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I don't consider myself a gamer, despite playing a few PC games.
Some people say I am, but I don't believe I'm skillful enough or dedicated enough to really play a game. You might think: "Wait, but Spotto, if you play games you are a gamer! Isn't that right?"
Well, let's see what games I actually play. I play Starcraft 2, Sims 2, and occasionally Soldat. I might play some hockey games or fighting games, but those three are the big ones.
Now, I normally see gamers playing LOTS of games, and they have their own favourite genre, whether it's a first person shooter, a beat-em-up, or a real-time-strategy. Even those who play MMORPGs all the time, they are gamers too (despite my opinion of those types of games, but that's not the discussion here.)
Soldat is not a particularly popular nor big game. It's rather fun, but like many games filled with retards you just can't stand. I usually game not because of the game (though it helps that the game is fun to play) but rather for the community. So if a game starts getting saturated with more and more retards, it really isnt' as fun, now is it? Of course for Soldat, it didn't help that the netcode was piss poor and thus everything you hit someone in the head with a bullet they magically survive and frag you only milliseconds later. At the moment I don't play it nearly as much because the community is basically dead (for the R/S mode anyway) and that's pretty sad, but people move on and newcomers were probably driven away by the level of retardedness the mode fell into.
The Sims 2 has a wonderful community though I'm largely a lurker. The game though is a lot more like a toy than a game. To me it's the complete opposite of Starcraft 2 while Soldat is the happy medium. I mean you can't win or lose in the game (well, I guess if they all die) and you can do whatever you want and no one will care because it's your game and your Sims. The epitome of a toy, really, but a fun one nonetheless. I imagine this is why so many females play it because females tend to love creating stories, of either themselves doing things they dreamed of but can never have (such as a one-sided love) or build pretty houses or...the options are endless.
Then comes Starcraft.
I can't imagine how I am playing three drastically different games. I suppose Ed (a friend of mine) does as well, but still. Usually as far as I know, people stick to a few genres of games because those of the ones they like. My best friend enjoys MMORPGs, my other friend would rather play Kingdom Hearts or Phoenix Wright than Starcraft (can you tell I'm describing girls?) but what makes a game really?
I already said Sims 2 doesn't feel like a game, more like a massive tool to do anything you want. Soldat is a game, but its coding and community has gone down the drain so badly lately that it is only a shadow of what it once was before. Starcraft though?
Well, all my male friends play Starcraft 2 in comparison to the females playing MMORPGs, Phoenix Wright, Sims 2, etc. Why do you think so? Sometimes I wonder if Starcraft could even be considered a true game. Yes it is very fun and you do a lot of stuff in it, but what defines a game really? SC to me, feels more like...a sport of some sort. Sure, a sport is too a game, but you have remember there are many types of games, and the type of game I'm thinking and likely you're thinking of (unless you're Souless) is simply a fun game. Win or lose, it'll be fun. Games are games, they are enjoyable and work should not have much to do with it.
But Starcraft? My friends take Starcraft very seriously. There are insane competitions in Korea where the top players make big bucks every year to play the game, the tournaments shown on Korean TV. There are endless possibilities of what you do, but you can't just do whatever you want. You need to know what to do, when to do, how to do it, and how to do it in the fastest, most efficient way.
They say Korea is nation with the highest work hours by far, and comparing that statistic to Starcraft, I can understand why. If I am any gamer at all I may be considered a casual gamer, which I know many hardcore gamers look down upon. All I'm here is to have fun, right? Well you can't just have "fun" in Starcraft. YOU HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING RIGHT IF NOT YOU DIE IN FIVE MINUTES.
That is definitely not what casual gamers look for. You want to win? You need to learn. It's not like Soldat or some FPS where all you have to do is develop your reflexes and sight, this is a strategy game where you have to think of every little possibility, where you use your brain like a commander in an army, who must figure out how to win the war. I think a lot of males and maybe some females, but we're generalizing here, would love to be an army commander. You know, without the death and blood and physical exertion. You just want to tell the army what to do and watch them triumphantly kill everybody else. Sounds fun, right?
Of course, Starcraft is beyond that. There's a reason it is a competitive pro-gaming sensation in Korea. You DO get tired, if not physically tired, at the very least mentally tired. You know how there's rotations per minute? (RPM) Or words per minute? (WPM) In Starcraft you get actions per minute. That means how many things you do in the game in a minute. Progamers get up to 400 apm a minute. That's 6-7 actions per SECOND. When you play a game you can click and use the keyboard, perhaps use the arrow keys to move a character. Now imagine that character attacking, casting a spell, running, jumping in the air, crying for help, and switching between weapons all at the same time, with all these actions assigned to a different letter on the keyboard doing this all in ONE second, and it's the RIGHT thing to do because the other character dies. Please note that fights obviously last longer than a single second.
Do you think that's fun?
In Starcraft beyond 1v1s, there are team battles: 2v2, 3v3, even 4v4. Many players love 3v3/4v4 because of how less serious it is. Starcraft is largely known for its serious 1v1 style, so the team battles, where a lot of things are different timing wise, etc. can be played much less seriously. Those who play Starcraft to win, to learn all the builds and how to counter and everything else there is to do with the game enjoy 1v1 because they believe the other modes are joke modes. They're not serious. At this time perhaps the development of the higher levels is only beginning. Maybe a few years down the road people will have found strategies for all the team games and make it much more competitive, but at the moment it's something you do with friends for the hell of it.
I happen to like those games. I did say earlier that largely the reason for playing games (of course they have to be fun somehow) is the community. My ol' Soldat clanmates are big big Starcraft fans. When I was introduced to the game, I was largely not impressed. Mostly because I lost a lot and the game was hard. I could say the same for WC3, where I play DotA and I lose constantly. Then I just whine and my friends get annoyed (usually Milk) P: So I don't often play that anymore. I too wasn't too interested in SC especially when all we did was 1v1. They always talk about training you, always discuss Starcraft strategy constantly even RIGHT NOW in the Ventrilo chat. How to do this, how to do that, your strategy is wrong. Ravens and marines can own vikings, no that doesn't work. No you play with stupid people that's why you win, etc. etc.
I probably developed this attitude because I haven't won that often in my life. So rather than being serious and focused on winning some game, I'm all cheesy-like saying "HEY at least it was fun!" But honestly sometimes it really isn't plain fun at all to just lose constantly and constantly. I once mentioned to a friend of mine that I really liked playing SC2 with Doughboy (another friend, yes) because even if we lost he had this chipper joker-like personality that kept me happy regardless. It wasn't WE HAVE TO WIN TO DO THIS DO THAT YOU DID THAT WRONG, it actually was fun. I wonder why more people can't be like that. Sure I do want to learn, but why so serious? Really? If I just lost and someone tells me I did something wrong, it usually sours my mood. So I should apologize to people who might think I'm ungrateful for their advice. I really do enjoy their advice, but I often prefer hearing it not after a bad loss or something. Otherwise rather than a game...Starcraft 2 feels like a job, and they're training me and punishing me for doing the wrong things or not doing something by explaining everything in front of my face after I lost. Maybe I am a sore loser, but it's not a nice feeling to have.
Sometimes I wonder if that's true with Soldat too. I've heard in its glory days some clans did a lot of training, had strategy sessions and even in my own clan there was this one time that a friend of mine tried to input strategy in our game. We really didn't win that much despite having many really good players individually. I was frustrated, true, but it was a great group of people and in the end some were rather loyal and stuck to the clan despite our losses. (Or maybe because every other single clan out there was lead by jackasses, who knows, lol)
So, what option should I really choose? Winning by training through rather frustrating games? What is this, a job in real life? Or learning to have fun while losing? That second option sounds rather wimpy doesn't it? But I think I'll take a middle ground, a compromise. I'll just play a lot and learn from experience. It'll probably take longer, but I think I rather prefer that option. Besides, when I was introduced to Starcraft 2, at the time it was a beta (and still is) and no one could play unless they got a key. My friend sent me a beta key and it would just be rude to not play a game when you're invited like that. At first I wasn't too interested, and at that time I didn't think I would get into it. (But at that time I was really bored, so...) so I tried it and since everybody else was playing it, decided that it wasn't a bad game at all and now I can 2v2 or 3v3 or 4v4 with them too, not just 1v1.
I didn't know what I was getting myself into though. Before Starcraft I've often said I didn't like strategy games, and at that time it was because it requires thinking and...well let's just say I'm not too much of a thinker, not too much of a logical person, rather a dreamer. (Thus Sims 2) But where Sims 2 might be English class, Starcraft is Math.
I could go on and on, how males tend to be more logical thinkers than female, and that is why so many Starcraft players are male, but if I continue like that I will jump from topic to topic and never stop. So yeah. I'm just feeling really pressured by Starcraft lately. I'd like to win, but at the same time I'd prefer a fun route towards that winning. I suppose I'm just searching for a nonexistent easy path towards life, but I always thought the definition of a game was something fun, something you could escape to from life. Perhaps my female brain cannot understand why Starcraft is so awesome, but I'll continue playing it anyway. Get better to win to make it more enjoyable for others, and play because of the others, as they probably don't share my opinion.
Some people say I am, but I don't believe I'm skillful enough or dedicated enough to really play a game. You might think: "Wait, but Spotto, if you play games you are a gamer! Isn't that right?"
Well, let's see what games I actually play. I play Starcraft 2, Sims 2, and occasionally Soldat. I might play some hockey games or fighting games, but those three are the big ones.
Now, I normally see gamers playing LOTS of games, and they have their own favourite genre, whether it's a first person shooter, a beat-em-up, or a real-time-strategy. Even those who play MMORPGs all the time, they are gamers too (despite my opinion of those types of games, but that's not the discussion here.)
Soldat is not a particularly popular nor big game. It's rather fun, but like many games filled with retards you just can't stand. I usually game not because of the game (though it helps that the game is fun to play) but rather for the community. So if a game starts getting saturated with more and more retards, it really isnt' as fun, now is it? Of course for Soldat, it didn't help that the netcode was piss poor and thus everything you hit someone in the head with a bullet they magically survive and frag you only milliseconds later. At the moment I don't play it nearly as much because the community is basically dead (for the R/S mode anyway) and that's pretty sad, but people move on and newcomers were probably driven away by the level of retardedness the mode fell into.
The Sims 2 has a wonderful community though I'm largely a lurker. The game though is a lot more like a toy than a game. To me it's the complete opposite of Starcraft 2 while Soldat is the happy medium. I mean you can't win or lose in the game (well, I guess if they all die) and you can do whatever you want and no one will care because it's your game and your Sims. The epitome of a toy, really, but a fun one nonetheless. I imagine this is why so many females play it because females tend to love creating stories, of either themselves doing things they dreamed of but can never have (such as a one-sided love) or build pretty houses or...the options are endless.
Then comes Starcraft.
I can't imagine how I am playing three drastically different games. I suppose Ed (a friend of mine) does as well, but still. Usually as far as I know, people stick to a few genres of games because those of the ones they like. My best friend enjoys MMORPGs, my other friend would rather play Kingdom Hearts or Phoenix Wright than Starcraft (can you tell I'm describing girls?) but what makes a game really?
I already said Sims 2 doesn't feel like a game, more like a massive tool to do anything you want. Soldat is a game, but its coding and community has gone down the drain so badly lately that it is only a shadow of what it once was before. Starcraft though?
Well, all my male friends play Starcraft 2 in comparison to the females playing MMORPGs, Phoenix Wright, Sims 2, etc. Why do you think so? Sometimes I wonder if Starcraft could even be considered a true game. Yes it is very fun and you do a lot of stuff in it, but what defines a game really? SC to me, feels more like...a sport of some sort. Sure, a sport is too a game, but you have remember there are many types of games, and the type of game I'm thinking and likely you're thinking of (unless you're Souless) is simply a fun game. Win or lose, it'll be fun. Games are games, they are enjoyable and work should not have much to do with it.
But Starcraft? My friends take Starcraft very seriously. There are insane competitions in Korea where the top players make big bucks every year to play the game, the tournaments shown on Korean TV. There are endless possibilities of what you do, but you can't just do whatever you want. You need to know what to do, when to do, how to do it, and how to do it in the fastest, most efficient way.
They say Korea is nation with the highest work hours by far, and comparing that statistic to Starcraft, I can understand why. If I am any gamer at all I may be considered a casual gamer, which I know many hardcore gamers look down upon. All I'm here is to have fun, right? Well you can't just have "fun" in Starcraft. YOU HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING RIGHT IF NOT YOU DIE IN FIVE MINUTES.
That is definitely not what casual gamers look for. You want to win? You need to learn. It's not like Soldat or some FPS where all you have to do is develop your reflexes and sight, this is a strategy game where you have to think of every little possibility, where you use your brain like a commander in an army, who must figure out how to win the war. I think a lot of males and maybe some females, but we're generalizing here, would love to be an army commander. You know, without the death and blood and physical exertion. You just want to tell the army what to do and watch them triumphantly kill everybody else. Sounds fun, right?
Of course, Starcraft is beyond that. There's a reason it is a competitive pro-gaming sensation in Korea. You DO get tired, if not physically tired, at the very least mentally tired. You know how there's rotations per minute? (RPM) Or words per minute? (WPM) In Starcraft you get actions per minute. That means how many things you do in the game in a minute. Progamers get up to 400 apm a minute. That's 6-7 actions per SECOND. When you play a game you can click and use the keyboard, perhaps use the arrow keys to move a character. Now imagine that character attacking, casting a spell, running, jumping in the air, crying for help, and switching between weapons all at the same time, with all these actions assigned to a different letter on the keyboard doing this all in ONE second, and it's the RIGHT thing to do because the other character dies. Please note that fights obviously last longer than a single second.
Do you think that's fun?
In Starcraft beyond 1v1s, there are team battles: 2v2, 3v3, even 4v4. Many players love 3v3/4v4 because of how less serious it is. Starcraft is largely known for its serious 1v1 style, so the team battles, where a lot of things are different timing wise, etc. can be played much less seriously. Those who play Starcraft to win, to learn all the builds and how to counter and everything else there is to do with the game enjoy 1v1 because they believe the other modes are joke modes. They're not serious. At this time perhaps the development of the higher levels is only beginning. Maybe a few years down the road people will have found strategies for all the team games and make it much more competitive, but at the moment it's something you do with friends for the hell of it.
I happen to like those games. I did say earlier that largely the reason for playing games (of course they have to be fun somehow) is the community. My ol' Soldat clanmates are big big Starcraft fans. When I was introduced to the game, I was largely not impressed. Mostly because I lost a lot and the game was hard. I could say the same for WC3, where I play DotA and I lose constantly. Then I just whine and my friends get annoyed (usually Milk) P: So I don't often play that anymore. I too wasn't too interested in SC especially when all we did was 1v1. They always talk about training you, always discuss Starcraft strategy constantly even RIGHT NOW in the Ventrilo chat. How to do this, how to do that, your strategy is wrong. Ravens and marines can own vikings, no that doesn't work. No you play with stupid people that's why you win, etc. etc.
I probably developed this attitude because I haven't won that often in my life. So rather than being serious and focused on winning some game, I'm all cheesy-like saying "HEY at least it was fun!" But honestly sometimes it really isn't plain fun at all to just lose constantly and constantly. I once mentioned to a friend of mine that I really liked playing SC2 with Doughboy (another friend, yes) because even if we lost he had this chipper joker-like personality that kept me happy regardless. It wasn't WE HAVE TO WIN TO DO THIS DO THAT YOU DID THAT WRONG, it actually was fun. I wonder why more people can't be like that. Sure I do want to learn, but why so serious? Really? If I just lost and someone tells me I did something wrong, it usually sours my mood. So I should apologize to people who might think I'm ungrateful for their advice. I really do enjoy their advice, but I often prefer hearing it not after a bad loss or something. Otherwise rather than a game...Starcraft 2 feels like a job, and they're training me and punishing me for doing the wrong things or not doing something by explaining everything in front of my face after I lost. Maybe I am a sore loser, but it's not a nice feeling to have.
Sometimes I wonder if that's true with Soldat too. I've heard in its glory days some clans did a lot of training, had strategy sessions and even in my own clan there was this one time that a friend of mine tried to input strategy in our game. We really didn't win that much despite having many really good players individually. I was frustrated, true, but it was a great group of people and in the end some were rather loyal and stuck to the clan despite our losses. (Or maybe because every other single clan out there was lead by jackasses, who knows, lol)
So, what option should I really choose? Winning by training through rather frustrating games? What is this, a job in real life? Or learning to have fun while losing? That second option sounds rather wimpy doesn't it? But I think I'll take a middle ground, a compromise. I'll just play a lot and learn from experience. It'll probably take longer, but I think I rather prefer that option. Besides, when I was introduced to Starcraft 2, at the time it was a beta (and still is) and no one could play unless they got a key. My friend sent me a beta key and it would just be rude to not play a game when you're invited like that. At first I wasn't too interested, and at that time I didn't think I would get into it. (But at that time I was really bored, so...) so I tried it and since everybody else was playing it, decided that it wasn't a bad game at all and now I can 2v2 or 3v3 or 4v4 with them too, not just 1v1.
I didn't know what I was getting myself into though. Before Starcraft I've often said I didn't like strategy games, and at that time it was because it requires thinking and...well let's just say I'm not too much of a thinker, not too much of a logical person, rather a dreamer. (Thus Sims 2) But where Sims 2 might be English class, Starcraft is Math.
I could go on and on, how males tend to be more logical thinkers than female, and that is why so many Starcraft players are male, but if I continue like that I will jump from topic to topic and never stop. So yeah. I'm just feeling really pressured by Starcraft lately. I'd like to win, but at the same time I'd prefer a fun route towards that winning. I suppose I'm just searching for a nonexistent easy path towards life, but I always thought the definition of a game was something fun, something you could escape to from life. Perhaps my female brain cannot understand why Starcraft is so awesome, but I'll continue playing it anyway. Get better to win to make it more enjoyable for others, and play because of the others, as they probably don't share my opinion.