I've told you about how I bought Diablo II and such. Honestly, I'm getting bored of the game. One of these days I'll start a game from scratch, and play through at a normal place. It's no fun rushing through what should be a long and in depth story line in an hour or three with my higher level friends' help. I know for some people see customizing their characters as being half the fun, but it doesn't have any appeal to me. Questing for the sole purpose of leveling up seems pointless. I prefer the adversarial nature of Starcraft because it puts each player on an equal playing field. The "collect and dress-up" element isn't there. It's just one player against another, winner take all. Or none. I like the Red Vs Blue description of the situation.
Simmons: Seriously though, why are we out here? As far as I can tell it's just a box canyon in the middle of nowhere...no way in or out.
Grif: uh huh...
Simmons: The only reason that we set up a red base here is because they have a blue base over there. And the only reason they have a blue base over there is because we have a red base over here.
Grif: Yeah, that's because we're fighting each other.
Simmons: No, no, but I mean, even if we were to pull out today and they were to come take our base they would have two bases in the middle of a box canyon. Whoop-dee-fucking-do.
I for one like that semi-rediculous nature of games. Two players are boiled down to their cores. It is sport at its purest. In a Starcraft match, your name doesn't matter. All those hours you've spent on the campaign don't matter in a match when your mining SCV train wanders through a canyon overlooked by Dragoons. Each player starts the same every time. Four peons. A town hall. Fifty minerals. Zero vespine gas. And the knowledge that your opponant starts with the same. After the game is over, nothing has changed. The winner gets nothing but a tick mark somewhere on the Battle.net servers, and maybe bragging rights. Aside from pride and dignety, nothing is taken from the loser.
And then there are the memories. Both players take a small bit of experience with them of the game. The loser is made aware of a strategy, and either learns to adapt it for his own use, or how to beat it next time. The winner may have noticed something he could do better next time, or some tip from his opponants strategy could be gleamed. Or maybe it was simply two comrades-in-arms enjoying a friendly skirmish. I've got a few memories that still bring a small smile to my face. Like the time I hid my last building in a random corner of map to avoid the enemy gang of roving Carriers. ("Our big... spaceship... gang." "Ar-ma-da?" "Yeah, that.") Or the time I finished my opponents last two buildings with the most overkill ever.
Game: Nuclear Launch Detected.
Game: Nuclear Launch Detected.
Him: I KNOW NUCLEAR LAUNCH WAS DETECTED!!!
(Silence as not one but two nuclear missiles, one per building, crash into his final installations.)
One of my favorite memories wasn't actually from a multiplayer game. It was a campaign mission: Johnny the Homocidal Ultralisk from New Gettysburg. Anyone who's ever played the mission tell me if this sounds remotely familiar. The mission has three goals: Protect a Zerg outpost, destroy the attacking Protoss forces beneath you, and don't let Kerrigan die. However, while you are protecting the Zerg, they are feeling no such thing about you, and see no reason to not attack you. Ingrates. Anyways, at one point in the mission, the Zerg rise up and swell past any defences you have set up. The first few times I played it, I noticed an even more shocking event taking place. One lone Ultralisk, who we shall call "Johnny, the Homocidal Ultralisk", was charging straight past any other units I had, and made a direct bee line to the lone chick in the ghost uniform. Bam. One solid swipe of the tusks, and that's it. Kerrigan lets out a high pitched scream/squeal, and the game alerts me that the game is over. I watched this happen at least three times before I caught on, and on the fouth time, I knew how to beat it. I went in and immediately built a dropship for Kerrigan. As soon as it was done, the USS Canadia set course for parts unknown, far from the intense violence, miles (I guess) above the looming Ultralisks, and out of my mind from then on. I was able to beat the mission on my own, without worrying about pissy dignitaries or whatever Kerrigan was.
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Then, Kerrigan dies (captured, really) to the Zerg anyway!!!! Talk about a downer.
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Anyway, I ended up with a small tick from that mission. I have a tendancy to favor using dropships from now on. I like them. I trust them. They're nice. Now you may all go ahead to plotting my eventual downfall by destroying my dropships... If you dare!
Sigh. That was a long rant half of you probably don't care about. Oh well. Anyone who wants to play, lemme know. You will be destroyed. Or not.
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