Category Archives: Starcraft
Starcraft 2 Then and Now
One of my best friends on the entire planet got me into Starcraft back in 10th grade chemistry class. Even though I’m not particularly good at it, it remains one of my favorite games ever.
I played terran pretty much my entire life and my signature end-game pwnage usually came in the form of a glitched fleet of fully upgraded battle-cruisers.The thing with Brood War is sometimes you could queue beyond your supply limit and still spawn units. That’s generally how I’d end up with a fleet of 30 some-odd BCs.
It’s a strat that honestly should have never worked. A fully teched fleet is extremely overpowered. Even heavy-anti-air can’t do much against them.
Luckily for my opponents, Starcraft 2 really balanced out the units and the game is heavy on early-stage combat. Still, on the rare opportunity I can build my fleet, I revel in it. In 3v3, one strat my lovely teammates and I use sometimes is actually letting me turtle and focus on blitzing to air while they take care of ground and early-rushes, which I fully enjoy.
The Fleet, reborn.
I’ve upgraded from full BC’s to include banshees and the versatile re-hashed vikings to take care of any units that might hurt the precioussssss. Banshees honestly are pretty ridiculous on their own, too.
All the white on the map is cannons...
Another friend of mine favored money maps in Broodwar. His technique usually involved spamming nothing but photon cannons. When we’d 2v6 in PvP this method, sadly, worked well. One of my favorite vs AI games, I got crushed, but we always open by sending one worker unit to each other’s bases and build one supply building for instances like these.
With my one unit, I was able to completely rebuild in his base while he focused on assaulting the map with cannons. I was able to completely dedicate my rebuild to making a fleet and we ended up winning.
One time we were doing FFA with a bunch of other people on a money map, and he spammed his cannons and basically forced a draw because nobody could leave their base. It was a point of no return, as nobody would ever invite him to a game again.
In Starcraft 2, due to Terran Overload, I’ve been working on learning toss these days. They’re really fun, and I favor a heavy ground army supported by a few void rays and phoenixes in the back to clean up. STill trying to get used to it. Colossi are ridiculously amazing and drool-worthy.
Day 3 of the Hurricane RealID, Damage is Begining to Surface
Brief recaps:
Day one, the official announcement is made during regular sever maintainence. The initial shock and repulsion by fans is unprecedented. Blues are overwhelmed by the response and attempt to keep the massive response under control. Blizz Employee reveals his true name and the backlash is intense, he is forced to take down his facebook.
http://izziebytes.wordpress.com/2010/07/06/blizzards-realid-forum-shitstorm-is-cat/
Day two, the scope of the reaction reaches new heights. Blizzard officially announces that RealID -will- happen, and that they were aware it would turn away many current posters and were ok with this consequence. Activision’s announcement that RealID will be integrated with Facebook and their partnership begins to raise eyebrows. Enraged gamers start to make a connection between Activision’s increased involvement in Blizzard’s marketing to their decreasing integrity.
http://izziebytes.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/the-irl-maelstrom-continues/
So it goes on
Here we are at day three of what is easily one of the most impacting events in the history of gaming and the gaming industry. The world-wide attention of this is much more far-reaching than we expected. I said this was history in the making in my first post, but even I didn’t realize just how big this was going to be.
Fellow blogger Zaldinar has been keeping rigorous track of as much information as he can. His lists are much more organized and comprehensive than mine, and I feel his posts are beyond a must-read:
http://zaldinar.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/the-case-against-realid/
http://zaldinar.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/the-problem-with-real-id/
What is stunning is the list of mainstream news sites that have covered this since it’s fruition on Tuesday, including the BBC. With all this publicity going around, it’s amazing at how inappropriate the developer’s reaction has been, which leads me to this interesting new factoid:
Rumor Mill
A moderator from the Guild Wars 2 Guru forums, Neo Nugget, pointed us in the direction of this posted rumor on the Starcraft Inc-Gamers forum:
http://starcraft.incgamers.com/blog/comments/rumour-blizzard-realid-unpopular-internally/
Although the validity of the comments is here-say at best right now, it may suggest that Blizzard creative team are just as miffed at this system as we are, have little control over it, and even possibly left a little in the dark. Whether this is directed at the RealID forum change or the Facebook partnership I’m still unsure of. The post was quoted from the 40,000+ thread on the forums, so it’s hard to say. While it’s definitely a case of he-said, she-said there are a few things that anybody who’s seen this sort of corporate push and pull will recognize:
• The creative team (artists, programmer, designers) having little to no say in the business aspect of any company is nothing new. It’s unfortunate, but a reality.
• Corporate hush-hush is a huge problem when it comes to big business and PR. Just look at BP and their Gulf fiasco. Press are being forcefully turned away and anybody working with them in the clean-up efforts are forced to sign non-disclosure contracts.
Needless to say, I have little doubt that Blizzard employees are under similar pressure from the higher-ups. They are remaining rather cold and neutral on the subject: the only blue that has been saying anything of note has been Wryxian of the EU forums.
Both this scenario’s are common in big corporate decisions like this, and thus lend themselves to some validity. The poster on Inc-Gamers is trying to dig up more info / confirmation on the subject, so I will keep an eye out for any updates.
US vs EU
That brings me to another interesting and final thought for now: why is it that Europe has been much more open about it than the US? Albeit, it’s just one poster, but I do find it interesting that all we’ve gotten State-side has been a whole lotta copy-pasta “please post in the main thread” spam. A lot of posters are assuming we’re being ignored, but Wryxian insists that all feedback is being looked at and considered and is urging gamers to continue providing suggestions and comments on the matter:
I can only reiterate what we’ve already said, that is that we are listening and compiling your feedback for review and consideration. We cannot foresee what will be the outcome of that and thus we cannot make predictive statements about future events and decisions. However, when there is further information to share, as is always the case we will endeavour to share it here.
At the same time he says that RealID is going live in it’s current form … basically regretting the loss of constructive posters like Flanks:
Privacy is very important and if you’re not even slightly comfortable with revealing your real name in the forums, then I think it is perfectly understandable that you err on the side of caution and just don’t post. It’s a shame that some perfectly constructive and decent folk predict they will no longer be posting in our forums when we make this change.
Lots of mixed information in that regard. It’s hard to believe they are seriously considering what we’ve all said when it seems pretty clear that this is happening in it’s current iteration. Maybe there’s something to be said that Blizz has little to no say in the future marketing of their products. And I can’t help but wonder if the silence from the US suggests they are under stricter non-disclosure rules than the EU reps.
More to come!
Special Links / Updates Section
Factoids: • 22% of all cyberstalking involve online acquaintances. • Over 4,000 posts have been deleted from the RealID Megathread
• A pro-RealID poster challenges the masses to find him. A fellow WoWer takes up the challenge and within 20 minutes is talking to him on his work phone. Read the tale here, it’s extremely interesting, and kudos to both parties for going about the entire thing in a mature, classy manner. Despite the fun-ness of the story, though, it still sends a huge warning about how easy it can be to find someone / be found with just a name.
• http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25626461439&sid=1
As plans to move forward with the facebook partnership continue, little is said about consumer reaction.
• http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25626051708&sid=1
Somewhat of a self plug: posted a thread to try and extend my thanks to Wryxian, and some discussion on the state of US Employees has started. I’m not the only one who feels they are in a pickle dealing with parent company policies.
• Treesdiel continues to provide us with more content: coverage from reputable news sources
Wall Street Journal –
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/07/07/real-names-rile-online-warlocks-and-wizards/
Washington Post –
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2010/07/world_of_warcraft_real_names.html
• In a twist of savage but warranted irony, someone posts a slew of information about Robert Kotick, the soul-drained CEO over at Activision, including but not limited to political donations. This gets more and more interesting:
The IRL Maelstrom Continues, Blizz apparently is OK with it.
Note: In keeping this up to date, the end of the post will include quotes and a lot of links to threads, posts, blogs, and outside sources of interest to this topic. So be sure to check back down there for any updates and additions. And a huge “Thank You!” to Treesdiel, Jake, commentors and friends who have been pointing me to new content and helping me keep this updated.
More Izziebytes Coverage:
Day 1 : Initial Impact
Day 3 : Continued Damages
Alright, well, good morning America.
As an update to my post yesterday, since I went to bed last night and checked the forums in the AM briefly at breakfast, it would appear the madness of the General Discussion Forum hadn’t slowed down one bit. I replied and true to form, ended up three pages behind. By the time I got to work (now) posts have eclipsed 20,000 on the American forums, reaching 5,000 on the European forums, over 1,000 on the Starcraft 2 forums and thousands more comments across other WoW-related platforms.
One thing of note is that the OP in the American forums has been edited down to a brief summary and is now pointing to the Battle.Net / Starcraft 2 thread that has the full and updated explanation. I suppose they’re trying to push the flood over to Battle.Net, where Warcraft Players can’t actually post, but it hasn’t seemed to stop anything.
To be expected, right now most activity is coming from Europe as the work day hasn’t started in California yet, and they have actually been addressing some of people’s fears. Most importantly, they’ve made it pretty clear RealID is happening regardless of what players say, but that they are reading as much as possible and considering the reaction of the players. America -should- be seeing some replies coming in an hour or three. Some quotes of note:
We have been planning this change for a very long time. During this time, we have thought ahead about the scope and impact of this change and predicted that many people would no longer wish to post in the forums after this change goes live. We are fine with that, because we want to change these forums dramatically in a positive and more constructive direction.
…
There’s a lot of scare-mongering going on about the change, but there seems a need to make something very clear. The forums have always been an optional extra — something you can choose to participate in if you wish to. With our Real ID changes for the forums, this is still the case. The only difference will be, if you do choose to participate in the forums, then you will do so by using your real name. But only after you’ve been warned and accepted this in advance. [Source]
So there you have it, folks. RealID Forums are happening whether we like it or not. They go on further to explain that they feel the over-reaction of a few has lead to scare-mongering and wide-spread panic and confusion.
The saddest part about all this is that the fact that we don’t trust -each other- and that’s the problem. We’re not afraid of Blizzard, or the FBI, or anything like that. We fear each other. We’re afraid of having our personal lives targeted by fellow gamers.
The other sad part is that Blizzard would have -never- even dreamed of something like this before merging with Activism. Pig-Headed or not, stepping the bounds between gaming and something a little less desirable.
I’ll keep this post updated as more information comes along.
Special Super Links Section
Here I am keeping a close eye on as much relevant information as possible. Some of the links are of extreme interest to anyone that is deeply concerned with this development, while others are simply further reading. Feel free to add suggestions via comments.
• A disturbing rumor floating around finds itself all but confirmed on WoW.com. Apparently the plan to “show the danger” of RealID by revealing the brave Blue’s personal information has backfired: Blizz has apparently taken back their original statement that their employees names would be also be displayed, meaning theirs will be hidden while players would still be forced to use theirs. Thanks again to Trees for the update.
• A wonderful thread post consolidates the most popular concerns as well as links of note from among the masses. It includes links to articles and quotes regarding Acitivsion Blizzard’s plan with intergrating RealID with Facebook, another issue that is likely to start more issues, especially given Facebook’s recent trackrecord of privacy breaches with its own users.
A great effort on part of this poster and others who have contributed.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=25552355289&sid=1
Do you expect any push back from diehard Blizzard fans from the Facebook features?
We don’t anticipate any. We are going to be very clear and upfront with the user. Once they log in and create a Battle.net account for the first time, if they choose to participate in Real ID, it is of course, an optional set of features that you don’t have to participate in. Beyond that we are going to notify them upfront their names could be used to populate via Facebook and how their names could be used via this Facebook feature.
• A little too Conspiracy Theorist for me, but an interesting post here recounts the US Military’s interest in MMO’s and how they use these games to predict mob behavior.
• Those concerned and wanting to stay updated can join a Facebook group here, dedicated to those of us who are against all the changes. Big thanks to Naktab for the heads up.
• A quick recount on Blizzard’s plan to merge Battle.Net and Real ID With Facebook. Thanks to Jake.
• Annndd Activision’s official investor page announcement on said merge.
• Ctrl+Alt+Delete mocks RealID’s fail troll-spray in today’s comic, as well as shares their thoughts on what this whole system means. Thanks, again, to Jake for the tips.
• 4chan not surprisingly has a rather active thread on the subject. Caution: it’s 4chan. Read with care.
• For an epic reply from someone who’s name I cant even find:
When they offered race changes, some rose up and said, “This is a harbinger of things to come!”
I laughed. Silly, I thought.
When they offered faction changes, some rose up and said, “This is a harbinger of things to come!”
I laughed. Ridiculous, I thought.
When they offered pets and ponies in the store, some rose up and said, “This is a harbinger of things to come!”
I laughed. Optional, I spouted.
When they offered ReadID, many rose up and said, “This is a harbinger of things to come!”
I laughed. Uneasily, I laughed.
When they forced forum names on us, we all rose up and said, “Enough!”
I hung my head. I, and many like me, enabled this day to happen. I am so very, very ashamed.
Blizzard’s RealID Forum Shitstorm Reaches Category 5
Note: In keeping this up to date, the end of the post will include quotes and a lot of links to threads, posts, blogs, and outside sources of interest to this topic. So be sure to check back down there for any updates and additions. And a huge “Thank You!” to Treesdiel, Jake, commentors and friends who have been pointing me to new content and helping me keep this updated.
More Izziebytes Coverage:
Day 2: IRL Storm Continues, RealID unchanged
Day 3 : Continued Damages
Anybody paying even minor attention to the gaming industry today will probably have heard about Blizzard’s uncanny announcement that RealID would be used in future Battle.net2.0 forums for all their games. What this means is instead of posting on your realm forums under your main, a Blood Elf Pally named Shnookums, it’d post as you, your real life self, John Doe.
Needless to say, this raised more than a handful of eyebrows. And by handful, I mean over * 10,000 replies in the official posts on the WoW forums and almost 1500 on MMO-Champion at the time of this writing (and counting, I assure you).
Replies and concerns vary greatly: those who’d rather not have some shmuck they ganked google their pictures or sign them up for porn on their e-mails, females worried about being harassed, etc. Then there are those legitimately fearful of abusive exes or overly-judgmental employers who are sometimes warned not to hire Warcraft players or gamers. The most extreme, and unlikey but very real threat, is that of unstable / borderline pscyhotic players who can now more easily get a hold of personal information about someone they may want to target, such as the case of a counter-strike player stalked and stabbed by a rival.
The biggest argument for it is that it will thwart trolls. That’s the idea, anyway, that no one can really anonymously post their Gentleman T-Rex ASCII art or call you a fucking newb without you knowing now.
But wait. You can still technically hide because it’s optional to have your character name displayed with your real name. So basically someone named John Smith can go flame some random pug tank he disliked on said tanks home forums, but nobody will know who they are in-game, only who they are IRL. And if he’s named John Smith…well, you get the idea.
Others say that forum posting is optional: and they’re right. This is blizzard’s site, they can technically do with it what they want. It’s also somewhere in the fine-text of the TOS, but nobody knows when that happened. But if it goes through, it’s digital suicide for the official community. People will stop posting, migrate to other outlets like MMO-Champion, and Blizzard will have lost a very vital tool: official control over their community. They can no longer delete posts bashing their products, mentioning other games, or threatening their mods, GMs, and other staff. They can’t monitor what’s being said or gain official feedback.
Sure, the trolls will be gone because there will be nobody left to troll.
My thoughts? It’s counter-productive, stupid, and a mistake from all angles, both business-wise and social wise. I have a huge doubt it’ll go live. The fact that there’s yet to be any official reaction from the Blues in my mind indicates that this is was a very unexpectedly massive and negative reaction and they have no fucking clue what to say.
It’s tough for them I suppose. The entire system is likely almost ready to be implemented meaning resources have already been spent. But it’s hard to ignore the outcry. This is the biggest reaction to anything ever in the history of Warcraft and Blizzard games. This, my friends, is history already made.
Things with Blizzard have changed since they’ve become the monopoly they are, between becoming greedy with overpriced services, bullying other companies with immature and unethical marketing tactics, and milking their devoted playerbase for what it’s worth. Blizzard is falling prey to the same poison apple other formerly cool-for-the-everyman company (IE google, apple, facebook, etc) has savagely devoured once the big bucks roll in.
Thanks to a good friend and fellow wow-player, Jake, there’s a great read on how Blizzard’s business model has changed here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128252
Whether it’s soley pressure from Activision, their own inflated egos, or a combination of both, one thing can definitely be said: this is not the same Gamer-Next-Door group they once were. The only thing that will stop it is if we, the players, make a stand for what gaming should be about; if the above links are any indication, this is something that we are ready to do.
Edit 1: * Grand total of posts reached 11600 as of 9:40 pm
Edit 2: As of 10:00 the total has reached 12,000. Additionally, I found out what all this Micah Whipple crap is about. Blizz poster Bashiok posted his real name on the forums, a move i’m sure he deeply regrets as now his phone number, facebook, picture, and personal information about himself and his family is now very public.
Edit 3: 10:34 PM. The plot continues to thicken. In another creepy twist, apparently cancelling your subscription to WoW is no longer instant. Instead, you have to fill out a form and wait for a confirmation e-mail, and an odd glitch seems to be keeping players trying to cancel in an endless loop. WoW.com reported earlier in the day that a loophole allows some in-game addons to actually have the ability to access RealID names without that person having been added. Activison Blizzard stock falls almost immediately after the announcement is made.
Blizzard responds with a handful of shallow responses that completely dodge the main concerns of players.
WoW Videos / Babble
So wow, it’s been a month (uh oh!), and a crazy one at that. Sorry for the lack of updates.
Beta is over (boo!) and sadly, I didn’t get a chance to see what new changes to Strand (if any) came with the last handful of patches before PTR and Beta were taken down.
I really wanted to have a fleshed out version of my strat guide ready for when people started playing, but it’s not that big of a deal.
I imagine not much has changed, other than the much needed upgrade from 10v10 to 15v15. This may seem like a small detail, but depending on how people play, it could mean a huge shift when it comes to the way players pull off the offense / defense.
We’ll see how it goes come live.
In other news, I plan on attending the NYC Lich King launch party next weds night, with a bunch of my nerdy wow friends, maybe a face or two from Andorhal as well. I’m gonna try to get my hands on a camera to document the “festivities”.
And to leave this update with less than boring-ness, I’ll post a few good finds from Youtube that’ll be sure to cause laughs or good times.
WoW in the Real World Pick: Judge Judy vs Deadbeat WoW Boyfriend
WoW Fanworks Pick: Rogue vs Warrior
WoW Crossover Pick: Sylvannas in “Out Tonight” (who’ve thought rent + warcraft = good times? Epic ending is epic, btw.)
WoW Pop Culture Spoof Pick: LEAVE SYLVANNAS ALONE (it’s easy to pick out my favorite npc from warcraft lore)
