Let it Burn
Solace in SC2's downfall.
Solace in SC2's downfall.
Don't let the next section fool you, this is (mostly) about SC2. I probably should have written this earlier, but I had to gather my thoughts to not come off like an ass. You see, StarCraft has been my favorite gaming franchise for over 10 years. Tell me I don't care about SC2 and I will e-slap you in the face with these. And yet...
I couldn't be happier that SC2 - the way it is and will probably be - is falling. Let me explain.
How many of you are [Americans] 20-25+? You've probably heard talk about "[American/'western'] society is in 'decline'" etc. If you haven't, take a minute to skim over some google searches. It is a massive topic and I will not burden this post with details.. think what you want, but I personally find it reasonably clear that they have some good points. This 'decline' is in all aspects of society (and not really limited to American society); the gaming industry is no different and may even be where it is most apparent. Indeed, I think almost all of us have heard talk of "games used to be better", etc.
Here is a graph depicting the phenomena which I believe most helps make this 'decline' possible:
The computer you're viewing this image on wasn't even conceived 100 years ago... and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Clearly as a race we are learning a lot. But it's not the general population that makes innovations... all that comes from a relatively few bright individuals.
Imagine being one of those few bright and/or rich individuals: take a good look at the situation the above graph puts you in. How much better of an advantageous position could you ask for? Just keep making quality products aimed at the masses and you will become and remain successful (and try to keep as many people as possible blissfully ignorant if you can while you're at it).
99% of the wealth eventually belonging to 1% of the population is no accident.
So many people I care about get taken advantage of through this phenomena...
But as far as the gaming industry and StarCraft 2 goes, here is my problem:
If everyone makes games designed for the masses to play, where are the games designed to intrigue the people at the upper end of the intelligence spectrum? They like to play games too you know. We used to have such a PC game. It was called Brood War.
Let me be absolutely fucking clear: I don't give a fuck about "eSports"; I don't give a fuck about your sponsors, revenue, viewers, or tournament prizes; I don't give a fuck about any of that shit (okay, I do, but damn it) if I can't have my fucking badass RTS game.
But BW is dead so don't tell me to go back there, I like my games alive thank you. We are basically stuck with SC2, the successor that tried to be it's own thing instead of improving on what was already proven.
To briefly go over some of my problems with SC2:
(1) No strong high ground mechanic
(2) Potential income per worker and per base too high (up to +38% from BW, ridiculous); an income flood gives both players more options and thus less weaknesses and (counter-intuitively) less significant possibilities.
(3) Units die too fast, don't shoot far enough, and don't see far enough; multitasking demand (to multiply individual unit strength) is generally outside human limits.
(4) Does a race's tier 1 & 1.5 units really need to bypass the defender's advantage?
(5) No strong high ground mechanic
Anyone who thinks SC2 isn't really missing anything and has no bad parts is in absolute fuckin denial, is only trying to make the best of the situation, never understood what BW had anyway, or simply forgot.
If you're one of those people who thinks SC2 needs to be even more casual-friendly in it's gameplay (interface aside). Well, FUCK THAT. Fucking seriously. Casuals have so many games designed for them... Get your greedy fucking hands off my fucking StarCraft - fucking damnit.
And I know some of you are reading along nodding your head and agreeing with me. You are the people who have spoke up about this stuff yourselves... recently you have been told that YOU are killing SC2. People try to make you feel bad about it. But you know how you should reply?
"FUCK yeah, we did it!"
Let me quote the person who first convinced me this attitude is more than okay:
On March 14, 2012 TotalBiscuit said on Youtube
... Stop treating publishers and large development corporations as people to be nice to. They're corprations and they answer to their shareholders. The shareholders want to maximize profit; their sole concern is a return on their investment. They do not care about you beyond you simply paying money and buying the product and making their share prices go up. ...
So, as a result, please stop thinking that you can't make demands of these companies. This is how capitalism works; this is how a market is supposed to work. If someone provides a sub-par service, you go to the competition. Competition breeds innovation, competition breeds excellence. In all fields, in all walks of life.
Sadly you cannot rely count on corporations wanting to [make better games] merely for the pride of it. They want to excell so they are competitive. If you enable them to put out sub-par products by giving the money over anyway ... then you are breaking the system in and of itself, and that doesn't benefit you. It is beneficial for the companies to be highly competitive, it is always beneficial to the consumer if that is going on. You get better prices, you get better products and services, you get more bonuses, you get more benefits. You should be fighting for this kind of stuff.
If you defend bad business practice you're effectively the enemy. ... You're an enemy of yourself; it doesn't benefit you to enable this kind of behavior. If a company does something bad - call them out on it. For god's sake do. ...
... Stop treating publishers and large development corporations as people to be nice to. They're corprations and they answer to their shareholders. The shareholders want to maximize profit; their sole concern is a return on their investment. They do not care about you beyond you simply paying money and buying the product and making their share prices go up. ...
So, as a result, please stop thinking that you can't make demands of these companies. This is how capitalism works; this is how a market is supposed to work. If someone provides a sub-par service, you go to the competition. Competition breeds innovation, competition breeds excellence. In all fields, in all walks of life.
Sadly you cannot rely count on corporations wanting to [make better games] merely for the pride of it. They want to excell so they are competitive. If you enable them to put out sub-par products by giving the money over anyway ... then you are breaking the system in and of itself, and that doesn't benefit you. It is beneficial for the companies to be highly competitive, it is always beneficial to the consumer if that is going on. You get better prices, you get better products and services, you get more bonuses, you get more benefits. You should be fighting for this kind of stuff.
If you defend bad business practice you're effectively the enemy. ... You're an enemy of yourself; it doesn't benefit you to enable this kind of behavior. If a company does something bad - call them out on it. For god's sake do. ...
Perhaps you're thinking that it's okay for companies to make all these casual-friendly games. It is okay! But I'm talking about StarCraft here. For fuck's sake, StarCraft shouldn't thrive in any capacity of watered-down-ness. We don't want it to; we won't let it. A true hardcore competitive RTS game is what the core group of StarCraft players want - masses be damned.
Don't get me wrong, I too am making the best of it. I am also doing (and will continue to do) what little I can to make it better. But... honestly?
StaCraft 2 was supposed to be a 'better' game, not a 'different' game. To me this is sub-par (even though it has no real competition) and I refuse to accept it. Blizzard can do better than this, but they won't if we don't make them. And nobody else will as long as SC2 is alive.
Burn fucker. BURN.