248: Slave to the Overmind

Jack Porter

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Apr 5, 2010
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Slave to the Overmind

Many gamers have aspirations of one day playing their game of choice at the professional level. But the reality of that undertaking is much less appealing than the dream. Jack Porter recounts his brief time spent playing StarCraft competitively and the heavy toll it took on his psyche.

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HaraDaya

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Nov 9, 2009
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I learned this around when I was playing Battlefield 2142 and CoD4 in my "off-year", I became irritated if I didn't feel I didn't score enough each time I died. Then I asked myself almost the exact same thing as in the article; are you having fun?
Since then I'm trying not to get too serious about gaming, it's supposed to be fun/entertaining afterall.
 

Xersues

DRM-free or give me death!
Dec 11, 2009
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Am I the only one that just laughs at "Professional gaming". I mean really? I've been to my share of Quake 3/UT tournaments, and I enjoyed them until I couldn't stand the pastey-faced people that just took the damn game way too seriously.

I used to piss people off because I didn't care as much as they did and didn't "practice" as much and yet I still beat them. Didn't win any tournaments mind you, but I got close a few times ;)

Anything that a computer has a chance of doing better I can't ever claim to be a "sport" or even "pro" at. If blizzard really tried I bet they could make an ultimate AI that would just be so cheap even making it follow the rules it would win most tournaments itself. It would micro faster, move faster, and space out the units faster. Script in some "pro-strats" and I'm sure it could win most of the time.

Meh to the whole thing I say! Now where's my copy of UT....
 

oppp7

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Aug 29, 2009
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That's how I felt in 1 vs 1 in Warcraft 3. I was good to a degree, and won a good bit of matches, but when it came to losing it was the perfect example of the bigger they are the harder they fall. I became terrified of playing because I might lose and have nothing to show for it. I eventually stopped playing due to this fear and tried 4 vs 4 but foudn I wasn't as good at that.
 

Aptspire

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Mar 13, 2008
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I guess it is a sort of blessing that I usually make most of my time in the single player campaigns of the RTS. Like for Red Alert 2, I used to boost my defence, then I would ad troops and go rush the enemy base. I would do almost the same thing for RA3, and in both cases it would result with my games going from 12pm to 8pm in the summer, which I wouldn't call 'healthy' for me...
Nowadays, I try to keep my live gaming on a normal level (2-3 hours)
 

Katana314

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Oct 4, 2007
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A very nice article, and in fact a lesson I could extrapolate to more general circumstances.

"Are you having fun playing this entertainment game RIGHT NOW?" Awkwardly-phrased question, but important to ask. I'm not asking "Are you having fun once this quest is finished and you have the Sword of Enlightenment" or "Will you have fun once you're good at the game and are killing noobs left and right". Just ask yourself whether this video game is currently fun.

And if not, why are you playing it? (In the author's case, it was a form of social recognition. For others, it could be addiction, indications of slow progress like levelling, you paid $50 for it, etc)
 

Polock

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Jan 23, 2010
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Comp Video Gaming can be fun with the right people...

But its all to easy to get the WRONG people. Ehh..

Still, I enjoy watching Starcraft 2 Commentarys with HDSTARCRAFT on youtube, and I look forward to trying competitive Starcraft 2 in the future.

Interesting read, I find that if a game is kicking my ass I usually take a break and play another game before coming back. You do surprisingly well if you take a break. You sort of...reset. Its strange.
 

matrix3509

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Sep 24, 2008
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You know what? This exact thing happened to me. I bought Starcraft the year it came out with my allowance money (I was still in middle school at the time). I used to think that competitive play was the only reason to play Starcraft. I clocked somewhere between 2000 and 3000 hours in total playing online. I was actually pretty good playing as Protoss. I played some official ladder matches, and I got pretty far up the leader boards. Then I realized I wasn't having fun anymore. I would win most of my matches, but it ceased to give me any feeling of accomplishment. Even then, I would sometimes play pros who had created new accounts to hide their win/loss records, I would get steamrolled and I would feel like crap afterwards.

But I didn't quit playing. Yeah sure, I quit playing competitively. I played to simply to have fun again. You see, I had heard about how the map editor could be used to alter the gameplay in major ways. I decided to go back online and see if people had come up with anything interesting. Holy crap, they sure had. It was then that I got my first exposure to turret/cannon/spore colony defense. Then came my favorite 4-way defense. I remember my thoughts after I played my first Dragonball Z themed map, "Oh my God, this is AWESOME!"

So basically my response to this article is, "You should have stopped playing competitively and start trying to have fun." I gotta be honest, I'll be mildly interested in competitive play once Starcraft 2 comes out, but it won't be my main reason for getting it. My reason? The defense maps, the DoTA maps, the Gundam themed maps.
 

D-Ship

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Jul 13, 2007
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Xersues said:
Anything that a computer has a chance of doing better I can't ever claim to be a "sport" or even "pro" at.
You must not have a lot of respect for chess :-/

And I doubt that the "perfect AI" could ever be made for an RTS. In FPS, maybe, since it wouldn't be hard to make the computer instantly snipe you in the head from across the map at any given time... but more often than not a player will still be able to find a hole in a computer's strategy.

And until you actually win some of those tournaments, you're always going to be an amateur. That some people are naturally better than those who practice isn't a phenomenon exclusive to video games - neither is the case of people who are good but will never be the best.
 

Proteus214

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Jul 31, 2009
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It reminds me of my time indulging in the world of competitive raiding in WoW. Self-doubt is a HUGE factor in what makes a great player, unfortunately, it can take you to the point where you don't know whether you are actually a good player anymore. Nobody around you will tell you that you're doing a good job since they are either your opponent and don't give a shit how you feel or they're your teammate and only focus on your imperfections.

Every night our raid leader would yell and scream at us on ventrilo saying that we're playing like shit, that we're not going to be able to meet our goals, pull our heads out of our asses, nobody cares, etc. And yet, nobody ever really acknowledges the fact that we were in the US top 10, world top 15, and that there are so many players out there that would kill to be in that position. Other players look up to us on how to play the game, they read our log parses, and the videos that I put up would get thousands and thousands of hits, but I would only see that other guilds' videos would get more hits. Competition becomes an obsession.

You're not allowed to "have a bad day" or "take it easy." It's full throttle all the time. Get on it or get lost.
 

Tonimata

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Jul 21, 2008
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And this, boys and girls, is the terrible side effect of being a "hardcore gamer". In my opinion, you should only get as good as you need to get to shame your friends who have never played the game before. Else, you end up like me and Mr. Porter here
 

neminem

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Aug 2, 2008
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Oh man. Nick Plott! I consider Starcraft to be one of the greatest games ever made, but I could manage to get even passably good at it. Total noobs were always beating me, even when I played it fairly regularly. And I never had much fun watching the pros play a game I wished I didn't perma-suck at. But I went to school with Tasteless's brother (who I believe is also a notable US Starcraft player), lived in the same dorm and everything :D. I think I did a project with him once, sophomore year. He was always bothering us to go watch his brother's videos. I watched the guy play SC once... I could barely see his fingers move.

Anyway, it's just fun running into names on the greater internets that you didn't really expect to. I knew he was important, but still.
 

oneplus999

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Oct 4, 2007
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Sean Plott, his brother, is a big commentator in his own right, now. He's known as Day9, and must spend at least 40 hours a week on Starcraft casting. I assume u went to Harvey Mudd then? :)

Most of his casts are linked to from here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=104154
 

MotenaiRonin

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Aug 28, 2009
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The very reason I put Starcraft back in the cd-case, the battle-chest, and the drawer.

Albeit I did all mentioned in the article, only I chose to specialize in Protoss stratagems.
The game and I needed to retire because it was no longer fun, just about winning; thanks for making an astoundingly real point Jack.
 

Rad Party God

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Feb 23, 2010
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I started playing it since 2000 (thanks to my cousin), I enjoyed the single player campaign (and I still do), even some skirmishes with the pc controlled enemies, but then I started playing online and I felt the exactly same thing as you, I sucked back then and I still suck.
I wanted to win at least once and there was a time where I eated, slept and thinked only StarCraft... it was a nightmare and I even hated the game, and I still hate to play online, because I still suck.
 

Xersues

DRM-free or give me death!
Dec 11, 2009
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D-Ship said:
You must not have a lot of respect for chess :-/
[snip]
And I doubt that the "perfect AI" could ever be made for an RTS.
[snip]
No, I don't have a lot of respect for chess and neither did Bobby Fischer after a while. Its a memory game with finite number of moves.

If you think a "perfect" or insanely cheap AI couldn't be made for an RTS you are sorely mistaken. Many maps have a finite number of places to move, attack from, and work with. Some of the hardest parts of making an AI once the system is solid is to make a realistic AI, not some insane cheap thing that can outperform some one to frustration.

Think about it, two of the fastest people in the world at micro managing and making decisions play out their strategies 1:1 and whoever happened to start first will win. Many of these games are decided within minutes and a well balanced game always has a counter.
 

Jofe

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Feb 3, 2010
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While I don't have anything against competitive gaming I try to avoid it myself. This because most of the times people forget that its a game, that you're supposed to have fun. And there is when you stop caring about anything except wining.
 

maeson

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Nov 2, 2009
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I have learned (or am trying to, depeninng how you look at it) step back and look at myself.

Am I getting angry? What for? Is this worth it?

I've found that if any of these three questions comes up as a negative, I.E. :
1) Yes./I'm just slightly irritated./WTF do you mean, "angry"!?
2) It was a cheap shot!/broken mechanic/LAG!/OP weapon!/I need moar skill!
3) It might get better, later./I don't understand the question./...no...

Then, take a step back, go for a walk. Rummage through your game collection for something else. A game is supposed to be entertaining. YES, there will be a competitive side to it. There will be times when you are not having fun/are working up the skillz, but if your overall gameplay becomes tedious... and grind-like...

Fun, you're doing it wrong.
 

sketchesofpayne

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Sep 11, 2008
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"What was once a "game" dissolved into a joyless frenzy of scrolling and clicking."

Yes, every RTS eventually turns into this in my experience. Turn-based strategy games, on the other hand, I find much more fulfilling.