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 by Jesperz, Level 4
Last updated at August 24, 2009, 11:57 pm
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Allthough the Starcraft 2 beta was slated for a summer release, Blizzcon 2009 doused the last glimmer of hope there was of meeting this deadline. Not a word was spoken of the beta's release other than Mike Morhaime reassuring everyone it would “definitely be this year” on DirectTV.
Knowing Blizzard, this could be any point in time, but being optimistic I would say expect the beta to hit late December.
The beta will be running for at least several months and will be the best chance for competitive gamers from any genre to get a headstart in an all new game: to figure out all of the game's intricacies, develop their own strategies and get their multitasking up to par with the native Starcraft player.
Warcraft3 players, WoW nerds, Quakers, even Guitar Heroes (olol) all want a piece of the esport pie. But only few of them will get some: the most talented players with the right skillset to make it in the world of RTS. Let's briefly break some of these games down and see which ones are the best start for a great Starcraft career:
World of Warcraft
A game dominated by its own metagame. Picking the right class & gear combination before the arena gates open is often just as crucial to the outcome of a fight as your performance in the arena itself. Similarly, picking out the right build orders at any point in a best-of series is a very important skill to have in Starcraft when it comes to tournament play. It's all about getting into the mindset of your opponent, being able to predict his plans and throw him off balance.
Situational awareness is another big factor with so many things to keep track of in an arena fight. Just like you always need to keep your eyes on the map in Starcraft. Finding out you just lost 20 drones to a single dark templar when you're back from a big battle is depressing at best.
Warcraft 3
Allthough an RTS as well, the game doesn't have too much in common with Starcraft. Contrary to Starcraft you don't manage or think about your economy, in fact there's very little you'll be doing as far as managing your base goes. The majority of your time will be spent positioning and controlling your main army and heroes. As the unit interface and control system of SC2 is quite similar to WC3's, some of that micromanagement ability will definitely carry over.
Quake
Quick reflexes, solid aim and controlling the map, that's what this game is all about. Now, quick reflexes won't help you much in a game of Starcraft and your aim can be a little shaky to select just about anything you want in a timely fashion. But being able to control the map is crucial to come out on top. Making sure you're always fighting from the advantageous position and continuously making the right judgement when you should or shouldn't engage will decide games.
Guitar Hero
Being able to press colored plastic buttons is invaluable in an intense battle of war.
Overall World of Warcraft comes out on top as far as I'm concerned. WoW arenas aren't a MMORPG, they're a real-time third person strategy game. Requiring strong mental games and situational awareness.
The first day of Blizzcon treated us to some great games between Skyhigh, the Terran known for murdering Jaedong's entire team and ZerO, the prince of Zerg. Unfortunately it all went downhill from there and the Blizzcon crew decided to air one Zerg vs Zerg after another. Some of them mildly interesting, most of them about as exciting as watching Paladins eat a mace to the face on the wow stream.
Former Blizzcon champion sAviOr hasn't exactly been on a hot streak when it comes to ZvZ lately, so his poor performance in the mirror games that led up to the finals came as no surprise. While ZerO and EffOrt were up practising all night, sAviOr fell into the trap of going out to a party with his foreign fans. He collapsed to the social pressure and poured down a couple of beers too many. The next day he was so wasted he decided to just donate his mutalisks to the opponent's spore colonies.
There's always next year Ma Jae Yoon, your chance to dual-wield the sword of Arthas will come.
Final results:
EffOrt – Zerg ( $25,000 )
ZerO - Zerg
sAviOr - Zerg
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I appreciate your argument, although I would disagree and say that Warcraft 3-players (and to some extent, also DoTa-players - though they suffer from not being used to a comparable base-management and economy-play) will have the most significant advantage out of the franchises you listed. Certainly, that's provided that these players are currently active playing the game at a truly competitive level - which is where WoWers have an advantage since that scene is so big, alive and popular and hence conducive to skillfulness (albeit a highly different one).
In either case, I do think that the second largest group of players that at Day 1 will migrate to Starcraft 2 will be WoW-players, the largest one of course being SC1-fanatics like yours truly and most people of this site. Skillfulness and background-knowledge aside, hype has a more powerful pull. Street Fighter-players will come last, and get thoroughly owned :P
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I'm so glad zero took a game off of effort there - especially through such a well-eaned move of strategy in hiding those lings from the ovie timing - hot!
Also, I think wc3 players will have a fair chance at learning and accelerating at this game, though not as fair a chance as the sc1 players. And lol @ the WoW players voting for WoW players - you guys are going to get creamed extremely in this kind of game ^ ^
I love DotA and used to love WoW, but please don't try to glorify the amount of skill WoW takes compared to an RTS.
Warcraft and Starcraft may be more rewarding in terms of setting yourself apart from the pack, but that doesn't mean you're developing skills any more rapidly than any other game where the result of your effort may be less rewarding.
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