EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cdvQFXi.jpg)
P.S.: Feel free to post your thoughts here, let's get as much positive discussion going as possible! I am continually updating this post with the feedback you guys give.
P.P.S.: I made a huge amount of updates to this post (October 30) based on the feedback I got on the B.Net forums.
Here is a link to the B.Net post: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/10311881685?page=1
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
2. Interface
3. Popularity (Up/Down Voting)
4. Levels
5. Points (similar to Riot's Influence Points)
6. Cash Purchases
7. Achievements
8. In-Game Tournaments
9. Ladder
10. NEW WCS Format
11. In-game Observing (similar to Dota/LoL observing & tournament streaming)
12. Game Modifications
13. NEW Visuals
14. Coaching
15. Strategy
16 NEW Clan Changes
17. Practice Partners
18. Calendar
19. Player Profile Changes
20. Friends List Changes
21. Player Search
22. In-game News Changes
23. Replays
24. Voice and Video Interaction
25. Special Events!
26. Hall of Fame
27. Methods to get New Players into the Game
28. Commercials/Online Advertisements
29. The End (Finally!)
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1. INTRODUCTION:
I remember how I used to stay up late so I could watch the GSL Open Seasons live, seeing new players come upon the scene seemingly out of nowhere and old heroes from Brood Wars, Boxer and NaDa shining in the new game. I remember how everything in the game held a sense of excitement for me, and how I was excited about Blizzard’s new ladder feature, and used to ask friends “what rank are you?” when I saw them. I remember when there weren’t tons of Starcraft 2 tournaments, but every one of them held meaning and I was excited to watch them all.
Nowadays, I find myself watching only parts of tournaments, and don’t feel that need to stay awake and watch games live. I like to watch really good games, but if not, what keeps me up late at night are the amazing storylines that come from foreigners doing well, or watching powerhouse players blow through their opponents with ease. However, there aren’t many consistantly dominant players on the scene. There aren’t many new players on the scene, and when there are, they don’t have the means to make a name for themselves right away, because tournaments have so many leagues to go through before you reach the top.
And most players play similar styles, unlike in early WoL when people were coming up with amazing new builds. Like when Jinro used mech on MC in TvP for the first time and slaughtered him, leaving him bewildered (I will not really touch on balance in this article). I wish that players could use multiple effective styles to make their name known.
I also find that WCS has stunted the scene by how much time they have taken away from other tournaments to be focused upon and how little they accomplished compared to what the fanbase had hoped for.
I also don’t feel that excited to log in the game because besides I am mostly a watcher of SC2 games, and don’t have that incentive to play the game, having gotten used to all the units and daunted by the task of reaching the highest leagues, with no short-term benefit.
Thus I have written this article, Fix Starcraft 2 for Legend of the Void, to showcase the potential the game could hold if Blizzard decided to push all the right buttons. And I submitted it now, of all times, before Legend of the Void is announced, because, as we all know, all the big features are implemented with a new expansion. So this is the last chance we have left for big changes.
First off, a TL;DR:
The best route for Blizzard to take if they want to maximize their game potential by spending minimum money is to increase the amount of people that play the game.
By improving the interface through the use of social features and aspects that make people want to play more, you will keep them invested in a game. More invested people = more people that watch tournaments = more money for tournaments and more awareness for the game. More awareness = more sponsors for Blizzard. And by including features that can make Blizzzard money, more players playing the game = more $$$.
Also, they should make use of the player community to develop things. Therefore they should have the community develop maps, arcade games, tournaments, and most importantly balancing, having interface options that allow for the community to maximize their effect on the game. They should also take note that many of the features on a site like Team Liquid should be incorporated in the game, such as in-game player and tournament observing, practice partners, and many different types of search options.
Finally, they should adapt their game like a sport and have the proper tournament system and player ranking options as well as a Hall of Fame to remember those who inspired us.
A word of caution:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/XoAhTCx.jpg)
I want to note beforehand that many of these options will require a substantial investment through Blizzard’s part, and they would of course have to analyze if those features would be making or losing them money. Many suggestions might also generate a negative reaction from some of you. However, I feel obliged to give them the best possible features that I could think of and it is up to them to decide whether they can implement it. Another point I want to mention is that I did not touch upon gameplay, as it is already long enough and the community has already made many such articles and told Blizzard loud and clear on what gameplay changes they want. This article will be a success if it creates lots of discussion among the SC2 community.
2. INTERFACE:
The main goal for the interface change will be to facilitate the social aspect of the game. A good example of Brood Wars and WC3 was how a chat box that filled up the majority of the screen as soon as you logged in. I propose the following:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/xLnWIfK.jpg)
The main goal for the interface change will be to facilitate the social aspect of the game. A good example of Brood Wars and WC3 was how a chat box that filled up the majority of the screen as soon as you logged in. I propose the following:
-You start the game with the standard loading screen, which brings you into a starting screen that gives you two options: Single Player, Multiplayer, Options, Replays etc. If you enter singleplayer, you are left on your own. However, if you enter multiplayer you are automatically placed in the default Blizzard chat channel. You can disable this through in-game options, as well as edit the channel you enter.
-The chat screen should not feel like a small box but a sizable part of the screen. I recommend the complete bottom portion of the screen. As an option I would allow the user to disable the chat box and have a larger screen for whatever else you are looking at, an example being to enlarge a list in a selection screen.
-The center of the screen will showcase different things, depending on the tab you select on a small box that when you click on it gives a large list of options (you can set the default tab in the options section):
-News feed: A small part where all of your friends can post things (like Facebook’s News Feed) and you can see it and comment on it
-Featured: upcoming events, featured arcade games that rotate, featured articles)
-In-Game Player Observing
-Different searches: Tournament search, clan search, coaching, practice partners, replay search, player search
-Calendar
-Player profile (that pops up when you select someone’s name in chat channel or friend list, search in chat box)
-Arcade
-Campaign
-Custom Games
-Ladder
-Achievements
-In-game Points and options (UI modifications, unit modifications, sounds, icons, etc)
-Strategy
-Practice Partners
-Hall of Fame
-etc...
By doing this, the chat section will always be available and the interface will feel more social and less complex.
-A small part on the top of the screen where reminders (friend/tournament/other invites, calendar events) pop-up. An example would be if a WCS tournament is starting on twitch, an announcement beforehand would show up in this area and a box would pop-up when the stream starts, and when you click on it would cause the center of the screen to go to the twitch stream.
-A tiny corner on the top left side of the screen with your account name, in-game points, experience, player icon and clan name/icon
-A tiny corner on the top right hand corner of the screen with the time and date, and when you click on it it will open up the calendar
-Any other ideas?
3. POPULARITY (UP/DOWN VOTING:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0cLdHEN.jpg)
A design to up-vote things that you deem are of superior quality. Will be able to up/downvote many things (maps, arcade games, strategies, players (for in-game observing), clans, coaching, practice partners, replays, etc). Will be part of search options in many areas of the game. Having a certain amount of popularity in each section will unlock the ability to be featured.
4. LEVELS:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5MVvFYq.jpg)
Continues the function it currently serves in HotS, showing the amount of experience the player has accumulated in the game.
-Only used to show game experience (tournament > ladder > comp games in experience)
-Not used to unlock decals or any other bonuses anymore, but the in-game points gained through playing ladder games can be used towards these bonuses
Leveling will be capped at level 100, with each level getting increasingly harder and only the most dedicated of players able to reach it.
5. POINTS:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/pidcn4V.jpg)
An alternative to spending money in-game for many of the new game additions, the use of in-game points will reward players who play the game more. This is similar to League of Legend’s Influence Points.
-Gained through laddering (including unranked ladder games), playing in Blizzard tournaments, through more people observing in-game laddering, achievements, and also through purchasing with real money
-Any other ideas?
6. CASH PURCHASES:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4thFwYg.jpg)
-This feature would apply to in-game modifications (icons, UI, etc) as well as real money tournaments, and other features discussed in this document
-Got any other good ideas where people could spend real money? Give your ideas! I am especially looking forward to feedback of what options people think should be used for real money versus in-game points, as I had trouble thinking of how to keep as many benefits accessible to the masses without giving Blizzard the option to make more money and hence put more effort into the success of the game in the future. I would also like to encourage discussion on what kind of things Blizzard could do with cash that would not be considered online gambling.
6.1 Other Benefits of In-Game Points & Cash:
-Transferability: being able to transfer the points you made in SC2 into any other Blizzard game (make those use point system too) so that people play the game just to build up points for other games too. Points are also server-wide, so points accumulated in one server will show up in the other.
-Featuring: being able to feature tournament/clan/strategy/arcade or custom game/etc on main SC2 page (these rotate often, every X seconds per day). However, to not be able to abuse this privilege, this option can only be done every X days, and the thing you are featuring must have a certain amount of popularity first
-Donations: The ability to donate money towards your favorite players in an easy to find location for any player. This could work through Paypal, with Blizzard obtaining a small percentage of the money donated as posting fees. A benefit towards donating in this way would be that the money you spend here would be counted towards the yearly total money invested in the game which would give you a chance at winning the prizes associated with that (trip to Blizzcon, other gifts)
-Any other ideas?
7. ACHIEVEMENTS:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1523119.jpg)
These provide in-game points, icons or other mods. Their difficulty ranges: easy, medium, hard, rare. With an experience bar you can see how many achievements you have completed and how many remain. Here are some examples of achievements they can put in the game:
-making it into a new league
-joining your first clan
-creating your first strategy guide
-trying out your first coaching session
-creating your first tournament/playing in your first tournament
-winning X amount of ladder games
-winning X amount of tournament games
-participating in X amount of balance testings
-playing your first 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, FFA game etc
-using voice/video chat for the first time
-using in-game points for the first time
-using real cash for the first time
-using X amount of cash
-accumulating a total of X in-game points lifetime
-winning X ladder games in one day
-winning a game in under five minutes
-playing a ladder game that is over X minutes
-playing a ladder game for X consecutive days
-Any other ideas?
Note that for each achievement with X would scale up depending on the difficulty as a separate achievement
8. TOURNAMENTS:
Before you read this section, I would just like to remind you of the online gambling laws in places such as the USA. Nevertheless, I still included cash tournaments because of the potential they offer, should it be feasible.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ovVZYzt.jpg)
I propose the following changes to revitalize the competitive scene of the game:
-Weekly in-game Blizzard-run tournaments for WCS POINTS. Consists of 1v1, 2v2, Clan War (Proleague All-Kill/Regular format each week, with the date determined by the clan), and FFA. WCS points are gained for these Blizzard-run tournaments except for FFA (this provides an outlet for good players to gain that extra edge in WCS points through the weekly tournaments, and make for potential amazing games if anyone can observe tournaments, like I mention later in the in-game observing section).
-Like the WC3 tournament system, has its own in-game ladder ranking, and you can get special icons and decals, etc through tournament achievements that cannot be purchased through in-game points)
-Player-driven tournaments: This format would exist provided that cash tournaments are enabled. Each player would pay an entry fee with the winner receiving most of the money, and Blizzard getting a percentage of the pool. The money is only taken if the tournament format you choose becomes full.Any format allowed (XvX, FFA, Clan Wars [Both Standard and All-Kill]).
-Hosted tournaments: Hosts like MLG and other smaller venues or even individuals can create their own tournaments through Blizzard’s in-game interface by putting in their own prize pool, with the money going to the winners and Blizzard getting a percentage of the pool. By hosting a tournament Blizzard gives you a page where you can put your own tournament banner and other information about the tournament, as well as giving the ability to send invites through the game to players to enter the tournament through either friends list or player search, and the option to allow players in-game to observe (obviously through a delay), or allow viewing of twitch/other video streams on this page. Any format allowed (XvX, FFA, Clan Wars [Both Standard and All-Kill])
(assuming that Cash Tournaments are not allowed, hosted tournaments would still exist but with no prize pool, and players would be able to search for tournaments in a tournament search selection screen)
-All tournaments are done through the In-Game Blizzard Interface, even for open tournaments like WCS Qualifiers. This makes it a lot more accessible to enter the tournaments and the brackets can be automatically adjusted for the amount of people that join (no limit). This tournament requires in-game points to enter, so either you have to pay a small fee or use your WCS points.
9. LADDER:
-Addition of Clan Wars. This is a feature which I didn’t initially think of adding but that someone mentioned would make it unappealing for Blizzard weekly run WCS point tournaments if pro teams had to play really bad ones. Master level necessary to unlock weekly Blizzard Clan League tournaments.
-Addition of FFA. Many people like to play FFA, so this could be a potential option to look into.
10. NEW WCS FORMAT:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/XtJWlFt.jpg)
A new WCS system is needed to revitalize the competitive scene. Someone once mentioned comparing competitive Starcraft to tennis in terms of rankings and seeding, and I tend to agree. I propose the following:
-WCS points are now enabled for 2v2 and Clan Wars. 2v2 is added to the WCS Regional and Season Finals tournaments, while Clan Wars, due to the complexity and lengthiness of each matchup, would be done through In-Game weekly Blizzard tournaments.
In order to balance the fairness of the Clan Wars and ensure that a fun and competitive experience is achieved for all, I have added the Clan Wars as a ladder feature and would make it mandatory that only master level Clan Wars teams and above can enter the tournament.
Team games are a less stressful way of playing the game and would appeal to the casual gamer. Currently the tournaments supported would be the weekly in-game tournaments by Blizzard, as well as the WCS Seasonal tournaments. If other tournaments adopt this format then WCS points will be attributed to those as well.
-Every significantly large/hyped tournament will give WCS points, scaled in amount depending on the size of the prize pool, with a minimum prizepool to be able to give WCS points (e.g. 5 ranks of WCS points depending on the prize pool). What this does is add significance to the more minor tournaments that people might not normally watch, and offer a wider range of tournaments WCS points as opposed to the few that exist now.
-The WCS points, effectively generating a World Ranking system, are used towards seeding in all tournaments that offer WCS points, including the open brackets of the Seasonal WCS qualifiers. This will ensure that a lot of your favorite players will still make it far in the tournament. Note that this doesn’t mean that only the highest ranked WCS players are invited to the tournament, only that if those players decide to enter the tournament they are seeded against people with less WCS points.
-WCS points reset YEARLY for qualifications towards Blizzcon, although they are permanently added to the lifetime WCS points pool of that player that do not reset for seeding purposes
-The top players on each ladder (1v1, 2v2, clan wars) will gain WCS points at the end of each ladder season, each season resets after every Season Finals. This ensures that people play ladder alot and also gives more options to players who wish to maximize their WCS points for Blizzcon. It also enhances the competitiveness of ladder points with something at stake.
To clarify the information above, players will be able to build up WCS points for the season finals by: ranking top ladder, entering blizzard weekly in-game tournaments, getting points from WCS point sanctioned tournaments, including the Seasonal WCS for each Region.
For the seasonal tournaments, Blizzard has hinted that they might make the offline portion of the Seasonal tournaments larger. I truly hope that is the case, offline tournaments are much more fun than online and allow for a live crowd. I propose for the Regionals:
The tournament will start online and move offline for the 1v1 portion only due to the monetary constraints required to flying players into the studio.
The following players will get an invite to the offline Regional WCS 1v1 tournaments:
-The top 16 1v1 players
-The top 4 2v2 teams
The following players will get an invite to the online Regional WCS 1v1 tournaments
-The top 32 1v1 players
-The top 8 2v2 teams
The following players will get an invite to the WCS Season Finals:
-The top 32 1v1 players
-The top 8 2v2 teams
The following players will get an invite to the offline Blizzcon WCS tournament:
-The top 4 2v2 teams in WCS points
-The top 2 clans in WCS points
-The top 16 1v1 players in WCS points
-Any clan is allowed to participate in Clan Wars so that means the best clans will probably participate
Regions will be locked (not extremely strict locking, just enough so that all the tournaments arent 90% korean) in the interest of giving an even battle ground for every player in their own region and for rejuvenating the foreign scenes. It’s simple; there needs to be more foreigners advancing through the different leagues, otherwise re risk having more Blizzcons packed with 15-16 koreans in them. However, Blizzard’s eSports division needs to figure out how to keep the scene in Korea vibrant. Back in the day, the biggest prize pools were in Korea and there weren't many big prestigious tournament in other regions, so foreigners used to go to Korea to test their mettle. You don't see that anymore because of the arrival of WCS, and Korean tournaments have been merging, switching to other games or just shutting down completely.There needs to be more tournaments in Korea and China; Brood Wars managed to be giant in Korea and I don't think the sole reason was because of the gameplay. I'm pretty sure Blizzard could really help out the scene there if they put their mind to it.
-A good thing about being able to make in-game purchases as well as advertisement in the Starter Edition could give Blizzard money that they could potentially reinvest in increasing the WCS prize pool or other parts of eSports.
For this section I would lastly like to talk about the eSports aspect of WCS and how to make it more entertaining to the audience:
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-Short documentaries on the backgrounds, playstyles and lifestyle of the players done for every region. Not everyone knows in detail about all the players in the tournaments, and having players to root for makes it more likely for someone to tune in to a stream. Hyungjoon becomes a progamer/NalRa/Project A type videos are examples that were focused on individual players and in my opinion were extremely interesting. I would like to see videos like this at least once a Season for people to have an up and coming player who's progress they can follow, or short segments covering a larger number of the players in the tournament. The latest one, Project A, made it so that even people who didn't know Yellow previously rooted for him as he went from zero to almost advancing to Code A and making it into the GSL.
Here is a link to that show:
http://www.gomtv.net/2011gslsponsors5/vod/65947
-Group selection for the offline portion with ceremonies for the Regional WCS seasons, with player introductions that along with trophies for the ceremonies, kind of like the MSL did:
This provides a form of entertainment and showmanship that showcases players individuality and endears them to the viewers by something other than their gameplay.
-Trophies for different achievements that are given at the end of Blizzcon, encapsulating exceptional accomplishments in the form of best overall ceremonies, best player of each race as voted by the players, rookie of the year, etc.
DRASTIC CHANGE SUGGESTION: Lastly I would like to mention how the WCS format takes up so much of the time from other tournaments while it is being run. On one hand, having a GSL type system that gives unknown players a chance to shine without having to pay money to travel to a tournament is nice. It provides a system to prove themselves as the very best. However, it also hinders the ability of other tournaments to go on at the same time as it does, and every WCS Regional tournament lasts a long time indeed, so we don't get a chance to see many other tournaments and it feels like this is slowly killing the scene. With In an ideal world, the Regional Tournaments would last a max of three weeks, or better yet, removed entirely.
I mean, look at tennis. You clearly know who is the best of the best and you don't need a GSL-type system to get there. You just need a bunch of tournaments that give you points that influence your World Ranking, which gets you invited to big tournaments like Grand Slam events and gives you seeding for every tournament. So think about this. Would it be better for the WCS Regional tournaments to be COMPLETELY REMOVED, and every feeder tournament would seed into both WCS Finals and Blizzcon tournaments? I think so, but I mention this at the end here because it is more drastic than the other WCS suggestions mentioned.
11. IN-GAME OBSERVING:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KsPa8Cu.jpg)
LotV will herald a new era of visibility. I propose the following:
-The In-Game Observing feature: Similar to LoL and Dota, this gives the player the ability to watch in-game any player or tournament (Blizzard, Hosted, or Player-Driven) through a selection screen that allows the user to narrow their search.
This feature lags the game by a few minutes to avoid cheating, and can be disabled by Tournaments and players, respectively (players have no control over the tournament settings). I would assume that large tournaments such as Dreamhack, IEM, GSL etc would disable this option and have all viewers watch through a streaming program like Twitch, and so would players who want their gameplay kept as a secret.
-The Out-of-Game Observing feature: An announcement for every large tournament such as Dreamhack leading up to the starting date would show up in a rectangular portion on the top of the main interface screen. This announcement would be replaced by a button when the stream starts, and when you click on it the center of the screen to go to the twitch stream.
-Users can access the In-Game Observing feature by paying or using in-game points.
-Players can obviously still stream on twitch if they want to, but this gives a higher quality viewpoint from the observer’s perspective, without the lag and data usage of viewing streams.
-Players gain in-game points relative to the amount of viewers that are watching them and a portion of any payments made to watch them (provided they enter their credit card information)
-The money garnered through in-game observing through hosted tournaments goes partly to Blizzard, and partly to the creator of the tournament, while the money hosted by player-driven tournaments goes partly to Blizzard, and partly to the tournament prize pool
-Provide the ability to sort through player streams through an interface by-WCS points, ladder ranking, player level, viewers, etc
BETTER OBSERVING INTERFACE:
Having the ability for game analysts to use drawing tools to further their explanations such as the ones available in GameHeart Classic (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=400600) would be beneficial to the scene
Also, additional camera features like the ability to slowly circle around the screen, and ground view like in WC3 would be nice.
Blizzard should also add missing abilities to the production tab, an example being Chrono Boost
12. GAME MODIFICATIONS:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oxJaBFr.jpg)
Customizability is an important part of the uniqueness of a user’s experience. I am hoping that Blizzard offers us more than just better features for observing and mapmaking. I propose the following additions:
Icons:
-Special icons for achievements: being in WCS, having been to Blizzcon, having been to other big tournaments (Dreamhack, IEM etc), icons for WCS world ranking, number of ladder wins as examples
-Free icons: Player country, player clan logo as examples
-Frame for player in chat designed based on ladder league (grandmaster = gold, diamond = blue, etc)
-Icons achievable by using in-game points or paying cash
Modifiable in-game UI:
-Selection of UI that can be purchased using in-game points or money
-The ability to move around different elements of the UI and place them where you want (akin to action bars in WoW and other MMOs)
-The ability to create your own in-game UI and put them up for sale for in-game points or cash, with Blizzard getting part of every purchase
-Includes the ability to customize hotkeys (so people can implement hotkeys like TheCore http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=341878)
Other:
-Moddable skins (or can use in-game points): parts of each of the units (e.g. marines helmets, shoulderpads, weapons, mutaling wings, building designs, etc), pay to have team logo, home screen picture
other payable things:
-The ability to always see someone’s statistics before the game starts
-The ability to change your name (exists now, but will require cash)
-The ability to have different unit sounds & different race gameplay music (including original BW music)
-Any other ideas?
13. VISUALS
This is probably already something Blizzard is working on for LotV, but you can't understate what visuals do to a game. The physics that LotV brought to SC2 made it look more dynamic and interesting for viewers. Blizzard needs to continue in this aspect to make things look as intense and exciting as possible, focusing on making each race seem more thematic and unique.
Blizzard implemented destructable debris in SC2, but they did not touch the map itself. Perhaps some form of destructable environment could be implemented? This would not be too radical, mostly for viewer entertainment and not for strategic purposes.
WC3 had day/night cycles, another aspect that made the viewing experience more dynamic. Perhaps Blizzard could implement something like this in the game, not necessarily for any strategic advantage but just for the visual dynamics.
More weather effects: Blizzard should add more types of weather effects to the game in such a manner that wouldn't impede the ability to see the game unfold but make it look more dynamic.
Not to mention the in-game modifications and special events sections which mention more ways that Blizzard could customize the visuals to avoid any sort of staleness (seasonal and custom building & unit skins, modifyable UI, etc)
14. COACHING:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GsSf83G.jpg)
By making coaching accessible to the masses, the level of the players will increase as a whole. I would like to once again mention that some of the suggestions I have given (this one being one of them) might not be easily implementable, at least under the current format that I have suggested. There has to be some sort of policing to make sure that people do not get ripped off.
-Coaching done through a selection screen, Blizzard makes a small fee for placement and a portion of the price charged. Can search coaches based on WCS rank, ladder rank, race, popularity, moniker, price charged (can also select free coaching). Each coach has their own profile page where they write information about their coaching.
-Looking for a coach: Players can also post their requirements and a coach can see it in the looking for coach section and message them.
I thought of the downvote/upvoting and removing coaches under complaint, as well as account banning as policing for this, but it may not be enough, and potentially the only way this might work would be if the coaching was free. Either way, a coaching section would be really valuable to the game.
15. STRATEGY:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/iP1r2a5.jpg)
Looking for that next strategy to up your game, or think you’ve come up with one but wondering where people can find it?
-Will consist of player-generated strategies that players can search through in an interface by player rank, race, popularity, type of play, type of unit used, etc.
16. CLANS:
Looking for people to train with? Or just a group of friends you can hang out with while you’re on the game?
-Include a clan interface where the user can search all of the different clans based on selectable criteria (league, type of things the clan does, amount of time required to play, etc), there is a clan search on Teamliquid.net now but it would be much more usable if there was something like this in the interface (Blizzard auction house-like selection screen).
-Each clan will have their own profile page with their logo, roster, clan rankings and information about the team and how their clan operates
-Players can also post their own clan requirements for clans to invite (I call it free agency)
-The ability to create a clan icon and use that as an icon for your moniker
-Clan channel with moderator privileges
17. PRACTICE PARTNERS:
For people who don’t want to be in a clan, or just looking for specific training partners, Blizzard should implement the following:
-An interface where users can enter themselves as practice partners and enter in description what they are looking for in a selection box, so people can narrow by search options for suitable practice partners. Also an additional field to enter further useful information.
18. CALENDAR:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/vpHYaJ4.jpg)
To organize all information, I propose that Blizzard adds a calendar unique to every player
-Includes all clan-related information
-Includes all events (Blizzard tournaments, other WCS point tournaments, bonus in-game point days)
-Includes the ability to add events to the calendar
19. PLAYER PROFILE:
An important part of preserving the uniqueness of every player, I propose that Blizzard design player profiles with a complexity that harkens to Facebook
-Every player is unique: You can post information about yourself here, including your background, strengths and weaknesses, age, location (including country flag), and even include your own picture or any picture that you deem represents yourself
-Will include generated information like league, race, clan, achievements, wcs points and ranking (1v1, 2v2, clan, FFA), level in an easy-to-read graphical format.
-This information becomes all part of a database where people can search other similar people in a database and clans can find potential members (once again part of Blizzard auction house type selection screen). Also this is really cool since you can look up the player you beat afterwards and gain a more intimate knowledge of the kind of players they are, connecting players together. can even have pictures of the players if the person wants to put it there.
-A generated timeline that shows when the player started playing the game, and how their ladder rank has changed since then.
-For every WCS ranked player Blizzard should create GSL-like player stats (offence, defence, macro, micro, strategy, cheese, popularity). See http://terrancraft.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/wcs-korea-player-stats.jpg
-The ability to link twitter account/other social media (either as a link or with the ability to see the twitter chat on the bottom of the profile)
-On the bottom of every chat will be a section where people can write things and that player can see it forever. Think, a person’s Facebook Wall. The player can delete whatever is written if he wants, have only friends write here, have only friends read it, or disable this feature.
-Any other ideas?
20. FRIENDS LIST:
-Add a people-you-may-know section: Like Facebook, this suggests a list of people who are friends with many of your current friends. This would mainly be for people who have some friends that they know but did not know they played the game, and not for searching people with similarities based on complex algorithms like in Facebook. This leads me to my next feature:
21. PLAYER SEARCH:
-Ability to search for players based on location, age, etc for people to find others with similarities, or to invite to games, tournaments, or just to a message. Sometimes you want to look up a player who’s profile you you know but it’s so difficult to find it. This makes that easier.
22. IN-GAME NEWS:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/N2rlDnU.jpg)
An essential way for users to keep up-to-date with the goings-on in SC2
-An in-game newspaper like interface talking all about sc2 esports (tournaments, players, strategies etc) somewhere on the screen that you can click and will open up in-game and not in a browser. If Blizzard does not want to do this I suggest another option:
-Using the user base to create a news section similar to Digg. Users can post a link from an internet site and the community can upvote or downvote it, with the highest voted links on the top of the list. Users can also flag inappropriate links and they will be looked at by one of Blizzard staff and removed if necessary. This option would save Blizzard money and ensure that all of the available news is being put in this section.
-Another useful feature could be a twitter feed that shows up in game, whenever a player tweets something with #starcraft it shows up in a box in-game.
-A Liquipedia-esque section in-game (or at least provide a link that opens up to the site in-game).
23. REPLAYS:
SC2 needs a centralized database for replays, seeing as their are too many replay sites scattered throughout the internet that make it a chore to find the ones you want. I suggest Blizzard facilitate that in-game.
-The ability to view replays through a replay watching site interface, where you can search by player name, game length, races, map, votes, etc (and there is always a replay of the week) through a auction house type selection screen.
24. VOICE & VIDEO INTERACTION:
A good voice and video interaction system is the next step in player immersion and the social aspect.
-A good in-game voice & video system is needed for people playing in tournaments, when observing, or even just in chat (make a deal with skype, teamspeak or ventrilo for this)
-The ability for the host to disable/enable voice/video interaction in custom/tournament games(for example, disabling for observers and enabling for caster for in-game tournaments. note that the caster would be commentating on the delayed feed in this case)
25. SPECIAL EVENTS:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MOhjuEL.jpg)
Nothing spells excitement like a surprise. I propose Blizzard keeps the player base eager to log on through the following:
-Tournaments (as previously mentioned)
-Extra points days: making a kind of Day9 Daily thing where every day you get more in-game points for winning a game with one type of unit that Blizzard selects, and Blizzard can select units that aren’t being used as much, which would shed more light on new strategies or showcase possible units in need of being nerfed or buffed
-Balance testing: testing balance maps and units and giving feedback (voting included, potentially on balance & fun options separately) gives a good amount of in-game points, special icons, and allows for the community to voice their opinion. the good thing about doing this in-game is that Blizzard can easily sort out opinions by league & race. This could especially be useful during beta testing for LotV in looking at what units people like and what they find in terms of balance.
-Mapmaking & Arcade-Game making contests. The TL map contest is an example of how exciting contests can be, and Blizzard can take a part in this by having the winning maps included in the new ladder seasons.
-Seasonal game modifications: Having the visuals suit the time of year (christmas, halloween, st patricks day, easter, etc). Units, buildings and the UI and even the main screen interface would suit the theme. Reset everything after the special occasion but keep it as microtransactions (in-game points or real cash)
-VIP rewards: Inviting the person who spends the most money in-game every year to Blizzcon (assuming they make money by implementing this) and offering other prizes to the second place onwards.
-The Starcraft 2 home screen changing depending on special events (for example, large tournaments, Hall of Fame inductions)
-Reductions in in-game points or real cash requirements for purchases on select days
-Any other ideas?
26. HALL OF FAME:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/hAX58vu.jpg)
Like in any professional sport, this section designates the most accomplished players to ever play the game.
Every year, five players are added to the Starcraft Hall of Fame, each of them having their own special Hall of Fame profile with a lengthy player biography, defining replays of that player. To build up the suspense before the announcement, every week during the month of the announcement, a new temporary SC2 home screen lasting X days is made with that player, ending at the end of the month with the final player and the announcement.
In addition, these home screens will be purchasable using in-game points or real cash after the announcement.
27. METHODS TO GET NEW PLAYERS IN THE GAME:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/b3WB44l.jpg)
This is one area where the in-game points system will help. Currently there is the SC2 starter edition which is free.
I would like the following things to be added to the SC2 starter edition:
-Levels
-All races unlocked
-Clans
-Custom Games (can only play featured arcade games which rotate)
-Voice chat
-Chat channels
-Unranked ladder (gives in-game points)
-All news-related information (strategies, tournaments, headlines etc)
Advertisements for SC2 Starter Edition:
Blizzard can make additional cash by accepting advertisements from different companies and rotating them in a rectangular area throughout the top portion of the screen.
Other potential areas for advertisement:
-Loading screen for games
-In the actual game itself
(Note that advertisements would only be enabled in the Starter Edition and by purchasing the game would be removable)
I propose to allow the following to be enabled by using in-game points:
-Ranked ladder (enabled for X games)
-Coaching (enabled for X hours)
-In-game observing (one use)
-Items (permanent)
-Moddable skins (permanent)
While keeping certain things like tournaments off limit to these players. This would give them the social features of the game and the ability to work their way to getting part of the full game temporarily. What I hope this would do is give them enough information to truly decide if they would like to purchase the game or not.
Also, Wings of Liberty should become FREE TO DOWNLOAD (thanks JBangin for the suggestion!). Blizzard is most likely not making much on the original game any longer, so this would give new players the option of trying out Starcraft 2 with all of the original game's features for free, or trying out the Starter Edition with everything until HotS included, with limited features.
28.COMMERCIALS/ONLINE ADVERTISEMENTS:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cybOjyK.jpg)
This isn’t exactly related to the game but I thought I would post my thoughts on a potential advertisement that would showcase what Starcraft has to offer. I remember reading a post of LiquidRet’s on how he is still awed by how multitasking and micro can produce spectacular effects in a game. The following idea is inspired by that example:
The cutscene starts with two young kids playing chess, which turns into two older players playing chess, and then two grandmasters playing chess. Then the chess pieces turn into Starcraft units and then the whole board changes into the Starcraft game and you get examples of the truly amazing things skilled players can do (marine splitting, storm dodging, muta control), as well as amazingly huge battles. A voice says “Test your mettle in the world’s most challenging video game”. Starcraft 2 LotV logo follows.
29. THE END:
Finally, I would like to thank everyone for reading this, even those who skimmed through it really fast
I can only hope this stimulates meaningful discussions related to the steps Blizzard can take to “fix” the game, and encourage you to spread the word if you care about the game as much as I do!
Who knows? Maybe Blizzard is listening.
