A general summation of complaints against starcraft 2

from what i've been hearing, it's the same old arguments, mostly coming from people who haven't played the game, seen commentaries of the beta, probably never played Brood War, or are possibly entirely new to the RTS genre.

1. It's only 1/3 of a game! wah!
- 1/3 of a story is not 1/3 of a game. i will smack you in the head with the boxed set of Lord of The Rings Extended Edition DVD's if i hear you say that in front of me. I may also throw the hardcover versions of the books as well. Last i heard, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 1 & 2's single player was about 8 hours long. Starcraft 2's is about 20-30. munch on that.

2. Blizz is making us pay 3 times!
- no they're not. you don't have to buy it. quit your whining, you consumer *****. if you had the willpower to deny Blizzard your money, then do it. If you buy it while complaining, you have just proven that that price is perfectly fair for you, and you're just whining.

3. There's no innovation!
- no, you're complaining that there's no gimmicks. chess has not changed for centuries. there's 3D chess and hexagonal chess, but NOBODY PLAYS THOSE. the "innovation" is really nothing more than a gimmick. it's only an innovation if it's better.
- with that said, you don't need innovation to make it a better game. Gran Tourismo doesn't add "turbo boost" buttons or special crashing mechanics or off-road tricks to its cars. it just polishes the age-old formula: very realistic driving + tons of awesome cars.

4. omg you just mine minerals and send your army at the other guy
- first, that's such a simplistic strategy i doubt you'll even manage to finish single-player with that. second, WELCOME TO THE GENRE.
FPS: omg you just point at the other guy and click.
Driving: omg you just press the go button and steer.

5. no LAN
- yeah, that sucks. but when's the last time you really used it? seriously. the last LAN party you had that did not have an internet connection. you are not a professional gamer, no matter how much you kid yourself. you are not hosting an in-house tournament with internationally acclaimed players. You can make do with B.net. this doesn't seem to affect anyone, but everyone just seems to want to say it because they want to have something to complain about without knowing anything about the game.

there's a couple legitimate complaints about the game but they're all minor concerns that can be fixed with a patch, like balance and stuff.

 

I completely agree with 1, 2 and 3.

I've never heard of complaint number 4 :S

I'm kind of but kind of not pissed off about the no LAN capabilities...I mean in my universities residence the internet connection was horrible so LAN would be nice (if anyone else even played it), but Battle.net 2.0 is friggen awesome anyways, so I feel Blizzard made up for the no LAN with a huge overhaul on the old Battle.net system.

 

I was planning on posting something like this, couldn't do it as well as you thought...

 

#4 comes mostly from people new to the genre. i've even seen some professional reviewers say it... usually stated more formally, something like "in multiplayer, players can either rush to kill their enemy as fast as possible or defend inside their base to mass up a powerful army." which, of course, is an extremely simplistic view of how the game works, pretty much ignoring the fact that strategy is the name of the genre. you'd never describe chess as a game where "you can either hold back, or send your pieces forward to eat as many enemy pieces as possible."

 

I was hoping you'd discuss the popularity, map publishing, and just the custom games system in general.

 

the whole map ranking system does kinda suck right now, but again, that's something that can easily fixed about the patch. it's not something i'd put up there as "is it worth my $60 to purchase" kind of questions.

 

If there were a little bit less of fanboy anger, i would find this the perfect description of how to answer people who whine about it without having learned the games premise.

 

I will say there's a lot of talk on this topic already on this forum. (The topic being telling others to stop QQing about SC2).

And my post here http://www.starcraft2forum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=16815 pretty much says the same thing as the original post here does. And both posts, say in short. Either you like this amazing game or you do not. And if you do not don't buy it then. ANd if you do buy it and do not like it then you are an idiot.

 

awesome OP. perfect post. QQ needs to stop, SC2 is the best game in years.

 

Most ppl complaining have never play an RTS...
Have never played SC2
Have no idea that SC is a major sport in some countries (Korea) and must be maintained.
Have never heard of micro and macro
or have "ragequit syndrome." Favorite quote: "HOWD YOU WIN, YOU HAX, @#$% THIS GAME"


I'm sure there a lot more, but jeeze. If SC2 isn't youre type of game, then move on.
I HATE CoD:MWF series. But I don't complain to everyone about it, I just don't play.

 

i want to expand on point #3. there is actually a HUGE innovation in SC2 that every reviewer seems to be missing.

first off, let me go back to my chess analogy. How do you "innovate" with chess? change the board layout like hexagonal chess? neat gimmick, fun while it's new but people go back to the original. add 3D animation? nothing but eye candy. online play? neat, but a standard feature for any "modern" game. the problem is you don't want to change the basic formula for chess, but you still want to innovate. starcraft has the same problem- it's such a hugely popular game, any major change to the game would be NOT STARCRAFT.

so how does Starcraft 2 innovate? by helping the player become better. build orders shown right away at the end of the game. auto-saving replays at the end of the game. the replays can show ANY perspective- yours, everyone's, or your opponent's. including his mouseclicks. there is no way any person playing SC2 cannot look at a game where they lose and say "wtf this is bull****". name ANY OTHER RTS that allows you to learn from your opponents with this level of detail.

SC2 didn't innovate the gameplay, because we came for SC1 gameplay. it just polished it further. It innovated in the metagame- Battle.net, post-game information and replays, etc.

 

And as an addition to the above post. You can watch the opponent's mouse clicks as a replay and that till tell you if they are using a map hack or similar cheating method. And you can keep that replay as proof and pass it on to Blizzard.

And you say this:
"there is actually a HUGE innovation in SC2"

But then you say this:
"SC2 didn't innovate the gameplay"

Which is it? SC2 is innovative or it is not? And yes I read both of your post and I understand the points you made. I'm sure this is a little oversight. But I agree with the point you're trying to make.

When you play a game and suck at it most people just say "learn to play you noob". But Blizzard didn't tell you to learn to play. They actually showed you how to play SC2 better. With the tutorials, challenges, help section and being to watch every aspect of a replay, even the other person's mouse clicks Blizzard really give the people all the tools to be the best at SC2 they can be.

 

it's not an innovation to the gameplay but an innovation to the metagame, that is, how people can do stuff around and outside of actually "playing" the game.

 

Lan is an issue as every lan I have ever been to did not have an internet connection cable of handling 50+ computers while gaming.

And a complain not on your list is the DRM requiring a online activation and reactivation once every 30 days. I will not purchase this game. I will not purchase Diablo III either if they do the same thing with it which really saddens me as I have been waiting for that game forever.

 

What's this? I've never heard anyone else comment about it and didnt see anything about that when installing the game.

 

I think that announcement came from Blizzard. Forgot where exactly I read it.

 

Well I don't believe it till I see a blue post quote.

 

re

Whats this I heard about the game causing pc's to run hot?

 

The online activation has been stated by the lead developers of Starcraft II. The back of the box clearly states that the game requires an interenet connection and a battle.net account (not just for online play).

"Dustin explained "you need to connect once to install the game." While singleplayer will be available offline, installation must have an internet connection in order to proceed. You are also required to have or signup for a Battle.net account in order to install the game."

http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/204/starcraft-ii-developers-talk-single-player

And an e-mail with a GM last night confirms the once every 30 day reactivation.

"Greetings!

You would need to connect to the internet at least once every 30 days to re-authenticate your StarCraft II account in order to continue to player the game in offline mode, that is correct. StarCraft II requires an active internet connection to play. This is stated in the System Requirements on the retail box, as well as our online System Requirements. Without an active internet connection, you will not be able to log in to Battle.net to authenticate your copy of StarCraft II.

When in offline mode, you can save your games and those games will be saved locally on your computer. If you play while logged into battle.net, your autosave points in the campaign will be saved on our servers. When transfering to a new computer, there is always the option of simply moving the entire game folder to the new computer's Hard Drive in which case you won't lose your saved game.

We are committed to making StarCraft II as enjoyable as possible. We appreciate your feedback. I will forward your report to the appropriate people. While I cannot guarantee a response, I can assure you it will be read.

If you have any further technical questions or problems, please feel free to contact us at techsupport@blizzard.com

Farewell,

Game Master Aurilaquet
Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment
www.blizzard.com/support"

Disable your internet while installing and you will see. It does it automatically when you enter your battle.net info and if you dont connect to your battle.net at least once every 30 days it will disable the offline mode until you do so.



The above screen shot is when I tried to install my buddies disc with my ethernet card disabled. It wont even let me try to install.

 

1-time activation during install, i'm ok with. but re-connecting every 30 days, i'm not a big fan of. i'm not too worried about blizz going out of business or shutting down the authentication servers, but other companies have tried doing this stuff and it failed horribly when the activation servers went down. see: gears of war
http://www.ripten.com/2009/01/29/gears-of-war-pc-digital-certificate-expires-kills-the-game/

i'm not a fan of DRM and i'd consider that a legitimate complaint. But given how i also consider the multiplayer and battle.net play 95% of my enjoyment of the game, it's not a big problem for me.