b/c of the vast zerg force... but if you are one of those people that questions every continuity error in movies, there's no hope for you.


I know you're Canadian, but do you have a general concept of how long a mile is?
youtube.com/ploppytheman for GAIMEZ!!!
QuothTheRaven
Profile Joined December 2008
United States5524 Posts
July 22 2010 05:29 GMT
#6
Wow, that was a really great piece. Thank you for sharing.

Focusing on the lore/storyline is definitely much different from focusing entirely on the competitive side of the game, and it's nice to sometimes step back from the multiplayer obsession and appreciate the single player experience for what it is.
. . . nevermore
Euphemism
Profile Joined June 2010
Canada57 Posts
July 22 2010 05:33 GMT
#7
Mmm. I once read all the articles here (http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/) and learned how unlike science fiction the future can be.
Consider:
1. FTL travel will likely never happen (plus, I remember reading somewhere that FTL communication will actually allow communication with the past/future).
2. There is no stealth in space (it violates the second law of thermodynamics)
3. Once you gain the capability to launch massive objects at a significant fraction of the speed of light, you can stealthily kill planets. (Literally hours of advance notice before you can detect that your planet will go boom)

There is quite a bit of 'hard' science fiction out there, but most SF will take some liberties for the sake of good story, and good combat. That site goes into quite a bit of detail about the implications of combat in space given these limitations.


On July 22 2010 14:17 Paramore wrote:
I don't think that would work or is even unstoppable...

Step1: see the astroid coming from a mile away
Step2: send huge force to destroy asteroid
Step3 (if step 2 fails) move your own astroid to incept
Step4 (if step 3 fails) move your base off the planet, since you can see the asteroid coming 10 years away...

Not to mention, it would probably be faster and more productive to send 50 battle cruisers with nuclear payloads... which they obviously can't do either b/c of the vast zerg force... but if you are one of those people that questions every continuity error in movies, there's no hope for you.


Related to my point 3. At low speeds, yes, this works. If you can get it up to relativistic speeds, then the time frame you have to detect it shortens tremendously.
SnowJob
Profile Joined April 2010
United States21 Posts
July 22 2010 05:34 GMT
#8
I've played The Antioch Chronicles and know exactly what you mean. Those were the only good fan-made Starcraft campaigns, but they were astounding. Good levels, good story and the kind of voice acting you'd never expect to see in a fan project. Never looked at TAC's fan community, though I gather I didn't miss too much.
Blisse
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Canada3710 Posts
July 22 2010 05:41 GMT
#9
On July 22 2010 14:33 Euphemism wrote:
Mmm. I once read all the articles here (http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/) and learned how unlike science fiction the future can be.
Consider:
1. FTL travel will likely never happen (plus, I remember reading somewhere that FTL communication will actually allow communication with the past/future).
2. There is no stealth in space (it violates the second law of thermodynamics)
3. Once you gain the capability to launch massive objects at a significant fraction of the speed of light, you can stealthily kill planets. (Literally hours of advance notice before you can detect that your planet will go boom)

There is quite a bit of 'hard' science fiction out there, but most SF will take some liberties for the sake of good story, and good combat. That site goes into quite a bit of detail about the implications of combat in space given these limitations.


Show nested quote +
On July 22 2010 14:17 Paramore wrote:
I don't think that would work or is even unstoppable...

Step1: see the astroid coming from a mile away
Step2: send huge force to destroy asteroid
Step3 (if step 2 fails) move your own astroid to incept
Step4 (if step 3 fails) move your base off the planet, since you can see the asteroid coming 10 years away...

Not to mention, it would probably be faster and more productive to send 50 battle cruisers with nuclear payloads... which they obviously can't do either b/c of the vast zerg force... but if you are one of those people that questions every continuity error in movies, there's no hope for you.


Related to my point 3. At low speeds, yes, this works. If you can get it up to relativistic speeds, then the time frame you have to detect it shortens tremendously.


But the problem is, we cannot possibly explain all the events in the universe, and thus we cannot rule out that all our impossibilities may be possible should we know more than we do now. We cannot assume anything is certain ever. We accept these laws on the basis that we cannot find fault with them, but that is dependent on what we know true, which can change as we evolve.

My argument is weak, but I hope that it is true, and that we will not be bound in technology by these laws.

Anyways, as much as I enjoy lore in my games, depending on games, I do not believe not having extensive lore would diminish its quality, although the ability to lose yourself in a game's lore is a fun pastime.
There is no one like you in the universe.
Whiplash
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
United States2928 Posts
July 22 2010 05:49 GMT
#10
The Vision of the Future series by Razorclaw X were my favorite (and inspirational) campaigns from brood war. There were other real good ones but they stood out to me for some reason.
Cinematographer / Steadicam Operator. Former Starcraft commentator/player
Mr_LOL
Profile Joined July 2010
Israel21 Posts
July 22 2010 05:51 GMT
#11
who cares about lore lol. if i want lore i read lord of the rings. sc lore sucks
TheDrill
Profile Joined February 2010
Russian Federation145 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-22 06:07:06
July 22 2010 05:58 GMT
#12
On July 22 2010 14:33 Euphemism wrote:
Mmm. I once read all the articles here (http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/) and learned how unlike science fiction the future can be.
Consider:
1. FTL travel will likely never happen (plus, I remember reading somewhere that FTL communication will actually allow communication with the past/future).
2. There is no stealth in space (it violates the second law of thermodynamics)
3. Once you gain the capability to launch massive objects at a significant fraction of the speed of light, you can stealthily kill planets. (Literally hours of advance notice before you can detect that your planet will go boom)

There is quite a bit of 'hard' science fiction out there, but most SF will take some liberties for the sake of good story, and good combat. That site goes into quite a bit of detail about the implications of combat in space given these limitations.


Show nested quote +
On July 22 2010 14:17 Paramore wrote:
I don't think that would work or is even unstoppable...

Step1: see the astroid coming from a mile away
Step2: send huge force to destroy asteroid
Step3 (if step 2 fails) move your own astroid to incept
Step4 (if step 3 fails) move your base off the planet, since you can see the asteroid coming 10 years away...

Not to mention, it would probably be faster and more productive to send 50 battle cruisers with nuclear payloads... which they obviously can't do either b/c of the vast zerg force... but if you are one of those people that questions every continuity error in movies, there's no hope for you.


Related to my point 3. At low speeds, yes, this works. If you can get it up to relativistic speeds, then the time frame you have to detect it shortens tremendously.

Point 1 is a solid point.

Point 2 is misleading. There is no stealth in space as in you will emit electromagnetic radiation no matter what you do. However, there is stealth in space since distances are mindbogglingly vast. It won't help you much if all you're seeing of your enemy is some far away speck of light diffused across some interstellar hydrogen cloud. It won't help you when that same speck of light launches several hundred Relativistic Kill Vehicles in your general direction in an interstellar pot shot contest of who can best predict where their target will be several months/years from now.

Point 3 is also bolstered by the fact that you're probably dealing with significantly more than one asteroid. The cost to launch a hard to detect rock across space is far less than the cost to launch a battlecruiser or whatever other engineering design joke people are stamping out at the Imaginary Shipyards.

Planets are sitting ducks in a more realistic future slug fest, really.

Edit: Vica, do you have any specific theory in mind? I've heard people throw those words around before and have no idea what they're supposed to mean. The chances of any current long-standing theory being disproven are about the same as someone disproving the fact that your drinking water is made up mostly of H2O molecules. Do you feel that there is a non-zero chance of your water being not made up of H2O molecules?
TERRAN MAROIDER RAGE
Euphemism
Profile Joined June 2010
Canada57 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-22 06:10:40
July 22 2010 06:00 GMT
#13
On July 22 2010 14:41 vica wrote:
But the problem is, we cannot possibly explain all the events in the universe, and thus we cannot rule out that all our impossibilities may be possible should we know more than we do now. We cannot assume anything is certain ever. We accept these laws on the basis that we cannot find fault with them, but that is dependent on what we know true, which can change as we evolve.

My argument is weak, but I hope that it is true, and that we will not be bound in technology by these laws.


Yes, there are things that we can't rule out, and things we can't completely explain. But the way science works is that it's filling gaps, not throwing out everything and starting from scratch. Newton came up with the laws of motion, and he was wrong. Einstein saw to that. But just because Newton's laws weren't correct all the time, doesn't mean they aren't mostly correct most of the time.

Have you ever read Isaac's Asimov's the Relativity of Wrong?

We first thought the earth was flat. Then we thought it was a sphere. Then we knew it was a flattened sphere. Then we know that there's an additional distortion that makes it somewhat pear shaped. Each one of the previous 'laws' was wrong. But, at the same time, the new discoveries don't completely invalidate the previous models.

On July 22 2010 14:58 TheDrill wrote:
Point 2 is misleading. There is no stealth in space as in you will emit electromagnetic radiation no matter what you do. However, there is stealth in space since distances are mindbogglingly vast. It won't help you much if all you're seeing of your enemy is some far away speck of light diffused across some interstellar hydrogen cloud. It won't help you when that same speck of light launches several hundred Relativistic Kill Vehicles in your general direction in an interstellar pot shot contest of who can best predict where their target will be several months/years from now.


I probably should have been more clear. Yes, you won't see the relativistic kill vehicle that's about to blast your planet like shotgun pellets through wet tissue paper. But if they're sending a warship your way, you'll see it. And point 2 is mostly addressed at ship-to-ship combat. I think it was about comparing space battles to naval/air battles. For instance, in air battles you can hide behind the horizon; in naval battles you get submarines. Can't have that in space.

Back on topic - Starcraft lore to me is interesting, but since I never beat the original, much less BW, I never got immersed enough in the lore to care. I have since read a summary of the series (watching all the cinematics along the way, thanks to a thread here on TL), but I guess I don't have the attachment to the story that other people have.

Still looking forward to it, though. I used to play a lot of RPGs, generally for the story, so that's pretty important to me. Mm. I think it was Terranigma that had the saddest ending (although not too much of a plot now that I think about it)

EDIT: Replying to TheDrill
virgozero
Profile Joined May 2010
Canada412 Posts
July 22 2010 06:07 GMT
#14
O_O... chill out dude, its just a game.
DminusTerran
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada1337 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-07-22 06:15:22
July 22 2010 06:10 GMT
#15
Sorry to burst your bubble but, this is what really happened:

Blizzard Employee #1: Hey Carl, you know those stupid British duders who we stole the idea for Orcs and Humans from, they also have a Universe in space that is like 40,000 times better, we should poach that shit too...

Blizzard Employee #2(henceforth refereed to as Carl): Ok sounds cool, but lets tone down the grimdark and slim out the races a bit, that shit is kind of a convoluted mess.

Blizzard Employee #1: Ok ok... yeah yeah, like what if the pysonic space elves, were... yah know plant people!

Carl: That's the kind of thinking that'll get you a corner office round here kid.

Blizzard Employee #3: *bursts through the door* YOH MUTHA FUCKAS I JUST WATCHED ALIENS SHIT WAS WICKED SICK *proceeds to raise bull horns*.

Carl: *Maniacal Grin*
FroZeNN
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United States165 Posts
July 22 2010 06:19 GMT
#16
what an awesome read. I can definitely identify with the OP. I love the SC Lore, also love the competitive multilayer side of the game, but when I'm tired of thinking starts or just ended going on a 14 game losing streak i just like to ponder, what would a marine do if he\she saw a zealot charging??? would he\she shoot, or take cover would it try to out smart the zealot. I think that considering and remembering the universe that the awesome competitive game takes place in widens your experiences and provides for over all more enjoyable play
"More GG More Skill" - WhiteRa
intrigue
Profile Blog Joined November 2005
Washington, D.C9933 Posts
July 22 2010 06:27 GMT
#17
On July 22 2010 13:40 StreetHeat wrote:
Great read. I think the we all sometimes get so wrapped up in the competitive side of this of this game that we forget that really we're just nerds that prob bought the original game because there was an alien on the cover and spaceships and lasers are fucking cool. People can call the campaign cheesy all they want but I can't wait to revisit this world, blow shit up and escape for a good 30 hours before being called a dildo by some noob I cheesed in the bronze ladder. I'll prob never be great competively but I get to tell little marines to go kill bugs and that's good enough for me.

Btw I loved the book Armor as a kid and this game is as close to that story as I can get.

this posts sums up my thoughts exactly, even down to Armor. the book really focuses on the individual in a large-scale battle, and so even today i look at marines sometimes and think about how they're real people and probably like watching The Hills and playing beer pong.
Moderatorhttps://soundcloud.com/castlesmusic/sets/oak
LaSt)ChAnCe
Profile Blog Joined June 2005
United States2179 Posts
July 22 2010 06:42 GMT
#18
On July 22 2010 14:00 TheDrill wrote:

With that said, can you explain to me why the Dominion or why the Protoss don't just slap some ion drives on the nearest asteroid they find and send it directly for all of the Zerg infested worlds? We have the technology to do this today.

Step1: Calculate the asteroid orbital trajectory and target it for whatever planet you hate the most.
Step2: Send up a saturn5 rocket with an ion drive as its payload.
Step3: Attach ion drive to asteroid and accelerate to some hilarious overkill velocity, such as .1c
Step4: Wait a thousand years and you can now safely mine all of the blue crystals/green gas you want for all eternity.


i know that not everyone in the world has taken physics... but i have a few friends who'd like to meet you and discuss your 4 step plan to success...

their names are mass, inertia, and momentum.. and they think your idea isn't feasible
OverSight
Profile Joined June 2010
United States104 Posts
July 22 2010 06:43 GMT
#19
Fantastic post. I enjoyed it. Reminds me of when SC1 came out. I was pretty poor and my parents couldn't get it for me, so I got the demo (spawn version i think it was called) and I would just play the couple of levels over and over again and end up just building a Terran city with half the tech tree across the entire map lol. Kinda makes you laugh. I remember thinking that the zerg race (who you fought in that level I believe) was so mysterious and cool (i love bugs) that I would search over the entire map thinking that I might find some hidden Zerg unit somewhere in that demo. I think thats probably why I ended up playing Zerg.

Thanks again.

-OS
I have learned and I will thusly crush people. -Day[9]
Saracen
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
United States5139 Posts
July 22 2010 06:45 GMT
#20
The post was great, but the quality of the SC2 lore is probably the least of my concerns. And not because I feel it's any less important, but because Blizzard seems much more competent at handling that than certain other aspects.
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