• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 02:17
CEST 08:17
KST 15:17
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
RSL Season 1 - Final Week6[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall15HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, Rogue, Classic, GuMiho0
Community News
Esports World Cup 2025 - Brackets Revealed14Weekly Cups (July 7-13): Classic continues to roll8Team TLMC #5 - Submission extension3Firefly given lifetime ban by ESIC following match-fixing investigation17$25,000 Streamerzone StarCraft Pro Series announced7
StarCraft 2
General
Who will win EWC 2025? Server Blocker RSL Revival patreon money discussion thread Weekly Cups (July 7-13): Classic continues to roll The GOAT ranking of GOAT rankings
Tourneys
FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series $5,100+ SEL Season 2 Championship (SC: Evo) WardiTV Mondays
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 482 Wheel of Misfortune Mutation # 481 Fear and Lava Mutation # 480 Moths to the Flame Mutation # 479 Worn Out Welcome
Brood War
General
Flash Announces (and Retracts) Hiatus From ASL BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ [ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall BW General Discussion Help: rep cant save
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Cosmonarchy Pro Showmatches CSL Xiamen International Invitational [BSL20] Non-Korean Championship 4x BSL + 4x China
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do.
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile Nintendo Switch Thread CCLP - Command & Conquer League Project The PlayStation 5
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative Summer Games Done Quick 2025!
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion NHL Playoffs 2024
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Men Take Risks, Women Win Ga…
TrAiDoS
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 709 users

A Legacy of Distinction

Forum Index > Final Edits
90 CommentsPost a Reply
1 2 3 4 5 Next All

A Legacy of Distinction

Text byArrian
April 7th, 2009 15:00 GMT
[image loading]

Image by Silversky

"They envy the distinction I have won; let them therefore, envy my toils, my honesty, and the methods by which I gained it". -Sallust

TeamLiquid: Final Edits
A Legacy of Distinction
by Arrian


A legacy is an enduring presence, a lasting and unquestionable attribution to a relevant discipline which revolutionizes that discipline. A legacy is emulated because it defines the discipline it is a part of, sets important precedents, and fundamentally alters that discipline. Legacies can come in all forms, and in all disciplines. The paper “Syntactic Structures” by Noam Chomsky defined the future of the scientific study of language. The organization of the Roman republic continues to influence governments and political theory, nearly two millennia after its passing. J. S. Bach, called “the father of all music” influenced Western musical composition and theory, from rock to classical, even to this day. In science, politics, and art, legacies are omnipresent parts of their pursuit.

Eleven--and Counting

[image loading]

In gaming, however, there are few legacies. The atmosphere changes with each generation of consoles and the maturation of developers. Thematic continuity in genres and occasionally in titles provides some looks at what a legacy could be, but because the focus in gaming is always on the newer, the glossier, and the more powerful, there are few legacies—only nostalgia.

A legacy in gaming would require that a game transcend the lusty sheen of higher polygon counts or 3D graphics acceleration; it would require that a game be so profoundly deep that innovation would be its golden rule, skill its cardinal virtue, and victory its only pursuit. It would require the harmonic convergence of nearly flawless gameplay and epic competition. There has been only one such game to ever combine these fortuitous properties, and it was released on March 31st, 1998.

StarCraft, and its subsequent expansion, quickly became one of the best-selling PC games of all time, having sold over 9 million copies since its release. With its expansion, StarCraft was lauded across the gaming world, with numerous accolades and awards—5 Game of the Year awards, a star on the Walk of Game, and an acknowledgment in GameSpot’s Greatest Games of All Time—and praise from reviewers and personalities, expressing what would be its legacy:

With its excellent campaign, elegantly designed factions, and simple to learn but deep, strategic gameplay, Starcraft is the defining game of its genre. It is the standard by which all real-time strategy games are judged. -GameSpot
StarCraft is hands down one of the best, if not the best, real-time strategy games ever created. With three distinct races, both in terms of gameplay and style Blizzard's masterpiece contains some of the most balanced and yet widely-varied units in the genre. -IGN
This game is one of the best in the genre and should be a part of all strategy gamer's libraries. You'll find yourself coming back to StarCraft again and again. -The Gamers Temple
The hype from Blizzard is that this is the best real-time strategy game ever created. And as a complete package, you'd have to make a pretty good argument to punch holes in the veracity of that statement…StarCraft may not be the next generation of the genre but it is easily the current pinnacle of how good it can be. -The Electric Playground
It truly revolutionizes and sets a new standard for real-time strategy games on the PC. –All Game Guide
Starcraft showed how games could express our imagination and help us experience it in an exciting way. -Lim Yo-Hwan, from Crazy As Me
Starcraft was a landmark in online gaming, and put RTS on the map as a competitive, incredibly fun genre. -Tom “Zileas” Cadwell
The game is incredibly balanced which is almost nonexistent with other RTS games…The depth of the game on the competitive level rewards hard work and creativity where as other games have been 'figured out' fairly quickly resulting in a stagnant metagame. -Nick “Tasteless” Plott


[image loading]

But this is not enough. The true question worth examining is—why? What is it about StarCraft that has made this legacy? Last season, ICCup hosted over 2 million games. Every day, tens of thousands of people still log on to Battle.net to experience a game that is over a decade old. This is unparalleled in gaming. Truly, very few games are able even to cultivate a dedicated player base, much less for 11 years. The answer to why, in a general sense, is that there are qualities intrinsic to a game that allows for its success or failure. An artist or scientist without vision, intelligence, or talent will not leave a legacy, and neither will a game without equivalent properties.

True Virtue

[image loading]

What are these equivalent properties? Gaming can be considered like a painting: when it is beheld, its art is experienced; when a game is played, its gameplay is experienced. A painting must have a vision for what that experience should be, as must a game. For a game, that experience is competition, and that competition must be unadulterated and unmolested. A painting must have some complexity, in any manner of speaking, whether it be abstract or concrete complexity (of meaning or graphic detail), and so must a game have some level of complexity, either, but preferably both, in strategy and gameplay. For a painting, when vision and complexity are combined, it is said to be art. When a game combines competition and complexity, it is said to have a metagame.

A game that is pure is one that has at its core the essence of strategy. Undoubtedly, there is no way for a real-time strategy game to be purely strategy; some technical component must accompany and complement the strategic one. But the physical component should not be considered irrelevant to competitive purity—competitive purity stresses strategic advantages over technical prowess, but technical ability is also a major factor. The prevailing idea behind a purity of competition is that, in the end, the better player must be the one to win, whether or not the play of the victor is defined by technical rather than strategic prowess. The favoring of strategy over technical ability is not a slight to the value of technical play, but rather it is meant to disqualify a game that permits the player who button-crunches faster and harder to always be the victor.

[image loading]

Technical ability and strategic execution are very different functions for a player, as different as the functions of the parts of the brain that control these activities. Without technical ability, the execution of a strategy will inevitably fail. Without a strategy, technical ability is useless. This is to point out that these two must act together; they must be completely and consciously coordinated. It is difficult to quantify or investigate which of these skills is more important to the outcome of a game, and it ought not be a concern for the player. In StarCraft, as in other competitive games, it is the fundamentals of strategy and technical ability that prove most important. Flashy hand motions or micro gimmicks are superficial and irrelevant to game outcome if the fundamentals of strategy and technique are not in place.

StarCraft at its highest levels requires dozens of strategically complex decisions to be made in just seconds. The richness of this complexity is what makes the game so interesting and powerful. With the literally hundreds of ways to tech between the races, each game is a unique struggle and no two games are completely alike. Thousands of games are played every day, most opening with the same handful of refined build orders, and nearly each one, at the very least, ends uniquely for the player.

StarCraft is not a march to the biggest unit or biggest gun, it is not the unidirectional march to the highest perch on the tech tree for the weapons that overpower all enemies. Its design is far more complex than that—as GameSpot’s review elaborated: “Even more remarkable is that the game's early combat units, like the lowly Zerglings and Marines, maintained their usefulness all the way to the end of the longest matches. Units higher up on the technology tree did not make earlier units obsolete--they only added to the array of strategic options available to the player. Impressively, the Brood War expansion pack threw even more units into the mix without breaking the game's delicate balance.”

[image loading]

Complexity does not imply the existence of balanced and prevalent metagame. A hypothetical game with five races instead of StarCraft’s three would prove incredibly, perhaps impossibly, difficult to balance. A hypothetical fighting game with sixty playable characters will not have all of these characters viable in competitive play. In this sense, overly complex and overly simple games share the same damning principle that fails them: they cannot completely support a metagame. Overly simple games, because of their lack of innovation or even distinct variance, prevent a metagame from even being possible. Overly complex games, because of the problem of balance, cannot support a metagame.

StarCraft splits this appropriately down the middle. It is not a perfectly balanced game; such a feat is impossible, but it is balanced enough that it is pure. StarCraft has developed a fascinating metagame; the strategic innovations over the years and the interplay of older builds and concepts with newer builds and concepts is a salient example of what makes StarCraft unique, and what enables legacy. The history of StarCraft metagame is not the irreversible march to the single most optimal strategy for each (one could argue, non-mirror) matchup. There are safe builds, economic builds, aggressive builds, cheese builds, all-in builds—but all have harmonious advantages and disadvantages, which are suited to a player using them per situations and per a personal style. It is not possible to imagine that the entire history of StarCraft strategy was mapped out and balanced during playtesting. This is either a lucky accident, a one in a thousand chance that StarCraft in its most competitive forms would be so harmoniously complementary, or the deliberate and impressive foresight of the developers, that the metagame has proven to be appropriately malleable to allow for depth in innovation, but also that it is not infinitely malleable.

Curtain Call

[image loading]

StarCraft’s real innovation over the years has been the gameplay itself. The innovation was the potential of the game for boundless outcomes, but even more that these outcomes are almost exclusively a function of player skill. The innovation in gameplay was this: the player’s mind, and the player’s hands, against another’s mind, and another’s hands. The function of all the complexity and purity in the game is this simplistic result.

In personal correspondence with Zileas on this very topic, he raised an important spectre: StarCraft 2. Zileas is an important old-schooler who playtested StarCraft in its infancy, and who himself is responsible in some way for the legacy of this game. Doubtless, StarCraft 2 will be judged by the same properties that were responsible for the success of its predecessor: purity, complexity, and metagame. It stands to reason that if these of the sequel fall short in quality as compared with the original, the game will not prove as successful in the long term. As the reviews come out, and awards come in, there will be a clear and objective measure of how well the legacy of StarCraft has been succeeded. It is impossible to predict, at this point, what the result will be, but there is some optimism from Zileas on the matter: “Starcraft 2 is going to be an incredible game -- I know the team from my time at Blizzard working on the RTS team and I know that the product they are going to deliver is going to be a huge milestone in gaming just like the first.”

[image loading]

So, as StarCraft 2 looms just over the horizon, this may be the appropriate time for reflection on the legacy of this game, what has made it so great, and what the game has meant to the RTS genre and gaming as an industry. If StarCraft 2 does supplant its predecessor, then all that will be left in the end, after serious competition has moved on and left impoverished this unadulterated art of war, is its legacy: the legacy of the greatest game ever made.
Facebook Twitter Reddit
Writersator arepo tenet opera rotas
Plexa
Profile Blog Joined October 2005
Aotearoa39261 Posts
April 07 2009 13:49 GMT
#2
A very well written article. It's great to have a new FE after the drought
Administrator~ Spirit will set you free ~
Aesop
Profile Joined October 2007
Hungary11291 Posts
April 07 2009 13:55 GMT
#3
Amazing, writing and artwork.
ModeratorNon veritas sed auctoritas facit legem. | Liquipedia: Don't ask me, I'm retired.
cHicKeLoR
Profile Joined October 2008
Germany559 Posts
April 07 2009 13:58 GMT
#4
very well wirtten and fun to read. Great job.
TimeShifter
Profile Joined October 2008
Singapore235 Posts
April 07 2009 13:58 GMT
#5
i feel a little overwhelmed lol- only a really really really starcraftish person could have written this from scratch.. kudos to you, Mr Arrian.
strawberries~
jnheart35
Profile Joined February 2009
United States178 Posts
April 07 2009 14:08 GMT
#6
Very well written. Props to you.
Kennelie
Profile Joined December 2007
United States2296 Posts
April 07 2009 14:16 GMT
#7
Awwwwhhhh..
ya had ya shot kid!
Dgtl
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
Canada889 Posts
April 07 2009 14:17 GMT
#8
I like the art you chose for this article. Always nice to see something new!
Also your writing was very good
^______________^
Arceus
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
Vietnam8333 Posts
April 07 2009 14:19 GMT
#9
nice read,I love Dali's paintings as well
Ranix
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States666 Posts
April 07 2009 14:19 GMT
#10
nice article
Legends never gg
Spenguin
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
Australia3316 Posts
April 07 2009 14:29 GMT
#11
Omg a new FE!!

Awesome write-up will recommend to anyone that doesn't know about Starcraft.
< TeamLiquid CJ Entusman #46 > I came for the Brood War, I stayed for the people.
omG.[RaYnE]
Profile Joined October 2007
Philippines100 Posts
April 07 2009 14:35 GMT
#12
sweet right up :D and I'm just half way through
omG.[RaYnE] ---> rayne_ph :D
MuR)Ernu
Profile Joined September 2008
Finland768 Posts
April 07 2009 14:39 GMT
#13
I love dali

Also i like the article.

i wish taht starcraft2 could "continue the legacy" or whatever. Live up to the expectations, and maybe push the greatness of starcraft even more.

But i am not so optimistic about this anymore :/
Blunderbore
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
Lithuania23 Posts
April 07 2009 14:52 GMT
#14
gj except "It is not a perfectly balanced game"
Fan of Termite Terran (Bogus)
RobRoy2501
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
United States177 Posts
April 07 2009 14:56 GMT
#15
Starcraft 2 will be nothing compared to brood war. Thats just how the world works.
The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled. -Plutarch
konadora *
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
Singapore66158 Posts
April 07 2009 14:56 GMT
#16
Amazing read, style of writing is mystique and intriguing. Message clearly delivered, that Starcraft is the best RTS ever.
POGGERS
hazed
Profile Joined February 2009
United States42 Posts
April 07 2009 15:06 GMT
#17
Amazing, touching, and ridiculously true. This article defines what Starcraft is and you would be hard pressed to find anyone who wouldnt agree after reading this article. Loved it.
miseiler
Profile Blog Joined October 2008
United States1389 Posts
April 07 2009 15:11 GMT
#18
On April 07 2009 23:52 Blunderbore wrote:
gj except "It is not a perfectly balanced game"


It is impossible to "perfectly balance" an unsymmetrical game. This is simply a fact. Even chess is unbalanced; white moves first.

Only players can be balanced.

On topic: brilliant. I love the dali artwork.
"Jinro soo manly wearing only a T-Shirt while the Koreans freeze in their jackets" -- Double_O
"He's from Sweden, man. We have to fight polar bears on our way to school." -- Yusername
The.Crow
Profile Blog Joined November 2006
619 Posts
April 07 2009 15:14 GMT
#19
Enjoyed to read that, nice quotes!
Gliche
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
United States811 Posts
April 07 2009 15:22 GMT
#20
Ooh, nice piece of work you got here. I remember you (Arrian) from one of the competitive Super Smash Brothers Melee threads. I also really like the touches of art you put in. :D

nitpick on a typo: last paragraph 2nd line "what has it made it so great" ->"what has made it so great"

other than that, Awesome FE.
KT fighting~!! | Designing things is fun!
1 2 3 4 5 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
OSC
00:00
OSC Elite Rising Star #15
Jumy vs NicoractLIVE!
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Nina 244
StarCraft: Brood War
GoRush 253
Leta 185
Dewaltoss 51
ajuk12(nOOB) 16
Bale 12
Dota 2
monkeys_forever680
ODPixel302
NeuroSwarm88
XcaliburYe87
League of Legends
JimRising 709
Super Smash Bros
Westballz22
Other Games
summit1g11807
shahzam1164
Trikslyr38
SortOf2
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick2247
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH278
• practicex 42
• intothetv
• IndyKCrew
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Kozan
StarCraft: Brood War
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota2972
• lizZardDota268
League of Legends
• Rush1917
• Lourlo1296
• Stunt446
Upcoming Events
Epic.LAN
5h 43m
Big Brain Bouts
9h 43m
sebesdes vs SpeCial
Harstem vs YoungYakov
GgMaChine vs uThermal
CranKy Ducklings
1d 3h
Epic.LAN
1d 5h
CSO Contender
1d 10h
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
1d 11h
Bonyth vs Sziky
Dewalt vs Hawk
Hawk vs QiaoGege
Sziky vs Dewalt
Mihu vs Bonyth
Zhanhun vs QiaoGege
QiaoGege vs Fengzi
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
Online Event
2 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
2 days
Bonyth vs Zhanhun
Dewalt vs Mihu
Hawk vs Sziky
Sziky vs QiaoGege
Mihu vs Hawk
Zhanhun vs Dewalt
Fengzi vs Bonyth
Esports World Cup
4 days
ByuN vs Astrea
Lambo vs HeRoMaRinE
Clem vs TBD
Solar vs Zoun
SHIN vs Reynor
Maru vs TriGGeR
herO vs Lancer
Cure vs ShoWTimE
[ Show More ]
Esports World Cup
5 days
Esports World Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

JPL Season 2
RSL Revival: Season 1
Murky Cup #2

Ongoing

BSL 2v2 Season 3
Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
BSL20 Non-Korean Championship
CSL Xiamen Invitational
CSL Xiamen Invitational: ShowMatche
Championship of Russia 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25

Upcoming

2025 ACS Season 2
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
BSL Season 21
K-Championship
RSL Revival: Season 2
SEL Season 2 Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
FEL Cracov 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
Underdog Cup #2
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.