Starcraft (Brood War)

This Blog is about the gaming creature inside that loves competition and playing. I plan to write on various games and sports. I'll start off with this computer game.

I love to play games. Throughout my life I have always has a gaming console in reach. From the Sega Genesis, N64, Xbox, to Xbox 360, and I must not forget my personal computer. There is much to say of my gaming experiences but I want to shine special attention on the best game I've ever played: "Starcraft - Brood War". I've played this game for about 8 to 9 years. I was about 12 when I first played it. My gaming sense was glued to Starcraft more than any other game I had.

I've played mostly with my best friends, and we usually played the type of games for noobs. Playing the no money maps was very difficult for us. My friends and I switched over to Diablo for a while but through time I drifted back to Starcraft. I loved the competition and the dynamics of starcraft much more than diablo. It didn't take real skill to play diablo, it only chewed up your time so you could level up your character; that's what I didn't like about it, I got a little satisfaction from leveling up but it got really repetitive. Of course, I was still in my noob stage of starcraft but I was still so attracted to the gameplay.

After having stopped playing starcraft for a few years, I've started back to playing it every so often last summer, still playing noob money maps. But it was fun to play all in all. I dropped playing it over the school semester but picked it up again when I came back home in February. The first few months were zero clutter maps but as I got really good at it I began noticing the major inbalances of the game. I would get so frustrated at how unfair the gameplay was, not to mention being unable to choose your teammates. The protoss race had the most unfair advantage because of their arbitor recalls that happened a little after the map max. I only play as terran on starcraft so we are the race that are hurt the worst from a good recall, and they are hard to stop as terran.

It was then that I began to play non-money maps. I didn't like the frustration of having the disadvantage. But I didn't really enjoy non-money maps because I would get beat easily, I didn't have a clear understanding how it should be played. I didn't know the amount of units necessary for an attack and I didn't have good hotkey control. Starcraft is going to be the only game I would ever play for the rest of my life so I want to be good at it. The only other game I've been playing is Halo 3, but it's no fun without playing with my friends. It's not much fun after the 800th game. To play one video game for the rest of my life is good enough for me. I don't want to keep buying games and learning the gameplay. Takes up too much time.

"Gaming With Redus" is going to be updated every so often (every week is the goal) with my progression. Since switching to non-money maps I've watched almost 300 games as an observer. I've taken delight in watching people play. I've only played about 20 to 30. As of this day, I will play on ICCup and write my progression. I've learned a lot through obs mode and have gotten down the dynamics of the game.

I've played an e-friend "Neal' many times and we have wins and losses with each other split half and half. When we play regular maps I have come to have better gameplay and a better army than he. He plays as protoss, then zerg a little less. There is no competition if he picks terran. Sometimes, we play island maps, and he usually ends up making all carriers or all bcs. They sometimes are unexpected so he wins more often than he should. I've got to learn to keep a keen eye on him.

The last game I've played with him, we were doing FFA with three of us on an island map. The two other players had protoss and I had terran. I knew Neal would go carriers, so I got a whole lot of valkyries. Little did I know, valkyries aren't as good as wraiths or goliaths when dealing with carriers. Not to mention how cheap they are. But protoss still has an advantage with arbs and carriers, they can pull back from goliath groups and can freeze my wraiths. It's a bit frustrating. I'll have to remember to shockwave the carriers and make ALOT of wraiths and goliaths next time. That's all I can do. Neal ended up winning even though he focused mostly on me. The other player was terrible, making very few carriers.

Now to put myself to the test on ICCup. In case you don't know, ICCup is a league of ranked gamers and has anti hacks so there is fair gaming. The rankings are alphabetical from D- to A+ with A+ being the best. I've played twice before on ICCup and won both.