My Past, Present, and Future – In Blizzard I Trust

Well, last year I managed to win the Starfeeder Blizzcon Ticket contest with my entry Zerg the ULTIMATE race BlizzCon 2008. I don't think even I could do better, but I will give it my best shot. TLDR at bottom!!!

The Past

See, its a really funny thing. I really thought I was a StarCraft fan before last years Blizzcon. I watched VODs, played on iCCup, discussed strategies, followed the big names, everything a casual player doesn't do. Then that all changed...

I went to Blizzcon. I arrived in California at 11:30 pm on Thursday, the day before Blizzcon started. I told the shuttle to send me to the Hilton, as it was only $9 by comparison to the $36 custom ride it would have been had I told them to drop me off at my real hotel. Well, never being to California/Anahiem/Anahiem Convention Center, I was dropped off on the complete opposite side of the convention center by comparison to where my hotel was. Here I am, sweating my ass off (I am from Colorado, its dry here), in California, wandering around the Anaheim Convention Center at midnight trying to find my hotel.

Well, cops eventually decided that i needed help, and stopped me asking what I was doing. Delighted that my friendly officer friends were actually looking to help me instead of harass me, I told them I was looking for Eden Roc Hotel. After they gave me warning ticket for loitering (sigh), they gave me directions and I eventually made it to my hotel around 12:30 am. There was a line to the check-in counter of course, and I eventually made it into my room at about 1:00 am.

Well I eveuntally realized I couldn't sleep, and the airport security stole my hair gel, toothpaste, and deodorant. I went to the store (about 2:00 am now) which was about a 5 minute walk, or so the desk clerk thought. After 20 minutes of walking, I eventually found a "Food 4 Less" (I had never even heard of these, and I thought the clerk said "Food Fillets"). W/e, I got some fruit, lemonade, and replaced what the airport had stolen.

Ok, fast forward, 8:00 am the day of Blizzcon. I wake up, went and bought hair gel from the Anabella gift shop, went got my ticket from the VIP line (yea VIP baby), then waited in line for the convention to start.

Eventually they started letting ppl inside the lobby, and of course everyone is just shivering with anticipation. People are pushing, saying "hey, don't cut in line" blah blah. Blizzcon starts and I basically walk as fast as I can to the SC2 section. Of course I was in a mindset of I need to destroy my opponent (this is the casual section btw). So my first game I set up for standard 3 Hatch Muta build and rush with Lings. I destroy opponents left and right (still in the casual SC2 section) and eventually I find ppl who actually want to compete. I then get my first draw vs a Protoss player who got enough cannons to choke an elephant.

Any way, after a day of playing vs casuals, and watching pro SC players practice (Savior, Yellow, Xellos, Nada, Jangbi, ForGG, and Idra), then watching some SC on the big stage. I eventually meet up with Tasteless and tell him to get a drink with me before Blizzcon is over. He tells me to just come to a little after party in his hotel. I of course accept the invitation and continue with the rest of the day. I end up going to his hotel around 10:30 that night.

The Change

Ok, here is where everything changed. I get into the room, and am immediately greeted by 7-8 pro SC players: Tasteless, G5, Machine, iNControl, Idra, Artosis, etc. Everyone was ridiculously friendly. Eventually the party starts picking up, and more ppl show up, we eventually go to get more drinks, meet up with Savior, Xellos, and Yellow. They end up in the room with us. Of course everyone knows and is talking about StarCraft for a good portion of the night. Eventually skill discussions start, and WoW is brought up.

Now, I WAS a WoW player at the time. And I always knew how broken it was, and imbalanced everything was, and how much i hated playing it. Then this phenominal thing happened: EVERYONE AGREED. No one in that room played WoW seriously (cept me at the time), and everyone joked about how redicilous of a game it was and how it had no place in eSports.  See, this changed me a lot. Everyone I ever spoke to about WoW (pretty much everyone was casual except me) in the "real" world only had good things to say. This is what changed my entire gaming path.

The Present

After Blizzcon (if you want to hear more about my trip and everything, go here, because this has taken up too much of the blog, and really isnt the point) , I eventually quit WoW (I had every class above lvl 60, and with a HWL Rogue in 6/8 T6, first in line for Warglaives, and first lvl 80 Rogue on my server) cold turkey, and focused primarily on StarCraft. I am now a tournament admin for iCCup, and I play StarCraft daily. See, Blizzcon changed my perspective of StarCraft. I met huge names, and it only served to strengthen my resolve.

My post for last year's contest seeped from my poors. Nothing can describe the amount of enjoyment i got from my first time playing SC. No matter how hard I try, I don't think I can do a better job describing my love for SC, and it has only grown since then. I now watch live casts, every VOD i can get my hands on, and read far too much of TL.net. I keep in touch with a few people I met at Blizzcon,  mostly G5 cause he is such a pimp.

As i was sitting in my underwear, without having brushed my teeth, at 9:59 this morning, pressing F5 on 6 different computers while they are all at the Blizzcon ticket sale screen, I pondered what I would have to do if tickets sold out again. Of course I follow Starfeeder, and knew there was a contest going on, but they said it was the same as last year. I couldn't post the same thing obviously, so I felt that I had already lost.

As my number in queue decresed, so did the remaining stock of tickets, and I didnt even come close to getting tickets. I sat, depressed, wondering what I was going to do, eating left over Buon Dac Biet (it was my room mates' girlfriends, i essentially stole left overs), I knew I had to try something. Now I am here creating a giant wall of text.

Currently, i dont see SC ever becoming better than it is. It is literally the most balanced game in the gaming community and it has stayed strong for 11 years. Many, MANY, ppl have claimed that SC2 will be terrible and never able to live up to its predecessor. Well, I agree in that it is impossible to live up to SC. SC2 is a completely different game, the only things that it shares are basically the names of units. The game play is soooo different. I personally watch finals of every official iCCup tournament, and I see incredible games, and they only fuel my passion for SC more.

As an iCCup tournament admin, we have to create reports and pay in lists for every tournament we host. I developed a java tool that made this process easier and more accurate, and now it is recommended by our super admin to be used for all tournaments. I read TL.net and the iCCup forums every day. A girl i recently met texts me "i want to see you" and I find some bogus excuse to have her stay home so i can play Starcraft.

Even right now, i have a house warming party to get prepared for, and i still havnt showered, and i continue to sit here in my underwear writing this blog, i only barely brushed my teeth. Just the thought of how much i will have to write and blog, for all the contests i have to go enter to see if I can some how salvage a Blizzcon ticket, wears me out.

The Future

SC2 Beta is coming out tomorrow. I tell myself this every day, and I will continue to tell myself that every day I wake up, and look to see if beta is out. When beta comes out, I can only describe how sick and malnurished i will be from playing so much. I percieve that my hair will not be cut for a while, i probably wont shave, and showers will seem like a waste of time. Eventually my manager will get involved thinking i have a cocaine addiction (sorry Ernie, i am on something far more addictive).

Now, for gameplay specifics, of course single player is going to have an incredible story line. But i wont play it, sooo yea, who ever finishs it, please send me a summary of what happens. Only a few months ago did i play SC and SC:BW single player, and i eventually got so bored that i just used cheat codes to go through to see the cinematics and hear the dialogues.

Now, the real stuff, multiplayer. I fully expect only 1/10 SC strategies to work in SC2. I want to say 0, but that isnt realistic as lots of gameplay features coexist in the two games. Blizzard updates the game A LOT. I believe nearly 70% has been redone since i played it at Blizzcon. New units get added, stats get changed, artwork gets tweaked, so much happens in such little time that Blizzard stopped updating the SC2 website. Every strategy i thought of will probably need to be refactored and reprocessed to make it the most efficient. Wheather it be Fast Lair to Nydas Network Drop or Quick Roachs and Baneling fields to standard Mutalisks with Ling support. Everything i learn about SC, everything I think of for SC2 will be void when SC2 comes out.

The number of posts/blogs i have read about how people think SC2 will destroy the SC scene, and how this will be unbalanced, or that will be too hard to beat, or what ever makes me want to emo. It has been said time and time again, it took 10 years for Blizzard to balance SC and SC:BW. For people to expect a perfectly balanced game right out of the gates for SC2, they are insane, and for them to think that SC2 wont be patched until it is perfect like its predecessor is even more redicilous.

There is also tons of talk about how it will effect the Korean economy. IDK why ppl think it will single handedly destroy the entire country, but again, this idea is obsured. What I really look forward too is the commentator mode. I really wish eSports were big in the US. It really sickens me that we are so far behind in the gaming scene. Unfortunetly, WoW is responsible for the large push for eSports that is emerging in the US. I hope SC2 will break this shell, and show people just how complex and entertaining eSports can be when it is balanced and actually requires skill.

In the end, the only moto we can have is "In Blizzard we Trust." Blizzard will not let SC2 be a dissipointment, and they will improve it any way they can to make sure it can live up to the giant reputaiton of its predecessor.

btw: sorry for the giant wall of text

TLDR

Blizzcon changed the way I look at WoW and Starcraft. I now play Starcraft too much. In Blizzard I trust. They will make a great game.

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