Kuuso on 16/8/2010 at 15:40
Quote Posted by Koki
And that's exactly why Starcraft 2 will never be half as popular as Starcraft.
As Popular as E-sport, you're correct. As a game? Not so sure. It's obvious the ridiculous micro in the first game made it such an E-sport. Meaning you had to have skills to be really good. SC2 is easier that way, which means it's actually more fun to play, when you're not aiming to be pro - like pretty much any normal gamer. Some might say SC2 is dumbed down, but it's actually just more logical and comfortable, which is a good thing.
catbarf on 16/8/2010 at 15:55
If you want to look at which is better for E-sports, forget the gameplay. SC2 can only be played against people in your region, has no LAN play whatsoever, and specifies in its EULA that any kind of competition has to be sanctioned by Blizzard and give them a cut. Tournament organizers are going to have to jump through a lot of hoops to make it work.
Koki on 16/8/2010 at 16:07
Quote Posted by Kuuso
As Popular as E-sport, you're correct. As a game? Not so sure. It's obvious the ridiculous micro in the first game made it such an E-sport. Meaning you had to have skills to be really good. SC2 is easier that way, which means it's actually more fun to play, when you're not aiming to be pro - like pretty much any normal gamer. Some might say SC2 is dumbed down, but it's actually just more logical and comfortable, which is a good thing.
Sure some things are easier, but paradoxally noobs won't ever build twelve factories(so being able to select many of them is "wasted" on them) or rely heavily on special abilities(so smart and autocasts are "wasted"), and something as simple as a drop is a "game-ending" move for them, so they won't really care shuttles and reavers are Colossi now, and so on. Most of these helpful changes won't benefit them much because they simply don't use them, and at the same time they cripple the proscene.
Eh, whatever.
Eldron on 16/8/2010 at 16:08
Quote Posted by catbarf
If you want to look at which is better for E-sports, forget the gameplay. SC2 can only be played against people in your region, has no LAN play whatsoever, and specifies in its EULA that any kind of competition has to be sanctioned by Blizzard and give them a cut. Tournament organizers are going to have to jump through a lot of hoops to make it work.
Which goes to show the point that the team behind starcraft2 the game was actually a fantastic team, while the team behind the new battlenet2.0, not so much.. at all.
Thank god the game is patchable, better stop that community bleeding.
Assidragon on 16/8/2010 at 16:22
Quote Posted by Eldron
the team behind starcraft2 the game was actually a fantastic team
Yeah, converting Starcraft into 3D and fixing up an UI is clearly rocket science. I realize the wiseness of not fixing what wasn't broken, but hardly feels legit enough to start worshipping them.
Nameless Voice on 16/8/2010 at 17:06
Save your opinions on whether or not the game is an improvement until you've actually played it. :p
Nameless Voice on 16/8/2010 at 17:33
Quote Posted by Starcraft 2 in-game news
Free Character Name Change Coming SoonWe wanted to let everyone know that in the near future we'll be allowing everyone a chance to change their chosen Starcraft II character name for free.
In some cases, people chose character names that don't represent their usual multiplayer nicknames, as they were unaware of how the character names were being used. It's important to us that everyone is represented by a name of their choosing in their multiplayer games, ladders, and on the forums and community site.
In addition, beyond this initial free name change, we'll be launching a service similar to the one we offer for World of Warcraft which will allow additional character name changes for a fee. We'll announce more details on how the free name change and additional paid character name changes will be implemented in the near future.
...
No mention on if they're going to actually allow people to have reasonable-length names instead of the DOS-reminiscent 12-character limit, but... fees for a name change? What sort of greed is that? Any reasonable service lets me change my name for free whenever I want. Why can't they take a leaf out of Steam's book and do things properly?!
Matthew on 16/8/2010 at 18:20
Most MMOs charge a fee though; are they directly comparing the service to that?
Eldron on 16/8/2010 at 18:35
Quote Posted by Assidragon
Yeah, converting Starcraft into 3D and fixing up an UI is clearly rocket science. I realize the wiseness of not fixing what wasn't broken, but hardly feels legit enough to start worshipping them.
Blizzard just gets lucky, every time.
Assidragon on 16/8/2010 at 19:04
Don't misunderstand. Creating the original Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft were nothing less than a revolution, essentially defining roughly half the games in their respective genres. The teams working on those were/are real geniuses.
However, there is no big level of jump in SC1->SC2 that was present in WC2->SC. (Of course, this can be somewhat attributed to the major influence SC1 has - the fans essentially protested against almost every change.) I give praise where praise is due. The creation of SC1 will be always regarded as one of the important events in the gaming history. SC2 is in comparison just a well polished sequel - in my opinion.
If I wanted to make an exaggerated example, I'd describe this feeling with HL1 and HL2. The original HL1 is glorified as one of the games that defined FPS genre. HL2, in comparison, is a nice, solid, polished sequel. But nothing sort of the revolution that HL1 was. That's how I kind of feel with SC1 and SC2...
Cue NV bashing my head again for posting here. :sly:
