Why SC is played so competitively and why SC2 will also crush other RTSs

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18326

Even the lead dev of DoW admits that (he posted a comment in the link I posted):

"I was the lead designer on Dawn of War, so I have a few thoughts on the subject.

Alun Rees's comment was dead on:

"Playing Starcraft is, pure and simply, exhausting. I have often found myself on the breaking point after a trio of 10-minute matches. With DoW and CoH, I could play either of them for hours without breaking a sweat. I believe to a large degree that must have been the designer's intention."

Exactly right. :)

The design philosophy of Dawn of War was aimed at making a more casual, more fun, less eSports RTS. I personally thought it was foolish to try and outdo Starcraft, because even if you make a better Starcraft, who cares because Starcraft is awesome and no substitute will do! I had no illusions that we could take away Blizzard's audience, I wanted us to find our own audience.

We didn't outsell Blizzard, but then who does? We did make a very successful, well reviewed, and well liked game. That's not too shabby.

That being said I think Dawn of War and Company of Heroes have their place in serious competition. Many professionally played games have elements of luck and chance. Poker, for example. But it's not what competitive video gamers are primarily focused on, with good reason.

Video game competition is a fairly new thing, with a ridiculous number of games to choose from. It's natural for competitors to focus on fairness and high degree of skill when choosing the games that define the competitive market.

On this front I think this article is dead on. To play Starcraft at a competitive level arguably requires more skill than any other RTS. And that makes it the perfect competitive RTS.

It also makes it extremely intimidating to casual users who want a fun RTS to play, which is what Dawn of War was aimed at."

StarCraft is the best high end competitive RTS now and forever...

...but I can't march a Dreadnought into a swarm of Orkz in StarCraft, and I can't execute Imperial Guardsmen with my Commissars to keep them from breaking rank as Chaos Marines stare them down in StarCraft...

...so Dawn of War will always, always have a place. It won't be a place in high end competitive esports, but then again, that was never Dawn of War's point.

Which makes me raise an eyebrow at the thread title. StarCraft 2 will crush other RTS games? As a high end competitive game, sure - but does that make StarCraft 2 better than? Absolutely not... unless what you want is a high end competitive esport rts.

But I don't.

Better competitive RTS doesn't mean it's a better RTS.

StarCraft is the best high end competitive RTS now and forever...

...but I can't march a Dreadnought into a swarm of Orkz in StarCraft, and I can't execute Imperial Guardsmen with my Commissars to keep them from breaking rank as Chaos Marines stare them down in StarCraft...

...so Dawn of War will always, always have a place. It won't be a place in high end competitive esports, but then again, that was never Dawn of War's point.

Which makes me raise an eyebrow at the thread title. StarCraft 2 will crush other RTS games? As a high end competitive game, sure - but does that make StarCraft 2 better than? Absolutely not... unless what you want is a high end competitive esport rts.

But I don't.

fatshodan

"Playing Starcraft is, pure and simply, exhausting. I have often found myself on the breaking point after a trio of 10-minute matches."

Which is why I'm not much of a fan of Starcraft. It's the reason the game lacks almost all elements of fun for me. I don't want to work when I play a game, and that's exactly what Starcraft feels like 90% of the time - work. It is totally designed around working as hard as you can to be better than your opponent. Period. It is balanced near flawlessly, all while offering up three diverse races that play completely differently. An impressive feat.

But it's just not that much fun. Unless you're really into competition, Starcraft simply offers very little as a fun RTS.

StarCraft is the best high end competitive RTS now and forever...

...but I can't march a Dreadnought into a swarm of Orkz in StarCraft, and I can't execute Imperial Guardsmen with my Commissars to keep them from breaking rank as Chaos Marines stare them down in StarCraft...

fatshodan

I agree. Dawn of War has visceral, awesome combat that's incredibly fun just to watch, let alone orchestrate. The cool effects and explosions all over the place, the intense and diverse melee combat, the many different units which all feel special and fun to command that come into play with all the different races. Meanwhile, Starcraft's stiff, procedural combat is a little on the stale side, only fun to watch or carry out if it's the "I'm beating back my enemy" part that excites you (which I care little about). I'm not kidding when I say I'll often play a skirmish map for three or four hours, mostly turtling the whole time and just letting them come at my defenses so I can keep watching the combat and killing the enemy units. I'll even use the cheat to turn off the fog of war sometimes so I can watch the enemy AI's all going at it.

It doesn't help that I'm all about SP in RTS games. Campaign and skirmish is where it's at for me. And Starcraft has some of the most blatantly cheating AI I've ever seen. While you're limited to commanding groups of twelve units at a time, they can command every single unit under their pop cap at once. And not just as a whole army. As soon as their 100-unit strong juggernaut moving in complete unison reaches your forces, every single unit in that army is suddenly controlled seperately, using all their special abilities the very moment they become available and/or needed. Of course they're not unbeatable, but it's just stupid that you have to exploit the fact that they use this same, cheating styIe of play every time and work around it. And it's obvious that the AI is this way on purpose. It's to make you have to come up with ingenious ploys and strategies that'll make you more and more of a monster online. Every single thing about Starcraft is geared toward making you a competitive, online player, and I cannot stand that about it. There's no room for my kind of player in the game, no room for someone who just. Wants. To have. Fun.