I like Starcraft 2. I bought it on the weekend and have been playing it pretty regularly over the course of the week, gradually growing more familiar with the game’s mechanics and nuances while learning more and more about my chosen race (Protoss). Playing online has been a joy so far, due to the randomness and discovery that occurs when thousands of new players are thrust into a game that they know little about. What is lost in finesse is gained tenfold in creativity.
I know this is too good to last. As time progresses strategies will emerge, less devout players will peter off and online play will be dominated by a higher class of tactician. Starcraft 1 gradually evolved into a truly daunting game to wade into, where a unseasoned player would get annihilated by simply not knowing how to micro manage his troops.
With this realization I bring a proposal: The Mediocre Starcraft Gaming League. Let us unite all the casual players of SC2 together to play matches that are not dictated by preset builds and strategies. Throwing caution to the wind is the name of the game as players will be encouraged to field armies that defy logic. Mothership rush? Go for it. Blanketing the map with photon cannons? Why not? Every unorthodox tactic will not be frowned upon, but instead celebrated!
My Battle.net email is michael.iantorno(AT)gmail(DOT)com so feel free to challenge me to a match of truly random proportions. If I find enough support for this idea I may make a community page for it down the line. For now, just keep practicing your strategies and enjoy Blizzard’s latest gem.
See, this is why I don’t like online gaming too much. If you wait too long to get a game or don’t play enough, you’re swamped by players much better than you. And a lot of them are jerks, too. Well, I’d join your Mediocre Gaming League, but alas, I do not have Starcraft 2 and will not be able to get it for a while.
What annoys me about SCII is that they have a league system that is supposed to circumvent this problem, but it doesn’t work at all. I’m a pretty novice player and I somehow got ranked into the second most difficult league (platinum). Whenever I play I get annihilated within 20 minutes by an elite player using some ridiculous strategy. It really hurts my ego and my enjoyment of the game.
I was gonna say that playing with better players makes you better, but I think that’s too big of a gap in skill for any improvement to happen.
I just created a Steam group called The Mediocre Gaming League. Hope you don’t mind. It’s basically the same thing as ^that, except I’m trying to make it so it’s not limited to just one game.
That sounds fine to me. Maybe I’ll look it up on Steam sometime… I don’t login as much as I used to, but I still do play the odd game of Worms or L4D2.