StarCraft 2: The Mass Appeal Effect
Why do people go to air shows? The obvious and more socially acceptable answer is because it takes a seemingly super-human amount of coordination and precision to execute the visually dazzling maneuvers that air show pilots carry out throughout the course of the event. The other answer that people would be less likely to admit in certain circles is that everyone kind of wants to see a crash. I mean that’s what makes it amazing right? It’s mind-boggling that they can come so close to one another without crashing. If there was no threat of incident it might not in itself be so entertaining. These two reasons are not so different from the reasons why I, and millions across the world like me, enjoy watching a professional match of StarCraft 2. Like air show pilots, the professional StarCraft 2 player must execute incredibly complex actions with no more than a split second’s warning in order to triumph over their opponents. The advantage that StarCraft has over the air show is that the spectators always get to see a plane crash. Inevitably at some point in every match one player will falter and the other will emerge from the explosions, bullets, lasers, acid sprays, and dust clouds victorious. StarCraft 2 is interesting to an extremely large number of very different people. We will now proceed to explore why.
Although many are not even aware of its existence, StarCraft is already a heavy weight contender in worldwide online entertainment. Just recently Blizzard hosted the Battle.net World Championship Series. This was a series of tournaments, where StarCraft 2 players from all over the world were able to qualify in regional tournaments, from which the top players of each region came together in a final culminating tournament to determine the world’s best StarCraft 2 player. As an eSports fan, this was an exciting event for me to watch because I think the various SC 2 tournaments across the world are beginning to coordinate with one another in what I hope will one day be a cohesive global league much like World Cup Futbol. Still not convinced that SC 2 has the potential to be a real sport (well, an eSport, but a real thing that people should care about)? The prize pool at the BWC was $250,000. The first place winner took home $100,000 alone (BWC - How It‘s Played). If for no other reason, this prize money is incentive for the professional players to be interested in StarCraft 2. The combined millions of viewers both online and in live attendance are enough for corporate sponsors to be interested in the game as well. Obviously these sponsors will get money from ticket sales but online viewers can also purchase VIP viewing passes which allow the viewers access to high definition streams of the tournaments as well as additional content that the non-paying viewers do not receive. At the same time, just as a football fan need never go to a live game, a StarCraft fan can simply watch the free lower quality stream and never have to fly to China for example, to watch the BWC. Also, these events provide sponsors a great opportunity to advertise and sell their merchandise directly to a demographic that is highly likely to be interested in their products so besides the direct revenue that the tournament itself provides, it is a great way for sponsors to connect with their clientele.
At this point, one might ask, “what makes the world champion StarCraft 2 player worthy of a $100,000 award?” Understanding the mechanics and mathematical processes behind the game itself is complex enough that a class dedicated to understanding StarCraft is taught at the University of California Berkeley. Most of the heavily watered down explanation that follows is taken from recorded videos of those lectures. StarCraft on its most basic level goes as follows. Two players start a match on opposites sides of a map. Each player gets one building and 6 worker units. This first building constructs additional worker units and provides a place for the workers to drop off resources. Workers harvest resources and build additional buildings. Certain buildings allow a player to build combat units. Combat units allow a player to attack the other player and ultimately destroy all of his/her buildings or cause the opposing player to choose to surrender, at which point the player receiving the surrender or destroying all of the buildings is the victor. Sounds simple enough, right? The next layer of complexity is the consideration of units. Each of the three races which players can choose from has about 15 structures and 17-20 units to choose from (depending on what one considers a unit/structure/ability). There is no definite method or order that a player must construct these buildings or units. Indeed, there is no requirement that players build all of the buildings in any one game. Most strategies only use certain units and buildings, so to optimize a strategy‘s efficiency, players will choose to cut out certain portions of available units and buildings. Unlike many strategy games the units of SC 2 do not function in a purely rock, paper, scissors fashion. Given the aforementioned number of units to choose from one can estimate the permutations of unit combinations available (a combination of combat units will henceforth be referred to as a unit composition). Each unit has a different affect on other units. Certain units cause a lot of damage to armored units for example, but cause less damage to lighter units. Although the more expensive will often kill the less expensive one the fact that the less expensive units are cheaper and often take less time to build allows the lighter, cheaper, and usually faster units to outmaneuver and overwhelm the more expensive one. On the flipside of this concept is that the more expensive one when used properly with good positioning and proper support will so efficiently deal with the cheaper, easier-to-produce army that the player with the cheaper army will eventually run him/herself out of resources allowing the slower more expensive army to waltz in for the win. Furthermore, each unit can receive certain upgrades that allow it to absorb, as well as deal out more damage. These upgrades occur at different rates so essentially each different level of upgraded unit is its own unit. In order to determine any one unit’s efficiency rate of destroying another unit a separate comparison would have to be made on each level of upgrade of the attacking unit as well as each level of upgrade of defending unit. Beyond this is the fact that the efficiency rate changes in different numbers and with different positioning. This is due to many mathematical factors, but I find it is easier to understand through some visualization. To begin, let us assume that through a comparison of attack values to hit points (hit points are the amount of health or damage that a unit can take before it is destroyed) army A will lose to army B. If the player who controls army A has his units positioned in such a way that allows all of his units to attack at once any unit from army B that enters a certain kill zone in front of army A. Let us now assume that army B is moving into the kill zone in such a fashion that all of his units cannot return fire at army A at once, that is the units toward the back of army B’s formation are not in range while the front of army B’s units are in range. At this point even though army A may be outnumbered or outgunned, army A can still win the battle because they are essentially engaging only a small portion of army B at a time. This gives army A a faster rate of hit point reduction to army B. As army B’s units are killed their total ability to reduce army A’s hit points is reduced. These two concepts are the main reasons why it is practically impossible to determine the exact outcome of any one engagement in StarCraft 2, especially when both armies have large numbers of different units with different amounts of upgrades, attack ranges, and positioning. So simply, units are related in a rock, paper, scissors fashion in terms of efficiency, but no one said that a StarCraft player must win efficiently. Paper may beat one rock, but many rocks can rip through paper, and many spread out pieces of paper can surround and overwhelm one set of scissors. All of these factors must be assessed and the appropriate reactions executed in real time in StarCraft 2. This is what leads to the high level of cognitive and dexterity based skill required to master SC 2.
So let us assume for a moment that a player has managed to master all of the aforementioned concepts of micro (micromanagement, the skill of controlling one’s units in such a way that allows as many friendly units to attack while minimizing the amount of friendly units killed by the enemy). Even if a player has the best micro in the world he or she can lose if they are out macroed. Macro (or macromanagement) is the concept of economy management and production that a player must simultaneously execute along with the other aspects of SC 2 in real time in any match. Put simply, if a player has spent all of his or her intellectual resources (these are out of game resources like the amount of attention or speed a player has to keep track of and manage all of the aspects of SC 2 at once) on micro and has spent very little time ensuring that they have developed a strong economy in order to purchase more combat units and advanced structures that will allow that player to produce better combat units, that player will most likely be overrun even with the maximum amount of efficient use of his or her units. Players must establish a rhythm of continuously producing workers and supply structures (supply structures are required to add more units [workers or combat units] to a player’s civilization) while they go about executing the other aspects of their strategy. Resources found in a player’s start area are finite and before long will be depleted. Thus, players must expand to new resource locations as the game progresses in order to continue building structures and units to keep up with or out produce one’s opponent.
Just as before let us now assume a player can micro and macro in perfect harmony. Surely, this player is now unstoppable. If you assumed this you would be wrong. Players must constantly do reconnaissance on one another to keep track of the opponent’s economy, army size, and composition. Even if player A has better micro and macro than player B, player B can still win if his or her unit composition is far more efficient at destroying player A’s unit composition than vice versa. A very simple example of this is if player B builds air units and player A has no units that can shoot at those air units (some units can only attack ground, some units can attack only air, and some can attack both). So both players must be able to keep tabs on their opponent’s composition and react with the correct units that will allow them to win a battle with their opponents army. These preparations must be made well ahead of time in most cases, as a “counter” unit often requires different infrastructure than what a player currently has. Conversely the player building the “surprise” unit may open themselves up to a preemptive strike if their opponent can properly read their intentions to go for that surprise unit. Even with complete scouting information it can be difficult to tell what your opponent is doing as many of the production and technology structures provide different paths for a player to go down. Not to mention that a player may produce one unit that corresponds to a certain strategy in the hopes that the opponent will over react to that unit (assuming more like it are to come) and then proceed to produce the opposite unit that comes from that building. So to summarize this section, assuming both players are matched in macro and micro ability and have equal amounts of physical speed and attention, deception may be applied to cause the wrong reaction out of one’s opponent in order to open him or her up to an attack which would have required a different reaction to defend.
Essentially, perfect StarCraft 2 play is impossible. The various aspects of the game simply take more resources than any person can actually provide. Different levels of players have different levels of resources (most easily seen in out of game resources which in turn lead to an incongruence of in game resources as the game progresses) so then the ultimate skill is deciding how to manage the insufficient resources that each player has in a way that will take advantage of the opponent’s equally (or maybe not quite equally) insufficient resources.
The last several paragraphs have been about why StarCraft 2 is interesting to me, although I doubt that I am the only one who finds it intriguing for some if not all of the above. With all of these various skills, cognitive and otherwise, it is quite clear why researchers at the Simon Fraser University of Canada would also find something appealing about SC 2. A study headed by Dr. Mark Blair, PhD called SkillCraft is being conducted there to analyze the difference between the ways that players of various skill levels receive, evaluate, and react to information during a game of SC 2. StarCraft 2 has an internal system for recording nearly everything a player does in a game. All of these data are recorded onto a replay file which can be watched by the player or in this case, by Dr. Blair and his team to see things such as how many actions per minute (or APM) a player executes, where the player is moving the screen, what that player could see or not see (in SC 2 players do not get to see what their opponent is doing unless one of their own units comes within sight range for that unit, in the game this is known as fog of war), and many other pieces of data that are very relevant from a cognitive science standpoint. For example, one of the specific things that Dr. Blair says is an indicator of excellence is how long a player keeps their screen in one place, that is after moving the screen to a particular area how long does the player take to analyze and then react to what they see on that screen. It’s little surprise that more highly skilled players tend to take less time to make decisions than less skilled ones. Through his study Dr. Blair has also found that different aspects (micro, macro, number of workers produced overall, etc.) tend to be more important in different leagues of SC 2. The game provides a unique opportunity to study expertise that many other cognitive studies lack due to the immense amount of data it provides to compare as well as the specific types of information that each replay holds. This study hopes to determine what makes experts so much better than novices, and possibly determine how others might learn to become an expert themselves. In several interviews Dr. Blair cites air traffic controller training, and crisis management training as things that might be improved by the findings of SkillCraft, as well as just a better understanding of cognition and attentional strategies that all people use (Blair).
So at this point one might say “ok, so games are good for that tiny population who can make thousands of dollars off of a tournament, or maybe some nerds in a lab somewhere, but for everyone else isn’t it just a waste of time?” The answer to that question is also complex. Yes, video games, when not played in moderation can be bad, just as any other form of entertainment can be bad without the application of restraint (alcoholism anyone?), but we should also consider the upside to gaming. Each person has certain psychological needs. According to an article written in Game Informer magazine, based heavily on the psychological studies conducted by Dr. Scott Rigby PhD., some of these needs can potentially be satisfied through gaming (Reeves 31). I am not trying to say that gaming is absolutely necessary, but rather that it can be a useful tool for maintaining psychological health. The need for autonomy can be satisfied by games. For someone playing SC 2 for example, you get to choose which race to play, what type of strategies to use, when to attack, etc. and you just generally get to be in charge of things. The need to feel important to others can be satisfied in many ways by games. Especially in the StarCraft community people interact with one another and provide feedback and practice sessions as well as advice on forums and community websites. Professional StarCraft 2 tournaments have also inspired the creation of “BarCrafts.” A BarCraft is an organized gathering of StarCraft 2 fans at a bar which displays a live stream of a professional StarCraft 2 tournament. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, these nerds are braving the light of day and the scathing eye of society to display their enthusiasm for a video game. Finally, (not to say that these are the only psychological needs that gaming satisfies) SC 2 can make someone feel a sense of competence. SC 2 can make a person feel more competent by tracking their progress through the various ladder leagues, match history records, and by replay analysis of older games compared with more recent games. Once again I would like to stress that these studies are not trying to say anyone needs video games to fulfill these things, only that video games tend to have a very efficient feedback system that real life accomplishments often lack (e.g. when someone completes a challenging task at work, beaming with pride, only to look around and realize no one else has seemed to notice or care about that person’s personal accomplishment).
Beyond this, the game generates appeal to such a wide variety of people because it can be enjoyed in so many different ways and on so many different levels. As per the skills and complexities laid out in the Berkeley lectures, it may take only a short time to understand SC 2’s basics but it can take years of intensive training and instruction to master its complexities. The game need not be a life-long pursuit, however, one may indeed never play an online game of StarCraft and still enjoy its rich fiction and dramatic science fiction story. There are many “custom maps” which are levels created not by Blizzard Entertainment, the company who made StarCraft 2, but by the users of the game themselves. Some of these maps are made to emulate other popular games, and some are born entirely out of the imagination of their creators. This allows StarCraft 2 to take on an adaptive quality. Within certain limitations (which are likely less constrictive than one might think) StarCraft can essentially become a multitude of different games that Blizzard never programmed it to be. My own personal anecdote of this aspect of the game is in the form of convincing my wife to play SC 2 for the first time. Did she jump online and start worrying about constantly producing SCV’s and supply depots, researching stim pack, and making a 2-2 timing push (see Appendix A)? Absolutely not is the answer to that question. What she did play was a StarCraft version of the game Bejeweled, where lining up jewel combinations by moving only two tiles at a time awards the player credits which can be spent on units that automatically attack towards the enemy’s side of the map in a tug of war/rock, paper, scissors/Bejeweled style of game. My wife operated the mouse and took care of the jewel combinations while I used the keyboard to spend the credits.
Even within the space of playing StarCraft 2 online competitively, players may make different levels of commitment to it to attain different levels of excellence. I have intentionally avoided using words such as “success” or “progress” when referring to the skill progression of a competitive StarCraft 2 player. While the game does provide a feedback system for tracking these definitions of success and progress, these words are not necessarily defined by win/loss ratios. For instance, a certain player may stay in bronze league (the lowest of StarCraft 2 ladder leagues) and be completely content with his or her level of play. A player may define success in terms of developing or utilizing an uncommon strategy and finally getting it to work against online opponents. Trying new and not well-established strategies are sure to wreak havoc on a player’s win/loss ratio but can be incredibly satisfying once they finally see success. Alternatively a player may not consider him or herself successful until they reach master or even grandmaster league. The latter of these two examples will need much more time to practice and dedicate to StarCraft 2 but may feel a great sense of accomplishment upon achieving their goal.
All of these things are great but eSports still has a long way to go before it becomes a mainstream form of entertainment, especially in North America. In a 2011 interview conducted by teamliquid.net, one of the most well-known and respected websites in the StarCraft 2 community, Sundance DiGiovanni (CEO of Major League Gaming, the world’s largest eSports organization) talks about the many challenges that eSports faces as well as some of his plans for MLG’s role in expanding eSports in North America. Mr. DiGiovanni explains that his goal with Major League Gaming is not to convert the current audience into eSports fans. Instead he thinks the eventual expansion of eSports will come as the current generation grows up in a world that has never known the absence of eSports so to them it will be normal. He also addresses several of the challenges faced by Major League Gaming and by the entire professional StarCraft 2 scene in coordinating with its worldwide counterparts such as how the various entities, such as the StarCraft 2 teams, the other leagues across the globe, the respective sponsors for each, the distribution partners, etc., are not quite working smoothly together yet because eSports is still relatively new. He talks about developing the celebrity status of the players. This celebrity status is crucial to giving fans of professional SC 2 something more to dig in to, put simply, adding some drama to make following the players and the game itself more exciting. Mr. DiGiovanni makes some comparisons between the stars of eSports and those of traditional sports and then explains some of the differences between the two. One particular difference he cites is how there is no set number of teams in eSports and each team has a separate method of operation. He talks about how he would like to see the teams develop their players for the limelight as well as for the game itself. He explains that much of the skill gap between Korean players and North American players may be due to the difference in incentive for players from these regions to create environments that breed better players. He talks about creating a league that is just as legitimate as the current Korean leagues. This way North American players won’t have to travel abroad to be equally respected as Korean players for being the best in their respective regions. He wants to increase the amount of yearly MLG competitions to create more incentive for players to play in MLG tournaments but not too many events so that people are not oversaturated with exposure. Based on some of his responses to interview questions as well as more recent news from some of the partnerships MLG has made after this interview I think that Mr. DiGiovanni is also trying to tie together the various global leagues to try to eventually work out some of the difficulties that are currently faced by all of these entities working with the same players and teams but not communicating with each other ahead of time about when their respective major events are taking place.
It is important that we not judge the success of eSports by some special standard. It should instead be looked at as any other form of entertainment or traditional sport. In the words of Sean “Day 9” Plott, a StarCraft 2 eSports caster and former pro player, people who watch SC 2 do so for about the same reasons anyone watches a traditional sport. He says that even a non-player can watch a game or a sport and be amazed by the basic action and drama of competition that takes place on the screen. Commentators then help the spectators understand the finer points of strategy and so forth that are less readily apparent. Also, just like other sports StarCraft provides a variety of teams and players that spectators can root on for an equally wide variety of reasons. Those reasons can include game race (in the case of StarCraft 2 there are three: Terran, Zerg, and Protoss [I play Terran hence my subliminal tendency to list it first since it is the best]), nationality of the players, origin of the team (for example, American teams vs. Korean teams), favorite play styles (see Appendix B), etc. Sean also says that one of the other differences that StarCraft 2 has going for it is the community. He cites the community’s willingness to travel to live events, watch online, and recruit their friends to start doing the same. Also he talks about how the StarCraft 2 community tends to self-expand without any other incentive than a desire to form their own local eSports communities. Day 9 says that this spontaneous growth of the community serves to attract the corporate sponsors that eSports needs to become more mainstream. He also talks about how the fact that eSports takes place largely on the internet (at least here in America) gives it a different amount of interaction than television provides. From his own experiences Sean thinks that this interaction is an integral part to what makes watching eSports enjoyable (Plott, Forbes Interview).
StarCraft 2 is a diverse game with many facets. Concordantly, it is interesting to a massive and diverse group of people. Whether an individual is curious about the cognitive skills it takes, the escape or brain puzzle it provides, the spectacle it is to watch, or even the business opportunity it could be, StarCraft 2 is a phenomenon. Its depth and adaptability give it longevity and mass appeal which set it apart from other games. The type of thinking involved in a match of StarCraft 2 gives the game a unique quality of maturity and complexity that many other popular games lack. Perhaps most important of all, StarCraft 2 has generated a huge community of fans and players that has made the game more than what could ever be written in a program.
StarCraft 2’s popularity should be interesting to everyone because it could be a harbinger of the next big form of entertainment. Will it replace the NFL? That seems pretty unlikely. But the NFL wasn’t always what it is today, and it had to start out somewhere. In a world of ever increasing speed and availability of technology, it makes sense that we might have a new form of mainstream entertainment. I find SC 2 to be very fun to watch and I am far from the only one. StarCraft 2 events draw tens of thousands of live viewers and millions of online viewers. People tend to fear what they do not understand. For many years people have been afraid of being called a nerd. As technology becomes more common and fears and bad publicity around gaming begins to fade I hope people will begin to give gaming and spectating pro gaming a chance and I think they might find the same enjoyment in it that I do. Either way, eSports is a sign of our times, and that is something everyone should be interested in. Beyond just its eSports side, StarCraft 2 is a game that can provide a lot of different things for many different people. Much of what makes StarCraft 2 so great cannot be shown with quantifiable data. Like most great things in this world, one has to experience it oneself to fully appreciate the many intangible qualities that it possesses. I hope that this writing can cause at least a few people to open-mindedly give StarCraft 2 a try. Maybe they will find out the game is something amazing for one or more of the many reasons I have listed that make it exciting to me. Perhaps they will find reasons to enjoy it for things I have never even considered. Or, maybe they’ll find out that it’s not for them and that’s just fine. No matter the outcome, I am of the opinion that StarCraft 2 has a lot of rich experiences to offer for just about anyone and as a part of the StarCraft community, I can’t help but want to share those experiences with others.
Appendix A: Timing Pushes and the Metagame
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Stim pack is a researchable ability in StarCraft 2 for Terran infantry units. The notation 2-2 refers to weapon and armor upgrades. One type of timing push is an attack planned out before a game is started. A player learns to build his/her structures, units, and upgrades in a certain order at very specific moments based on how long each of these tasks takes to complete. The attack is then launched at a convergence point where all of the desired units, abilities, and upgrades are completed in a synchronized fashion. The units are then sent to attack the opponent at a time when he/she is likely to be vulnerable to those particular units with those particular abilities and upgrades based on metagame considerations.
The metagame is a set of trends, popular tactics, and play styles that correspond to each race. These trends range from general opening build orders (the sequence in which a player chooses to build her/his buildings, units, etc.) to common reactions to certain units that the opponent is using, and more. As a particular type of tactic like a timing push gains popularity, it causes a change in the metagame for the race that timing push is targeted for as the targeted race players change their strategies to be able to counteract the opposing race’s metagame-based tactics and strategies. In short the metagame is a double-edged blade. Strategies and tactics gain popularity because of their success rate. As they become more common, however, they make the race using those metagame-based strategies more predictable and thus, more susceptible to metagame-based counter strategies. So for a player to be fully prepared she/he must be aware of the metagame even if he/she does not plan to utilize strategies based on the weaknesses in their opponents’ most probable course of action.
The metagame is a set of trends, popular tactics, and play styles that correspond to each race. These trends range from general opening build orders (the sequence in which a player chooses to build her/his buildings, units, etc.) to common reactions to certain units that the opponent is using, and more. As a particular type of tactic like a timing push gains popularity, it causes a change in the metagame for the race that timing push is targeted for as the targeted race players change their strategies to be able to counteract the opposing race’s metagame-based tactics and strategies. In short the metagame is a double-edged blade. Strategies and tactics gain popularity because of their success rate. As they become more common, however, they make the race using those metagame-based strategies more predictable and thus, more susceptible to metagame-based counter strategies. So for a player to be fully prepared she/he must be aware of the metagame even if he/she does not plan to utilize strategies based on the weaknesses in their opponents’ most probable course of action.
Appendix B: Different Play Styles
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While there are three races to choose from in StarCraft 2, there are many different ways that each race can be played. Much of what separates play styles is unit composition. Each style and composition has strengths and weaknesses and each one plays differently against other styles. For example, two popular general styles for the Terran race are mechanical (or mech) and biological (or bio) centric play. If a Terran goes mech, she/he builds units primarily out of factories. These units range from tanks which can transform into artillery cannons, to huge bipedal robots called Thors. Mechanical units are heavily armored and possess powerful weapons but are expensive and time consuming to produce and move slowly and are thus less maneuverable. Biological units are just the opposite. They are fast and cheap and fire quickly but have a shorter range, less armor, and fewer hit points per unit. Mech play is often referred to as more chess-like since the mech player has to predict their opponent’s moves beforehand so they can get their slower more powerful units into place before the opponent arrives. Also the mech player must react to changes in their opponent’s composition ahead of time since the mechanical units take a very long time to build. Since the mechanical units are slower and more powerful they often need less micromanagement to be efficient, which is one of the benefits of playing a mech style. Biological style players make mostly infantry units which are constructed out of buildings called Barracks. Bio players gain advantages from being faster than their opponent’s army. They use their units to slip into gaps in the enemy defense to cause damage quickly and then retreat again before their opponent can arrive to defend. Generally speaking, the player with the faster, weaker army (regardless of race) benefits from making lightening quick raids wherever the enemy is not present. The bio player relies on many small skillfully executed jabs to send their opponent’s plan into disarray, while the mech player often relies on one or two massive assaults to crush the enemy’s lines like a steamroller.
For the Zerg race, one popular early to mid-game composition is Zergling/Baneling/Mutalisk. These are the names of the units included in the composition. Zerglings are fast, cheap, hand-to-hand range units which are quite weak but can be produced in massive numbers very quickly. Banelings, which are morphed from Zerglings, are suicide attackers. They move toward enemy ground units and when they get close enough to touch them, they explode and send corrosive acid towards their targets. Mutalisks are flying units which move very quickly and are often used to sneak in behind enemy lines where they can destroy undefended buildings and worker units as well as small packs of combat units (they do not fair well in a straight up engagement due to their low amount of hit points and armor). Many small air raids by these maneuverable flyers will cripple the enemy’s economy and keep the opponent from being able to construct the necessary defenses to hold off the late game composition that follows Zergling/Baneling/Mutalisk. One of these late game compositions is Brood lord/Infester. Brood lords are huge flying units which move slowly but have a long ranged ground attack in the form of broodlings. Broodlings are tiny creatures that are flung at enemy ground units doing damage upon impact as well as continuing to attack after they reach the ground as a unit in their own right. Infesters are powerful energy-based units which cast spells that can dramatically change the outcome of any battle. Many energy-based units have area of effect abilities which cause a massive amount of damage over a large area and a short amount of time. Infesters have the ability to mind control enemy units for a short amount of time as well as spawn infested Terrans which are each armed with an assault rifle. They can also cast an ability called fungal growth which freezes most enemy units in place and damages them substantially over the course of a few seconds. This keeps them from escaping the other units such as Brood lords which otherwise would have difficulty chasing the enemy units down.
Finally, the Protoss race has many options at its behest. One popular composition is Colossus/Stalker/Zealot. Colossus are towering robots (think War of the Worlds tripods) which have long ranged laser beams which cut down droves of enemy units like grain to the scythe. Zealots are hand-to-hand fighters which charge in to the enemy formation and not only do damage but also serve as a barrier between the enemy units and the much more expensive and powerful Protoss units such as the colossus. The stalker is a small cyborg-like unit that can teleport short distances either to avoid enemy fire or catch retreating enemy units, as well as many other tactical applications. Another popular Protoss composition is Immortal/Sentry. Immortals are powerful robotic units that absorb a massive amount of damage from enemy units and are equipped with powerful cannons that destroy armored units quite quickly. Sentries are light energy-based units which primarily cast a special ability called force field. Force fields block areas of the field off for a short amount of time and can be used to prevent enemy units from getting in range to attack the Protoss forces or escape from them if the battle is going badly for the opponent.
These are just a few of the available compositions in SC 2. As stated before there are many more units for each race than the few referred to above, so one can easily imagine a wide variety of combinations. Just as each unit has different characteristics, each combination of units has a different result so there are a great many ways to play any race in StarCraft 2.
For the Zerg race, one popular early to mid-game composition is Zergling/Baneling/Mutalisk. These are the names of the units included in the composition. Zerglings are fast, cheap, hand-to-hand range units which are quite weak but can be produced in massive numbers very quickly. Banelings, which are morphed from Zerglings, are suicide attackers. They move toward enemy ground units and when they get close enough to touch them, they explode and send corrosive acid towards their targets. Mutalisks are flying units which move very quickly and are often used to sneak in behind enemy lines where they can destroy undefended buildings and worker units as well as small packs of combat units (they do not fair well in a straight up engagement due to their low amount of hit points and armor). Many small air raids by these maneuverable flyers will cripple the enemy’s economy and keep the opponent from being able to construct the necessary defenses to hold off the late game composition that follows Zergling/Baneling/Mutalisk. One of these late game compositions is Brood lord/Infester. Brood lords are huge flying units which move slowly but have a long ranged ground attack in the form of broodlings. Broodlings are tiny creatures that are flung at enemy ground units doing damage upon impact as well as continuing to attack after they reach the ground as a unit in their own right. Infesters are powerful energy-based units which cast spells that can dramatically change the outcome of any battle. Many energy-based units have area of effect abilities which cause a massive amount of damage over a large area and a short amount of time. Infesters have the ability to mind control enemy units for a short amount of time as well as spawn infested Terrans which are each armed with an assault rifle. They can also cast an ability called fungal growth which freezes most enemy units in place and damages them substantially over the course of a few seconds. This keeps them from escaping the other units such as Brood lords which otherwise would have difficulty chasing the enemy units down.
Finally, the Protoss race has many options at its behest. One popular composition is Colossus/Stalker/Zealot. Colossus are towering robots (think War of the Worlds tripods) which have long ranged laser beams which cut down droves of enemy units like grain to the scythe. Zealots are hand-to-hand fighters which charge in to the enemy formation and not only do damage but also serve as a barrier between the enemy units and the much more expensive and powerful Protoss units such as the colossus. The stalker is a small cyborg-like unit that can teleport short distances either to avoid enemy fire or catch retreating enemy units, as well as many other tactical applications. Another popular Protoss composition is Immortal/Sentry. Immortals are powerful robotic units that absorb a massive amount of damage from enemy units and are equipped with powerful cannons that destroy armored units quite quickly. Sentries are light energy-based units which primarily cast a special ability called force field. Force fields block areas of the field off for a short amount of time and can be used to prevent enemy units from getting in range to attack the Protoss forces or escape from them if the battle is going badly for the opponent.
These are just a few of the available compositions in SC 2. As stated before there are many more units for each race than the few referred to above, so one can easily imagine a wide variety of combinations. Just as each unit has different characteristics, each combination of units has a different result so there are a great many ways to play any race in StarCraft 2.
Works Cited
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Blair, David. “The Marriage of Science and StarCraft.” Interview by Lola. Polarfluke.co.za. 28 March 2012. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.
“BWC - How It‘s Played.” battle.net. Blizzard Entertainment. Nov. 2 2012. Web. Nov. 17 2012.
DiGiovanni, Sundance. “Sundance DiGiovanni on MLG at Providence Grand Finals 2011.” Interview by teamliquid.net. youtube.com. 20 Nov. 2011. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
Plott, Sean. “Sean ‘Day 9’ Talks Starcraft, eSports, and Nerd Pride.” Interview by Paul Tassi. Forbes.com. 6 Sep. 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
Reeves, Ben. “Why We Play.” Game Informer. November 2012. 30-32. Print.
“UC Berkeley Starcraft Class Lecture 4.” youtube.com. UC Berkeley. 7 Feb. 2009. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
“UC Berkeley Starcraft Class Lecture 1.” youtube.com. UC Berkeley. 7 Feb. 2009. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
“BWC - How It‘s Played.” battle.net. Blizzard Entertainment. Nov. 2 2012. Web. Nov. 17 2012.
DiGiovanni, Sundance. “Sundance DiGiovanni on MLG at Providence Grand Finals 2011.” Interview by teamliquid.net. youtube.com. 20 Nov. 2011. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.
Plott, Sean. “Sean ‘Day 9’ Talks Starcraft, eSports, and Nerd Pride.” Interview by Paul Tassi. Forbes.com. 6 Sep. 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
Reeves, Ben. “Why We Play.” Game Informer. November 2012. 30-32. Print.
“UC Berkeley Starcraft Class Lecture 4.” youtube.com. UC Berkeley. 7 Feb. 2009. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
“UC Berkeley Starcraft Class Lecture 1.” youtube.com. UC Berkeley. 7 Feb. 2009. Web. 6 Nov. 2012.