Roie

Toothpaste for Dinner

I wrote a poem for my creative writing class a few weeks ago. I seriously had a huge story about how it came to be, but its long and not that interesting, so I'll skip to the blog-worthy parts.

So I wrote a poem called "Play to Win" after reading David Sirlin's (The guy who made Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix) article Play to win

I submitted the poem to Poetry.com about 2 weeks ago. They finally contacted me with a barrage of awards and stuff. After counting, I was printed in 2 poetry books, and qualified for a crystal trophy, and the dedicated member award - All of which costed money, so that was a no-no. I was still published in a book though.
Favorite Memories
Immortal Versus

The poem was edited to fit 20 lines, so I had to take an entire verse out for it to fit, but the full one can be read at the end of this post.

From what I gather, I can still win some 'daily awards' if people vote for it. I'm not asking you to give me 500 10/10's, I just ask for you to vote truthfully.
http://www.poetry.com/voteforme/poemvote1.asp?PID=13309356

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Play to win

You gotta do what must be done
A cheap shot from behind
You gotta act like slime
Or you'll be overrun

Your morals are strong
Get rid of them
Throw away this gem
To sing the victor's song

Getting over your walls
Will tire you out
And the final bout
In the end you'll fall

Your walls must come down
A paradigm shift
It's a load to lift
An epiphany found

Put your honor aside
Play to win
Or it'll be your skin
No justice if you've died.

I hear the nonsense, and look to the sky
The world is ignorant
Its not approximate
Good and evil don't apply

Starcraft is a great esport because it is a flawed game.

Just recently, I posted an article on why an upcoming came called Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, and why it won't be a *ahem* GOOD esport.

It can be found here, but you don't have to read it.
http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index.php?showtopic=405931

Basically, it shows why the game sucks. You don't even need 100 apm to be perfect at the game. Economy sucks. Everything. It sucks. No doubt it'll be announced as a game in WCG, though. Hopping on the band wagon of the next EALA RTS that they pull out of their asses.

In that article, I explain the greatest 'factor' in an esport. The audience. Its something that I think is obvious, but it still seems like no one gets it. People are complaining about the MSL doing 1 game, then the next games a week later. It's to increase viewers.
"People who are good are suffering for this"
Woah woah woah. Since when are the players pulling the strings in esports all of a sudden?

Why is it that we get bored of great games like "Super mario bros", but not starcraft? What is the pro-scene doing to constantly revitalize our interest?

First, the metagame. We aren't rooting for the protoss or Terran, we're rooting for Jaedong or Samsung Khan.

And second, because of those things that make us go "HOLY SHIT STARCRAFT IS AWESOME"
Those things. What are they? They're the things that blizzard never even imagined when they made the game. Muta micro, Dropship micro (to evade scarabs and dragoons), using reaver splash damage to kill an undetected lurker. These things weren't intentionally made into the game, yet they amaze us. We are amazed by starcraft because it is a broken game.

Another point is show is after you've figured out that starcraft is a great esport. You see the huge skill differential. You can only select 12 units at a time. You have a terrible field of view compared to other RTS (it feels so zoomed in), and obvious imbalances. A zerg complains of psistorm being way overpowered. However, a protoss would also say a zerg is overpowered because 4 lings, can beat the one zealot, even though they cost the same.

This may seem like a messed up unorganized list with no points to back it up, but my point is that Starcraft is very broken compared to every other RTS that has made its way to Esport-prestige.

TeamLiquid, first, as a whole, should understand these points, and make their own RTS. One that has:

-Huge skill differential
-Unique micro possibilities
-Rewards for creative plays
-Making things such as expanding a risk/reward, rather than a necessity
-Imbalances on both sides, that don't counter eachother, but remains balanced. (like the psistorm + ling example), which is something that starcraft has down perfectly. Mutamicro and dark swarm against terran, for example, yet you can always win. Spider mines in PvT. Etc..
-Have rarely used units (ghosts) continue to be rarely used, but when used, be omfg-wtf-awesome.
-Mirror matches that aren't a snore fest, and are just as exiting to watch as any other one.
-Bestest graphix evar.
-Greatest eyecandy evar.
-Filled with same exiting moments like scourge chases.

You get the idea.
Get on it.