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Not sure if anyone saw this in the latest PC Gamer magazine, but at the very end in the editorials was one written about the recent press only SC2 invite event they had at irvine. (that tl's own posted the sucsess story fo their 2v2 tourney win) Suffice to say, this article pissed me off to quite some degree, I'm going to type it out here and I'd like you know if you all feel the same way after as I did.
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SPEED FREAKS
When Blizzard recently invited both press and pro Starcraft players to its shiny new Irvine, CA headquarters for the unveiling of the Zerg, it amazed me how many questions and how much concern there was from the pro players about the game-speed options. Lead Designer Dustin Brodwer said that Blizzard has gotten negative feedback from the community about how gameplay footage released over the past few months, which shows the game running at normal speed, appears to be "super slow". He reassured them that the game currently has both "fast" and "Faster" settings, and that the dev team is considering adding a "fastest"
I don't blame Blizzard in the slightest for giving its community what it wants (it's something the company does exceptionally well), but in my opinion, people who play RTS games at accelerated speeds are missing the point. I'm not saying that playing that way isn't an amazing skill, and I'm not denigrating the accomplishments of professional RTS players (those guys sure kicked the snot out of me when I tried to play against them), but are we really in such a hurry that a game has to be over ithihn 10 minutes? When i wrote a couple of months ago about how refreshing the pace of Sins of a Solar Empire is in comparion to the breakneck pace of games like Starcraft and Command & Conquer 3, I was talking about playing those games on normal speed.
At high speed, a game ceases to be a simulation of a real battlefield. Yes, we're playing in the far future with aliens and lasers and everything else, but come on. everybody's zipping around so fast that the screen looks like a shaken-up ant farm-which might make sense for the Zerg, but for marines to move like that en enormous suits of power armor is ridiculous, unless those resources crystals are supposed to be crystal meth. (that would explain why they're always out to score more.)
What's worse, though, is wthat when you're playing at that rate, you can go ahead and toss strategy out the window along with the realism. Min/maxers (people who bust out Microsoft Excel to figure out how to build the strongest possible force with the minimum possible time/resource investment) make the real strategic value of many RTS games debatable at normal speeds, but when sped up to two or three or four times as fast, it's not even a questions. It's no longer about out-thinking your opponent and the big picture, it's about reflexes, rehearsal of a super effecient build order, and micromanaging individual unit movement and abilities-no higher-level thinking required.
In their Q&A and feedback time with Browder, some of the pro players (was there even any PRO players there? this was press only event to my knowlege. he was probably refering to the TL.net guys) noted that due to the changes made between Starcraft 1 and 2 there were a few moments when, while waiting for resources to acumulate or units to build, they felt they "didn't have anything to do." Isn't that when you're suposed to think?
I got yelled at a couple times during that trip for hosting a game and setting the speed to normal instead of fast or faster. I yelled back that if the game was supposed to be played at those speeds, they would be called normal.
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United States43343 Posts
He's entirely ignorant of the subject of his article. Not a strong quality in a journalist. But other than write a letter of complaint what can you do but mock him.
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Belgium6774 Posts
So some rts newb reviewer doesnt like sc's pace
what else is new
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ah good. i looked around a bit and couldn't find it. probably because it was in the blog section, and not the sc2 section ><.
still the guys a fucking noob and shouldn't be entitled to an opinion. about anything. ever. in his whole life.
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On May 02 2008 10:20 Kwark wrote:
He's entirely ignorant of the subject of his article. Not a strong quality in a journalist. But other than write a letter of complaint what can you do but mock him.
maybe we should all do just that, if you notice at the bottom of the picture in the other thread it says Email: Strategiccommand@pcgamer.com (lol?)
often editorials like this if they recieve enough flack from a stupidass article will write about how they were wrong in the next one. that and pc gamer does have an entire section every month dedicated to letters written to them that they publish and answer.
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Sweden33719 Posts
Bleh, he obviously doesn't get high level SC and from the outside who can blame him. It's the same as an outsider watching MMA, it looks pretty barbaric.
You don't think while doing nothing, you think while doing something, because every action is second nature you don't have to spend time actually thinking about doing them. He doesn't get this because to him they aren't second nature, oh well.
A letter might not be a bad idea but flaming him is 
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so he's incapable of thinking and playing the game at the same time. i dont see why he needed to write a whole article on his shortcomings
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United States20661 Posts
If you read the other thread, you realize that even writing emails is a futile endeavor; he labels it 'hate mail' no matter how conservatively phrased your letter.
Just relax it.
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once again, I would beat that noob on fucking slowest
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Heh , sounds like this guy could use " Hello Kitty Island Adventure. "
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United States20661 Posts
On May 02 2008 10:49 FrozenArbiter wrote:R u srs?  You should write an email titled 'From the "progamer" you played' 
Ahahahahaha
I might, actually. Eh, I'll do that now.
edit: if I could find his e-mail address, that is. Anyone less technologically retarded than me please help T-T
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yeah i got mad, i guess thats normal when you have ignorants talking about what they dont know.
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On May 02 2008 11:02 Last Romantic wrote:Show nested quote +On May 02 2008 10:49 FrozenArbiter wrote:R u srs? You should write an email titled 'From the "progamer" you played' Ahahahahaha I might, actually. Eh, I'll do that now. edit: if I could find his e-mail address, that is. Anyone less technologically retarded than me please help T-T
scroll up newb :D
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He's just uneducated on the ways of starcraft and progaming. Relax guys.
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Thinking and moving your mouse are not mutually exclusive.
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Wow, I bet the guy's motto must be "When in Rome, act like you're from Carthage" or w/e.
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United States43343 Posts
I emailed him with a long and tactful explanation that when Starcraft players move at 400 apm they are not just massing the same unit and attack moving it but rather that each of those 400 decisions is a planned strategic decision which forms part of a greater strategy.
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EPT
