Tuesday, July 12, 2011

My Starcraft 2 history.

Here's the rundown of my history with Starcraft 2.


I got a betakey way back in the second phase of closed beta from Blizzard, even thou I don't remember ever signing up for it, but I guess I must have. But it was a pleasant surprise all the same.

I never really got into Starcraft: Broodwar, and never really knew the multiplayer existed, even though I had been playing RTS games since I was a kid.
That being said, I really quite enjoyed the gameplay of Starcraft 2, and got hooked quite early to watching casted videos of it, namely HD and HuskyStarcraft, and later Day(9), and a few others.

Thou lately LifesaGlitch is quite funny.


Incidentally I never really got into laddering, and just preferred to watch instead.
I did play a little, and I was ok I guess, but I was just too intimidated to really get into it.
That, and I don't have a competitive bone in my body.

When it launched, I bought it immediately, which is rare for me. I played through the campaign, messed around with the editor, and a few custom games, but I never really cared for them.
But still no laddering, and I couldn't quite get attached to the community because there was still no chat channels at the time, which was just epic stupidity on Blizzards side.

Eventually they did put out chat channels, and I grew a little closer, but still not enough to ladder.
I did practice a bit all the same, I just didn't really play against people for the most part.




Eventually however I found Starcast, and hooked up with their community, and listened to their podcast, I started to play a little bit, but again not enough to want to ladder.
I played through the campaign for a second time on hard and got all the achievements just to prove I could, realizing that I really am not half bad at this game.

Incidentally what got me into laddering wasn't Starcraft 2 or the community, but rather World of Tanks. Being a competitive 15v15 PvP team game, I found it really easy to get into and shoot people in the face, even thought losing would often cause me to experience temporary incoherent rage.
Hurt my hands and broke at least one keyboard during my stay.



But thanks to WoT, I realized that I don't really have any good reason to avoid SC2 laddering, as WoT was causing me just as much rage as anything SC2 had done. So it felt like it was time to get into Starcraft 2 laddering as a regular thing.
(after a few more single player games)

And so, for the last month or so, I have committed myself to play at least one ladder match per day, which after a little hesitation and nervousness, I started to feel at home.
I do still get a bit of a shiver down my spine from time to time, but I just have to force myself to push the 'find match' button, and then pure habit takes over from there.


On the gameplay front, I really am not half bad, but I'll cover that in the next few posts.

In short, if your like me and you find it just hard to sit down and play Starcraft 2 because your intimidated, set up a regular time each and every day to play at least one game.
Start with 4v4, then move on down through 3v3, 2v2, and lastly 1v1 when your sick of the rushes in 2v2.

It works.


~Yoh

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