By Quintin Smith on September 3rd, 2010 at 4:52 pm.
I’ve figured out why I’m playing StarCraft 2 online. It’s for the rush.
Not the Abrupt-Wave-Of-Units kind of rush. What I mean is that a match of StarCraft 2 will have my heart performing drum solos, and it’ll pluck my taut nerves like violin strings. The game’s been designed for this. What’s forgotten in the talk of how StarCraft pros perform 300 actions per minute is that lesser players simply have to move as fast as they can, and think as fast as they can, in an environment where so much can go wrong at any moment. I’m playing StarCraft 2 because it’s been years since a game has managed to get me quite this excited, and so consistently.
It’s not just that I like giving my heart a rough time, although that is part of it (what’s my heart ever done for me, eh?). Really, the appeal here is that in making a multiplayer game that’s this frenetic and this dependant on timing, Blizzard add an emotional dimension to the competitive experience. You have to play the game, but you also have to deal with your own panic. And that’s a beautiful bit of game design that I don’t feel is getting enough discussion.
I tweeted about the most obvious symptom of this panic the other day. Total tactical inflexibility. For most beginner players, you have your build queue in your head. You build that build queue. There is no thought as to whether it’ll work, and, more worryingly, there often still isn’t any thought even when you launch your attack and it doesn’t work. It’s bizarre. Let’s say you’re building Mutalisks, and your first wave of them is shot down when it turns out your opponent was building some unit with anti air. Because of the panic, it’s difficult to then stop building Mutalisks and build something else. Stop? There can be no stopping! Your Mutalisks will block out the sun! Your strategy becomes a pair of iron rails, and your game is a runaway train.
No matter how much you might need it, there’s never time for chin stroking in StarCraft 2. Physically your hands are on the mouse and keyboard, and mentally the panic has you fogged up. Instead, you have to yank on cerebral levers that’ll divert your game-train from one set of rails to another, usually with a screeching sound and a few sparks. It’s immensely satisfying when you manage it.
Another pitfall of running on adrenaline as opposed to common sense is simply doing stupid stuff. It’s partially the smaller-scale equivalent of the inflexibility mentioned above (dashing rushes against enemy defences simply because you took those troops across the map to attack), but also overreacting to stimulus. Pulling all your workers off the resources because you get spooked by a single harassing aircraft, or meeting an attacking force in the middle of the map because you can, when in reality you didn’t know if they were heading straight for your base.
Then there’s the big kahuna, the one that only surfaces in really long matches. Total loss of faith. All of your zest, speed and fight falling out of your shoes and onto the floor. I must have surrendered in at least 3 or 4 matches for no other reason than I was tired, I wasn’t quite winning and didn’t like my chances, when what I really needed was to spit on the metaphorical floor and redouble myself. Though even if you’re winning and aren’t in danger of giving up, you still stand a chance of getting incredibly sloppy for the same reason. You realise you’re in a good place, and then before you know it you’ve got 1,000 unspent minerals in the bank and no infrastructure for dumping them.
I suppose it’s interesting because adrenaline is traditionally found in action games, where it serves a purpose. Or does it? Does adrenaline actually heighten reaction times? Anyway, in strategy game it’s only ever a tripwire for you to fall over. Dealing with your own panic; being able to view yourself and the game from a distance and decide on new tactics, and to do this quickly and easily, is a skill that must be learned, and I’m really enjoying getting better at it.
But then, I would. What first hooked me about Red Orchestra was the pure panic of differentiating Russian troops from German before taking your shot. I adore last-man-standing gametypes and games which give you very little ammunition. I love tense, desperate fights that leave me shaking. What weirded me out most about realising I was playing StarCraft 2 for the rush was the subsequent realisation that I wasn’t getting that rush from shooters anymore. I suspect it’s because it’s just been so long since I played an RTS competitively.
What are your favourite experiences with panic in multiplayer games, readers? Or do you hate the panic?
03/09/2010 at 16:19 Jim Rossignol says:
Falling into a trap in Eve Online – particularly in an expensive ship – and getting away with it. Or simply the panic of full engagement of fleets. Nothing beats that, particularly when you are the one calling targets.
03/09/2010 at 17:28 John Walker of RockPaperShotgun says:
Nearly giving up on finding the last clue in a hidden object game — particularly a Big Fish Game — and then finding the right pixel. Nothing beats that, particularly when you are the one clicking the mouse.
04/09/2010 at 16:25 ezuz says:
I agree with Jim. Getting trapped by x number of cloaked ships, locked down and hammered only to be saved by friends coming in for the rescue at the last possible moment.
And JohnWalkerofRockPaperShotgun…. nice 1 ^_^
04/09/2010 at 16:34 ezuz says:
Speaking of falling into traps in EVE; http://www.eveuniversalglory.com/
03/09/2010 at 16:19 Snall says:
Try playing an MMO with full loot…
03/09/2010 at 16:24 jake says:
darkfall kekekekeke
04/09/2010 at 01:32 Howl says:
Everquest: Bumping into an enemy race in Lower Guk would have me shaking like a shitting dog. Even after they removed full looting, the fear of having your equipment stuck down there was enough to make the PvP absolutely stellar.
03/09/2010 at 16:23 Xercies says:
Unfortunatly my brain is not the type that likes panic. basically it does this weird thing where instead of actually dealing with all the information it just shuts down and actually just lets all that wash over it. So mainy i lose. This is why i genrally don’t do well in online games.
03/09/2010 at 17:48 Sarlix Wester says:
You did alright in Neptunes Pride :-()
03/09/2010 at 18:00 Xercies says:
That was because it was slow paced and you could spend a bit of time thinking about your next move and the different wings of your operation. yeah thats what i like slower paced games where you can actually think about it lol.
03/09/2010 at 18:32 Sarlix Wester says:
Heh, me too. Even in Neptunes Pride I sometimes felt as if I was being rushed into a decision. When Spats increased the game speed in the second game I near on shit myself lol
03/09/2010 at 16:25 GGX_Justice says:
2D Fighting game, BlazBlue Continuum Shift.
Oh vermillion mouthed Elder-Gods, do I hate the panic.
03/09/2010 at 16:26 arqueturus says:
What Jim said. Nothing and I mean nothing comes close to Eve for inducing the shakes. Pretty much what you’re describing Quinns although I’m not sure why you get such a trigger from SC2 where you stand to lose nothing?
03/09/2010 at 16:43 Snall says:
Pre-trammel UO. …sigh…nothing like a first love..
03/09/2010 at 16:47 Jim Rossignol says:
Actually, by the end I was always completely calm and focused in Eve. Maybe one of the reasons why I’d had enough was that I could remain cold even when we were jumping capital ships into fleetfight situations.
03/09/2010 at 17:32 DJ Phantoon says:
Maybe it’s because they secretly removed your Amygdala while you were sleeping, Jim.
03/09/2010 at 18:09 DarkNoghri says:
Wouldn’t that mean he would get emotional about everything?
“He feels everything. He can’t not.”
Waitasec, maybe that’s what happened to John…
03/09/2010 at 21:22 ZamFear says:
@DarkNoghri:
Joss Whedon is not a neuropsychologist.
04/09/2010 at 01:42 jarvoll says:
The amygdala activates during processing of just about any information with emotional content, but it doesn’t appear to be necessary for any of it, at least qualitatively. The worst he might expect is not to be able to encode a novel fearful response (for example, if there were a zombie apocalypse tomorrow in which all the zombies were sheep, we’d all become terrified of the zombie-sheep, whereas your amygdala-less person would not).
04/09/2010 at 04:42 nil says:
…Jim’s a Thargoid?!
03/09/2010 at 16:28 SpinalJack says:
I don’t have the competitive edge in online games. Sure I like to win but I don’t like the aggressive atmosphere of one-on-one where it seems almost personal. I do however enjoy a bit of coop with a friend because then it’s less about you. I still play to win but there’s less perceived pressure.
One of the most intense games I remember playing was one-on-one counter strike back when I played it. It was a test match for a clan so doubly high stakes made my adrenaline pump.
03/09/2010 at 16:28 Mr Chug says:
Competitive RTS has always been impenetrable to me- I don’t really have the sheer recall required to learn one build queue, let alone another to adjust it to if I get hard countered. AI War’s at-your-own-pace cooperative strategy is much more my kind of thing, since by the time it starts ramping up you know your production intuitively.
Left 4 Dead and its successor have given me adrenaline shakes so bad that I can’t play before, as does the occasional golden run as spy on TF2. For consistent panic though, I can’t think of a game that induces paranoia and fleeing terror like The Ship.
03/09/2010 at 16:30 Jeremy says:
Some of my favorite moments were back in college playing Counter-Strike in league play. We would try to set up a solid round by round strat but for whatever reason, we would just have that one round where everyone died but me. So I would have to go assassin mode, creeping about, then freaking out when I would turn a corner and see 3 of them looking the other way. It was a terrible panic, and when I made it through the round miraculously taking winning in a 5 v 1 situation, the adrenaline would make the next 2 rounds for me nearly unplayable because I would get the shakes. Sounds ridiculous saying it now, but hey, what can ya do?
03/09/2010 at 20:08 Vodkarn says:
I used to have the nickname ‘pseudo-clutch’ on my CS team because I’d manage to be in a 1v5 situation and kill 4 of them, then die to the last one, at LEAST twice per match.
It sucked, haha, but it sure did get the adrenaline going!
03/09/2010 at 16:32 Alexander Norris says:
I’m not too fond of panic, simply because I like to play games to relax, and even though the adrenaline rush makes things fun for a bit I usually have to take a break afterwards.
That said, nothing beats the excitement of flying a fully-loaded transport chopper over enemy territory, getting shot down but managing to bail in time, then evading enemy armour while hoofing it to the objective only to capture it, survive a counter-attack and get rescued by your teammates. This is why I love games like Battlefield and ArmA. :D
03/09/2010 at 16:33 DeptRedunDept says:
Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And hear the lamentation of their women.
03/09/2010 at 17:32 mlaskus says:
Hot water, good dentishtry, and soft lavatory paper.
03/09/2010 at 16:34 HexagonalBolts says:
I’ve been trying to pin this feeling down for ages!
It’s unbelievable how much my heart pounds when I play. And I do -the- stupidest things. I can’t understand why I don’t adapt the obvious flaws in my strategies…
03/09/2010 at 16:35 Monkeybreadman says:
Playing a RTS online can be one of the most intense and exhausting gaming you can do. Company of Heroes was a very similar experience to the one you’ve described. There is so much going on, so much to consider…. at least with an FPS you can hide in the corner and scratch your nose.
04/09/2010 at 10:54 Wilson says:
@Monkeybreadman – Yep, it’s only ever been COH for me. I don’t get it much in FPS games online, mainly I think because it’s very rarely 1v1. In COH when playing 1v1, I’ve had exactly what Quintin describes. I can’t usually handle very many games because it feels too intense for me. I haven’t played SC2, but I gather it and COH are both quite fast paced (SC2 more so).
03/09/2010 at 16:35 Max says:
I love the game for the exact same reason, but it has the odd effect of me having to psyche myself up before I can even START playing the game. The adrenaline is so intense that I honestly find myself thinking, as my mouse hovers precariously over the icon, “do I really have the energy to do this?” Half the time I’ll wuss out and do something utterly devoid of effort (Futurama marathon? That’s the ticket!) instead.
When I do manage to ascend that peak of self doubt, it’s all but guaranteed that I’ll have a good time, but it makes me curious about how many others out there just find RTS games too stressful to even consider playing online to begin with. They’re fun! Not everyone’s a 300 APM smug ass! And once you’be played your placement matches the matchmaker really is quite good about finding equal matches. Come play!
03/09/2010 at 19:28 jaheira says:
Max- it’s not me that’s the problem, it’s the other guy. If I’m playing a game with someone and I’m shit at it (and man am I shit at SC2) I become responsible for him having a crappy game. I can’t deal with the guilt!
It’s not so bad in competitive games as it is in co-op, I spose. Stuff like Team Fortess 2 or most MMOs are unplayable for me.
03/09/2010 at 16:36 nine says:
I have a love/hate relationship with starcraft2 online, for exactly the reasons you describe. Sometimes I want to come away from a video game stimulated and slightly sweaty. Other times I’d rather just dig a giant fucking hole in Minecraft.
03/09/2010 at 16:39 fallingmagpie says:
Probably only popped into my head because of the Telltale article earlier, but poker does this for me. Even when you know you’re ahead in a hand, you still have to get over the human-nature aversion to the risk of putting all your money in the middle and potentially losing, and just get it in – knowing there’s a whatever-percent chance someone will draw out on you and hit one of the, say, two cards that’ll give them a better hand than you. Heart in mouth, at times.
No idea how it compares to realising your build queue’s cocked, though, as I’m not an RTS guy :)
03/09/2010 at 16:39 gollum says:
I had forgotten what that feeling was like since I hadn’t played an RTS semi-competitively in almost a decade. Starcraft II definitely brought that rush back full force and now I’m addicted. I was starting to become completely apathetic with any recent FPS release, so SC2 came out at the right time and I don’t see myself putting time into any other multiplayer game for a while.
03/09/2010 at 16:39 pkt-zer0 says:
I don’t panic that much, but my hands are shaking enough to make me miss hotkeys more often than ideal, which does get rather annoying. SC2 is the only game where this has happened to me, though. I rage at the horrible netcode in SF4, and get slightly miffed when losing, but that hasn’t come anywhere near making it physically difficult to play.
03/09/2010 at 19:14 Jimmy says:
My hands are shaking, my hands are shaking… and I’m still going, and I’m still going, and I’m still getting headshots, it’s like, BOOM HEADSHOT
something like that?
03/09/2010 at 16:45 Pijama says:
That is the problem of having Blizzard as one of the top dogs of game development.
Starcraft II is ridiculously fun, but doesn’t do nothing it’s predecessor wasn’t able to – the 300 APM and teeth-crushing action was there.
I was wondering if we should re-brand these games… Action-strategy? You might be cunning, you might be brilliant in strategy, but if you are playing against an APM god who knows a few builds by memory, you are toast.
03/09/2010 at 16:53 TotalBiscuit says:
Or we could just call them RTS, since the genre has been doing this for the past decade at least.
03/09/2010 at 16:59 pkt-zer0 says:
“You might be cunning, you might be brilliant in strategy, but if you are playing against an APM god who knows a few builds by memory, you are toast.”
Not really, no. It’s not as if higher APM makes your buildings construct faster or your units more damaging.
03/09/2010 at 17:46 DJ Phantoon says:
For someone who just plays the custom games (afraid of the real thing here!) what is APM?
03/09/2010 at 17:51 bleeters says:
Actions per minute, I believe.
03/09/2010 at 18:00 subedii says:
APM = Actions Per Minute, something that silly SC2 fans obsess over. Basically it’s a measure of how fast you can do things.
pkt-zer0 is right. Except at exceptionally high levels of play (I’m not even talking just diamond league, I’m talking the highest tiers of diamond league) a high APM doesn’t outdo solid strategy for the most part. At least as long as you can keep on top of the basics, like continually churning out workers. Often you’ll see people click-spamming randomly just to bring their average APM up, at that point it doesn’t really mean anything.
Anyway regarding the post, I pretty much got into online RTS’s because of this. It’s only been a recent phenomenon with me, but tight games of DoW2 brought it on something fierce. It’s so awesome to be playing against someone of your skill level and having to be on your top game, knowing that each decision matters. Some of my most fun games have gone right down to the wire.
The random chaos of the average online FPS doesn’t really come close. You’re acting as part of a large whole. It’s a different kind of “fun”, there it’s teamwork that has to pull everything through, and there’s a buzz to be had when you coordinate everything well with your team mates and make a solid push to victory. In most RTS’s, it’s much smaller scale player counts, and you’re making more longer term decisions.
03/09/2010 at 21:22 Starky says:
Actually sub, the reason many top players spam randomly to keep their APM up is so that when they need fast reactions they don’t have to ramp up their action speed they are already there.
It’s considered a good practice to spam commands away, because it keeps you fast – keeps your keyboard rhythm.
It’s basically the exact same thing I do as a bassist as a finger plucker rather than a picker, when playing a really fast song, instead of stopping my fingers, I keep them moving keep the rhythm, but simply mute the notes and skim the strings. Otherwise getting back top pace is impossible.
You’re correct though in the rest of what you say, I’m a mid gold player and my APM sucks – though I never played any starcraft ever before SC2 and I was not in the beta – hell never played any RTS online at all before SC2, just single player.
I’m using GRID layout and while that helped as a newbie I’m starting to wonder if it is holding me back, as sometimes I do miss-click, and hitting T to attack move is much more of a stretch than A.
04/09/2010 at 01:20 Howl says:
I’m with DJ Phantoom on this one. I have 2400 Achievement points but haven’t touched the multiplayer yet and I’m not sure I will. Shooters or MMOs I will get very competitive at. Dark Age of Camelot I would get very obsessed about being the number one killer on the server every night, checking killshot figures constantly.
RTS games… I just can’t face online. I think it’s the head to head that puts me off. I don’t know that I can invest so much time into playing a game vs just one person.
04/09/2010 at 10:58 Wilson says:
@Howl – That’s interesting. What’s your issue with spending time playing a game with just one person? Do you mean it’s more intense, or does it feel like wasted time for you? I can’t see what the difference between playing against one person or many would be for game quality, if the game is designed for 1v1.
03/09/2010 at 16:47 Mavvvy says:
That’s exactly the reason i’m still playing this. Only get the same feeling in a handful of game’s Bennys Warfare in arma 2 is one of em.
03/09/2010 at 16:47 Jake says:
Tanking the last 10% of a boss like Brutallus in WoW. I remember one boss where I held my breath in desperate concentration for so long I had to lie down before looting. Although the good thing about WoW is if you lose you can just blame your healers while in SCII you have no-one to blame but your own worthless self and your embarrassing attempts at micro.
03/09/2010 at 16:54 Deston says:
I’m one of them filthy evil smokers wot you see loitering outside pubs passively killing children, and I often measure my game absorption by whether I can easily sneak in a crafty cigarette or not.
With Starcraft 2, quite often I’ll light up and then get panicked by something explodey on screen heading towards my base(s). By the time I’ve dealt with it and crafted a suitably apocalyptic retaliation, I remember I had a smoke on the go only to notice it has been completely neglected, burning down to a long unusable slither of ash in my ashtray. Bollocks.
It’s almost always a really intense fast-paced RTS that grabs hold of your brain and makes you pay complete attention, and there is indeed very little time for any chin stroking or smoking… or anything else for that matter. Fortunately, there is plenty of time for pew pew aliens and huge stompy mechs wreaking all kinds of delicious carnage, which is clearly the important thing.
I guess in a roundabout fashion, Starcraft 2 is also actually beneficial for my health, which is one of many reasons that I’m going to have to go and play some more now.
03/09/2010 at 20:40 gerafin says:
You just need to master the hands-free smoke. For a while, it will go into your eyes and gag you at the same time, but after a while your mouth gets used to dragging and puffing all on its own. Look ma, no hands!
04/09/2010 at 01:29 Howl says:
It’s too demanding of your complete attention, even in the campaign and custom modes. My partner has been discouraging me from playing it, which is something that’s never happened before in years of seeing me play games. It’s worryingly all-consuming, even if you only play for short periods.
03/09/2010 at 16:55 TCM says:
I love and hate Starcraft 2 multi.
I love the thrill, the sudden realization of what my opponent’s doing and how to counter it, the frantic clicking as I pray everything’s ready by the time they decide to attack. I love watching competitive matches and gaping at some of the absolutely amazing things pulled off on that level.
I hate the unforgiving nature, the poor sportsmanship (on lower levels, at least), the absolute need to use keyboard shortcuts, and the fact that I am really quite bad at the game.
So yeah.
03/09/2010 at 16:57 deejayem says:
I used to get incredible shakes playing Team Fortress Classic – doing flag runs on 2Fort as a scout, pelting across the courtyard, shoulders twitching for the sniper’s bullet … Incredible tension that doesn’t break till you die or score.
Only similar feeling I ever got from an RTS was putting nukes down in Starcraft 1 – those horrible seconds while the enemy frantically drops comsats around your ghost.
03/09/2010 at 17:00 Limes says:
I’m hugely apprehensive about even pressing that “find game” button on SCII, just finished my 1vs1 placements and got placed Platinum, now I’m AGAIN scared to press that button; I expected to place bronze or maybe silver, and I still feel I’m behind the curve of plat., I just got lucky with 3 unplaced placements!
I suffered the same problem with Warcraft III, once I get into a game, I tend to fair ok, love the buzz of adrenaline, but afterwards I’m often left exhausted, it doesn’t play into the casual “Just one more game” philosophy I’m used to with TF2 or similar (I realise now FPS has also lost a lot of that “buzz” for me, it’s only more horror based ones that shock me, and I hate horror.)
03/09/2010 at 17:05 chokoladenudlen says:
The rush is the only reason I ever considered honing my SCII skills (well that and the social value of being able to play with my friends, many of who are huge Starcraft fans)
But seeing as how it takes an extreme amount of practice to become competitive and I by heart am turtle player in RTS games – which simply won’t fly in multiplayer I simply gave up on the idea.
Quake 3, on the other hand, is pure endorphin and adrenaline rush. Awesome!
03/09/2010 at 17:44 DJ Phantoon says:
Adopt FPS strategy.
Rocket jump into enemy base.
03/09/2010 at 17:09 IslamicShock says:
It might come as a surprise, since whenever somebody brings up “pro” SC2 players they mention APM, but the fact is that APM means nothing until you get waaaay up in the leagues and start playing people who do it for money. It doesn’t help your little squad if you click 30 times in a second to get them to move to a point, and it doesn’t help them if you click 15 times to get them to focus fire on a target.
What matters is staying calm – don’t forget those siege tanks you have and bind them to a separate control group, and when moving together make sure to give an extra click so they don’t end up in front of your infantry. Remember those casters in the other control group and periodically switch over to have them do something. Remember all the kinds of cheesy tactics you lost to, and learn to feel happy when someone tries it – because they just went all-in and you figured out how to stop them.
03/09/2010 at 17:10 Tei says:
Do you like turtles?
03/09/2010 at 18:48 Fred Wester, CEO of Paradox says:
Yes. They’re delicious in rum cream.
03/09/2010 at 20:31 Sarlix Wester says:
Is this what CEO’s eat, turtles in rum cream? Shameful.
What will be next, pigeons ears in ginger sauce? Badger eyebrows with an orange and mint dip? Where will it end I ask you, where will it end.
03/09/2010 at 17:19 Snooglebum says:
Turtles are great.
03/09/2010 at 17:26 BooleanBob says:
Funnily enough, I was thinking about exactly this about a year ago, when I made this image in an attempt to explain to a friend why I didn’t think I would be able to pick up Company of Heroes, which he was raving about, to play a few ‘casual’ games with (and, importantly, against) him. It’s a little sloppy, certainly, but I think I was pretty close to the money, as they say(?).
In the end I caved during a Steam sale, and Company of Heroes competitive multiplayer is probably my favourite gaming experience of the last five years, for many of the reasons Quinns goes into in this (once again excellent) article. I think I even have more hours logged on it than TF2!
03/09/2010 at 17:54 Sarlix Wester says:
HaHa, nice diagram.
Oh btw, theres a spider on your shoulder.
03/09/2010 at 17:28 QHF says:
Eve Online, as mentioned above. I also remember trying to infiltrate busy bases as a cloaker in Planetside being particularly good for ‘the rush’.
I think fencing, rather than any (computer) game, has given me the most intense examples of this, including the panic-induced tactical inflexibility you mention, but squeezed into tiny, tiny parcels of time.
04/09/2010 at 15:41 FunkyBadger says:
I’ve never thought of the rythem of fencing as full-on terror all the time, though. You’ve got maybe 3-4 seconds between each point to compose yourself and plan, then there’s no time for *really* thinking during the point, then a minute or so it you get to the end of the round.
Gauntlet mode on Gears2 gets pretty intense, mind.
03/09/2010 at 17:31 moltobenny says:
This is totally right. One additional effect of the adrenaline is that you start hitting the wrong keys.
03/09/2010 at 20:27 Vandelay says:
This, a million times this! I love the grid shortcut key layout meaning I don’t actually have to learn what the shortcuts are, but the number of times I’ve lifted my command centre off instead of using the scan is getting ridiculous now.
03/09/2010 at 21:26 Starky says:
Same… and worse when you do it to ALL your command centers as they share a command group.
03/09/2010 at 17:32 Web Cole says:
I play Project Reality* and this is pretty much the reason why. Trying to make order out of the chaos, split second decisions that could mean life or death for you and your squad. Moving into a small village flanked on either side by other infantry squads, backed up by tanks and APCs pounding the crap out of everything in sight. Your squad mates dying around you, only just finding the Weapons Cache and destroying it, being the only man that makes it back out, smoke and explosions and chaos and bullets whizzing back and forth, enemies prowling in the hazy wreckage but somehow you make it out. Into the back of the APC, back to base, to regroup, re-arm, to plan and do it all again. PR at its best.
*A Battlefield 2 modification
03/09/2010 at 17:36 Serenegoose says:
Because RTS games have that period of adrenaline with no cooldown time (for me, anyway) I can’t play them. I end up shaking after a game. FPS games have nothing on that, because they happen so quickly – I mean, if you spend half an hour on an RTS game, then you don’t want to lose, you know? My longest ever life in TF2 by comparison is 11 minutes, and I was an engineer. It doesn’t matter if you lose in an FPS game. You spend a few seconds waiting to respawn, and then you’re back – losing an encounter in an RTS game does not mean you can cool off though, it means TIME FOR MORE PRESSURE as you put yourself back on an even footing. I just can’t handle it. Even if you’re winning, the pressure doesn’t slacken off. Fucking up gives your opponent every opportunity to reassert yourself. No. Too much for me.
03/09/2010 at 19:13 Devenger says:
I’m completely the same. I even particularly like TF2 because it allows me to change the pace of play at a whim (through changing class). CoH made me cry. SCII would make me scream.
03/09/2010 at 17:53 Jon says:
This is a major reason why I like SCII as well. The adrenaline from trying to make sure I cover all my bases- keep making workers, don’t get supply blocked, spend those resources, give some guidance to your army. It’s a great feeling when it all comes together. Especially when you scout your opponent out, figure out his strategy and make changes to your own on the fly that work out to give you the win. There’s nothing like performing under pressure to give an endorphin rush.
I get the same feeling from Company of Heroes as several others have mentioned. These strategy games are different in how they are played, but both have that addictive multiplayer that I have to work myself up to play sometimes. (I’m always glad that I did though)
03/09/2010 at 18:12 cjlr says:
It’s kind of like a grappling match, only you can still stand afterwards.
Basically then it’s the same ol’ endorphin rush that people are always looking for. Fast paced knife-edge goodness.
03/09/2010 at 18:26 hahaha says:
I used to be play WC3 quite competitively and completly subscribe to the view of the rush. It’s longer lasting and shivers after (and in the very moments before deciding moments) are one of the reasons I played it.
I do disagree with many of you on FPS. Actually, I only disagree with computer FPSs. But that’s quite a long time that I played these. To me, 4 player sitting on one couch playing Call of Duty on Xbox life on a big projector still give me that feeling. As soon as we’re all roughly 5 kills away from the end of each map, I get into a tunnel anxious to get the next kill. It’s a quite similiar feeling to RTS. Then, thinking usually stops, positioning gets bad…
03/09/2010 at 18:35 subedii says:
Small scale and tactical FPS’s? Yeah. But once you get into something big and a bit more random like TF2, it’s fun, but you also lose that impression. Largely because you don’t have the sense of urgency, that every action you take and decision made is something that can shift the game. You’re part of a much larger whole that you can’t really perceive and influence as well as in a small scale game.
03/09/2010 at 18:39 Kurt Lennon says:
Any fun I had in SC2 multiplayer has been ruined by the imbalances and the fact that if you don’t join in on the mass exploitation of them, you lose.
Hopefully Blizzard will fix it in their patch in a couple of weeks, but it’s more likely that they’ll take years on end to balance the game.
04/09/2010 at 00:50 Thants says:
It may not be perfectly balanced just yet, but it’s not even remotely as bad as you’re suggesting.
04/09/2010 at 04:13 Kurt Lennon says:
Maybe it’s not that bad in Bronze, but I wouldn’t know.
04/09/2010 at 05:34 Thants says:
Well, I wouldn’t know either, I’m in diamond. Anyway, I wouldn’t worry about it so much.
I’d recommend reading this: http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/intermediates-guide.html
03/09/2010 at 18:42 Alaric says:
Speaking of this game, we at the Adrenaline Vault are having a StarCraft II gaming night tonight, and we’d love to see our RPS colleagues join us! My remnants of shame prevent me from posting a direct link, but I’m sure you can easily find the announcement. Do come, it’ll be fun!
(Naturally everyone is invited, not just RPS staff.) =)
03/09/2010 at 18:59 Theotherdude says:
Starcraft 2, Tekken 6, Demon’s Souls and Monster Hunter are the ones that have this effect on me.
03/09/2010 at 19:00 Galleon says:
Starcraft 2 is the only game I play where I am actually nervious before each game…
I tentativly click the find games button…
and stare….
until that countdown starts and I get even more nervous…
When I win it’s rush a rush, when I lose I feel crushed… but either way it mattered to me. I can’t recall the last time felt that in CoD or even playing with a old friend and rival… it’s just awesome.
03/09/2010 at 19:03 MedO says:
Not a multiplayer game, but one game that caused me heart-thumping panic before is Uplink. Which is strange in a way, because it’s so very abstract. But watching my connection get backtraced hop for hop while I frantically tried to delete my logs gave me tension like no other game before, at least none that I can remember.
03/09/2010 at 19:11 Evernight says:
I used to get the shakes before Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory games. The ticking clock, the sounds you hear, knowing full well that death could be lurking in the shadows/coming around the corner. Nothing beats the hail of bullets, running, smoke, grenades being shot all over intensity of that game.
SC2 beta got me a bit shaky after 2-3 games and I had to take a break, but now I am used to it.
04/09/2010 at 05:47 radomaj says:
Pandora Tomorrow/Chaos Theory had me too. In the shadows, my heart pounding, a merc going past me only a meter away, the clock on the objectives slowly ticking down. INTENSE.
03/09/2010 at 19:20 Ziemas says:
APM is a box, and skill is what you put in that box. If you box is too small, all of your skill won’t fit in it. Likewise, you can show off a huge ass box, just for everyone to find out it’s empty.
03/09/2010 at 21:28 Starky says:
Best description of APM ever.
03/09/2010 at 19:38 Sassenach says:
I just had a fun game of this in the qualifying rounds after psyching myself up for the ordeal. While looking back at it I didn’t actually suffer a real setback other then losing a natural expansion hive early on while it was still building. it was exhilirating trying to keep everything ticking over smoothly and anticipate what my opponent would do.
The tension found a bit of release in making me giggle like a loon when I dumped a few ultralisks (having noticed I had a few thousand resources to spare) and a horde of zerglings plus some hydralisks through a nydus worm into the undefended enemy base. Haha! For the expansion hive that never was!
While it was tremendous fun I have no doubt I will struggle to hit that find game button again. There is something about multiplayer RTS that threatens to reward failure with a crushing sense of inferiority.
03/09/2010 at 19:44 Mo says:
“Nothing compared to Starcraft 2″ is a surprisingly prolific tag … this makes me happy. :)
03/09/2010 at 19:50 Ben says:
I get this exact same sentiment from League of Legends in most games. Except, instead of losing faith in myself, I usually have my faith crushed by the four non-sensible juveniles that I get stuck with in a random pairing :p
03/09/2010 at 20:10 EBass says:
The online RTS rush is substatially different to the FPS rush, its cleaner and more focused.
Still I don’t like Starcraft 2, the mechanics feel over a decade old because they are, not ALWAYS a bad thing but compared to CoH or hell, even Generals it feels urrrgggh not shallow, more like retarded, in the literal non colloquial sense.
03/09/2010 at 20:24 Deuteronomy says:
Yes. Beethoven also feels several decades old. dated. if you will.
03/09/2010 at 21:33 Gary Oldman says:
You don’t like Beethoven! You don’t know what you’re missing. Overtures like that get my – -juices flowing. So powerful! But after his openings, to be honest, he does tend to get a little fucking boring.
03/09/2010 at 20:25 Karocann says:
Just a bit for you folk who haven’t enjoyed competitive RTS:
I hear what you are saying! But, the enjoyment comes after you have honed the skill. This can be agonizing if you just hop onto the ladder matches and continuously get your ass kicked.
Expedite the process by watching replays and reading strat guides/tips. Most new players suffer the most because they do not know the fundamentals (e.g., they aren’t entirely sure which strategies are effective against which strategies). You can discover some of this by trial and error, but if you’re anything like me and are not interested in playing the game twelve hours a day, I would suggest you mooch the necessary knowledge off of those who do play twelve hours a day and also upload replays and write guides.
Teamliquid, Gamereplays, and Gosugamers are good places to start.
03/09/2010 at 20:49 gerafin says:
For me, I find the biggest rush to occur when I’m winning, if that makes any sense. When I start sending those final few units that I know can circumvent/crush their defenses/forces, when I KNOW that they don’t have a counter ready yet, when I know they’re off-balance and open… that’s when my heart rate goes nuts and I start shaking. I’m soooo close to victory, yet in this final assault, I can easily lose everything if there’s just one variable I underestimated. And then, my stress is vindicated by a sweeping victory and I pause, hands in the air, yelping like a madman.
I’ve also found that if you’re playing after a pint or so, you’re more confident, less stressed out, less apprehensive about attacks and such, and generally do a lot better. Plus, I then have no fears about hitting that daunting “find game” button. I’m not saying that you should take up drinking before playing as a hobby, I’m just saying that when you get back home after a night out is a great time to play some Starcraft.
03/09/2010 at 20:58 frsrblch says:
Eve is the only game I’ve played that has left me shaking from the adrenaline rush.
03/09/2010 at 21:24 Starky says:
Indeed you can, the term is pizzicato.
03/09/2010 at 21:32 Plopsworth says:
Improvised solo (counter-)guerilla warfare in online shooty-games does it for me. Solo counter-camping or counter-sniping duels in FPS games, or performing important tasks with an unsuitable weapon set works every time. You’re constantly forced to improvise and commit to split-second decisions.
Especially in Red Orchestra, when you’re closing in on an apartment with a completely inappropriate weapon, trying to locate that pesky marksman who is pinning my team down on the approach to the objective. It always feels creepy trying to cross open spaces with a CQB-favouring submachinegun, or the opposite of having to clear indoor spaces with a bolt-action rifle. There’s a beehive of abandoned apartment flats and stairwells. You’re constantly trying to judge your target: Is he smart and displaces after a handful of kills? Is he listening for my approach? Is he smart enough not to fire from the windowsill, firing instead from within the room, steadying his weapon against a piece of furniture? Do I attach my bayonet and make myself more visible by ~15cm when turning corners?
And then when I find my target: Silent but risky bayonet charge-stab in case there are other occupants? Shoot (aimed or hip-shot as quickly as possible)? It’s also terrifically exciting to run out of primary LMG ammo and defend my position with my handgun. Also: doing a Dirty Harry and losing count of your fired shots, finding your weapon empty, charging up and impaling your opponent who miraculously misses at point-blank range or also bolts an empty chamber.
This also works to a certain extent in less linear multiple-approach singleplayer action games when “things go wrong” and you’re forced to quickly re-evaluate and improvise. GTA IV, Far Cry 2, Crysis Thief, and Deus Ex come to mind when you’re forced in to action far earlier than you would have wished, with a less than optimal kit equipment for the situation.
04/09/2010 at 00:01 WiPa says:
You just made me want to buy Red Orchestra.
03/09/2010 at 23:33 Andy says:
Come on then Quinns, what is your build order?
03/09/2010 at 23:54 Leon Del Aros says:
I played Company of Heroes and liked it alot. Then I play sc2. I thought about the two games and came to the conlusion that sc2 is a game of economics. You basically have to scout your opponent and build better stuff than him and a bigger blob and BAM, you win. In CoH you have to make do with what you have and apply better tactics on the battlefield. But that’s my 2 cent.
03/09/2010 at 23:57 Kakrafoon says:
I dislike that StarCraft 2 uses “fastest” or whatever as a default speed for competitive multiplayer matches. I only play custom games on slow, with my buddies because of this.
04/09/2010 at 00:24 Leon Del Aros says:
I don’t mind the faster speed. It’s just that there’s little tactics. When you face of with your opponents blob you know you either win of loose. There’s not tactics to consider. It’s all about eco, what you build prior to the big blob face off.
04/09/2010 at 01:02 Thants says:
That’s not true though. I mean, it can be, but if you watch the really good players they don’t just attack-move at the enemy’s army. They’re constantly feinting and jockeying for position. Putting pressure on the enemy’s weak spots. It’s not the same as something like CoH but there’s more to it than just how many units you build.
04/09/2010 at 01:30 Tony M says:
A game doesn’t need speed to get that feeling, it just needs tension. My hands are shaking after tense game of chess.
Tony
04/09/2010 at 01:49 Jools says:
For me, at least recently, it’s Starcraft II as well. No doubt. I’ve played Company of Heroes for probably as long as the game has been out. I love it and I think it’s a fantastic game. I never really enjoyed Starcraft either and I was always one of the first people to step up in CoH’s defense when people would say it wasn’t as deep or interesting as Starcraft. You know what? I was fucking wrong.
The complaint that games like this are too twitchy or not strategic enough is absolute bull. They are twitchy, and that’s exactly what makes them unbelievably strategic and tactically deep. You don’t get a bonus for flanking or sitting behind cover – you do it because it makes strategic sense to do so. Flanking means your hellion’s flamethrowers will make their way over a line of enemy units or that the other player’s units are forced to face one way while they get chewed up from behind. Sitting on a ridge lets you shoot down and prevents the other person from seeing up. You have to make these kind of decisions on the fly and you have to make them FAST. You have to decide immediately if you’re in a position to counter-attack after a failed assault on your base, and then you have to decide if you’re capable of hitting your opponent’s main or striking an expansion. You have to do this while building more units at home and shoring up your own defenses in case your attack fails. Did I mention that now might be a good time to expand too?
Being forced to juggle so many important decisions so quickly is incredibly fun, even when you fail. It’s legitimately exciting in a way that doesn’t rely on scripting or fancy graphics or amazing cutscenes. It’s exciting because the game is challenging you to think faster than you normally would and act on your decisions without leaving you any time for second guessing. And the best part is that this is all happening pretty much from the instant the game starts. Four minutes in and you’re already questioning your build order based on scouting. Truth be told, I’ve put more hours into Starcraft over the last month than I have into video games in general over the last year. It’s done something to restore my faith in them.
As an aside, I also think it’s also pretty good evidence that gameplay doesn’t get “outdated” in the way a lot of people suggest. Some gameplay formulas are just good. Full stop. It doesn’t matter that they’re a decade and a half old and it won’t matter that they’re five times that forty years in the future.
05/09/2010 at 07:25 MD says:
Great post. This is why I’m freaking tempted to try SC2. I just don’t think I’ve got it in me to get decent enough to truly appreciate it.
06/09/2010 at 07:19 luckystriker says:
@MD
Don’t sell yourself short, friend. I’ve found that most people who say this game is “too hard” have probably never even stepped into the multiplayer arena. The fear of losing is just too great. But trust me, once you’ve lost 10-20 games losing isn’t just that big a deal anymore.
Contrary to what you may have heard, having a solid strategic sense and understanding what units counter what trumps clicking speed every time. Any thinking gamer can get to that level of enjoyment.
06/09/2010 at 08:28 MD says:
Thanks for the encouragement. It’s not so much a fear of losing, though; I love fast-paced FPS games, and the way to get better at those is to lose heavily and repeatedly. Progressing from absolute newbie to semi-competent low-to-mid-range dueller in Warsow was some of the most fun I’ve had playing games. It’s only when I stop improving that I get disheartened, and I don’t really care about losing until I start facing people that I ‘should’ beat. (Well, also when I’m playing against someone who is an openly horrible person.)
It’s also not the speed vs. strategy thing that bothers me. I actually have massive respect for the way Starcraft works, it’s just… honestly, I don’t know whether I count as a ‘thinking gamer’. I’m fucking terrible at strategy games, and I don’t find them satisfying unless I genuinely understand them.
06/09/2010 at 08:37 MD says:
Also, I left out the crucial fact that I’m a bit of a tightarse, and SC2 is expensive. If it was free I would have tried it straight away, and if it’s massively discounted any time soon I’ll probably grab it :)
04/09/2010 at 02:28 Jaxley says:
It’s strange, I’m more hesitant diving into SC2 ladder matches than when I was diving into EVE’s lowsec.
Yet the rush I get from SC2 won’t ever compare to EVE’s. Nowhere else have I experienced this intense mix of tunnel vision, focus and shakes that come with stalking, shooting and looting internet spaceships on my own.
It’s more or less indescribable. Safe to say, I have problems walking in a straight line and using my hands after a great fight.
04/09/2010 at 03:42 wcaypahwat says:
I only smoke outside.
So I get the ‘one more mission/match/level/quest before I go for one’
its good for getting a few minutes away from the screen to calm a little, clear my head.
04/09/2010 at 07:18 Durns says:
As a kid playing my monk in Everquest, finally seeing Raster of Guk pop and getting the epic quest piece left me shaking. Had to log off and go for a walk following that just to calm down.
I was pretty addicted to that game and eventually had to go cold turkey to stop from failing out of life.
The fear of falling back into that pattern has led me to actively avoid any game which gives me the same rush. I get into a new game, start enjoying myself, then get too intense and start feeling the emotional high connection – then feel disgusted by myself, put the game down and don’t touch it again.
Its funny how I still find myself thinking about Everquest and feeling a vague sense of loss or longing. The feeling is like being on the edge of a cliff – I could fall off at any moment and go back into those bad old days. Its not going to happen, but its still scary.
04/09/2010 at 07:21 Nick says:
ugh, I helped a friend camp raster TWICE. She got epic AND robe of whistling fists.
04/09/2010 at 07:35 bill says:
Sounds like everything I’ve always hated about RTS games.
But possibly that’s a symptom of being not good at them, or not being able to be calm and react flexibly to events at the same time as clicking and monitoring 100 things per minute.
I guess this probably DOES mean that starcraft is close to a real sport, as it needs endurance, speed, a calm head and tactical thought under pressure – like many real sports. So maybe i’d be bad at real sports if i ever tried them too.
The problem is i don’t have the interest to practice to get to a level where I could manage all those things, as it’s horribly repetitive and frustrating.
04/09/2010 at 09:56 Jools says:
I think it’s easier to get past the pure frustration phase than a lot of people think. The new matchmaking system is specifically designed to keep most players at a 50-50 win loss, which means that as you lose games it’ll narrow your skill level down and you’ll end up playing people you can actually conceivably beat. It also means that most people who are placed “correctly” will still lose about half the games they play, though, so you have to be willing to just outright lose a lot of games. The up-side is that, at least in the lower leagues, you’ll usually be losing against people who are relatively close to your own skill level and you’ll probably improve your game in the process.
That said, it’s obviously not worth playing something you don’t enjoy, but I feel like a lot of people are missing out on a really unbelievably fantastic game for the same reasons that I used to avoid Starcraft I. It’s just really important not to look at playing games as “practicing” so you get better. Play the game because it’s a really good, solidly made, incredibly fun game and you’ll naturally improve along the way. It’s so worth the little bit of frustration that crops up here and there.
04/09/2010 at 08:04 Antares says:
Curiously enough, I don’t even notice this rush while inside the actual game – I’m constantly busy managing stuff (Zerg is great fun but whoever designed the inject larvae mechanic needs to go DIAF) and there’s always something to be done, but I don’t actually get the shakes until it’s done.
But getting there man, that’s the hard part. I’ve only managed to muster the courage to click that accursed “Find match” button six times this week, and it’s not even like I’m that bad at the game, seeing how I’ve landed in gold after my placement matches and have managed to score a few convincing victories since. Maybe it’ll come with time.
Also, i’d like to echo Jool’s sentiments above. I used to be pretty relunctant to even trying SC2 after having played Relic’s offerings – it seemed like a huge step back in RTS design. I was dead wrong. I lack the words to describe why or how, but anyone with even a passing interest in RTSes really owes him/herself to try it out.
04/09/2010 at 08:14 Vinraith says:
What are your favourite experiences with panic in multiplayer games, readers?
Three little words: Cross Planet Attack. Anyone unfamiliar with it badly needs to play some AI War.
04/09/2010 at 08:32 Rakysh says:
Jumping off a building as a scout in TF2 right in the path of a Natascha heavy, knowing that if he even lays a bullet on you you’re dead, no questions asked, and managing to jump around like a madman while still remaining focused enough to lay four meatshots on him. Terrifying. (And even when you manage it, inevitably some god-forsaken sniper will bodyshot you to hell and back just as you think you’re safe.
I got all shivery just thinking about it
04/09/2010 at 08:41 Ishy says:
I guess I’m dead inside like the boyfriend says, or maybe I just don’t like the genre (at least games of SC2′s fast-paced type) but I don’t get a rush at all. I just get annoyed. Since I’m near the bottom of my group in the Bronze division, I suppose I could also be considered “terrible.”
Fortunately, SC2′s purchase is still worthwhile due to the custom games.
04/09/2010 at 08:48 ylw says:
This is exactly why I play Starcraft 2. I haven’t had this kind of rush since duelling in Quake 3. All these team based multiplayer games just do not have the same effect.
04/09/2010 at 09:55 MD says:
Yeah, it’s the kind of thing that keeps pulling me back to Quake Live despite frequently swearing off it & telling myself it’s not worth the aggravation. I’m pretty bad, but there’s a competetive beast inside me that won’t be silenced. It’s a pretty pathetic, underfed beast, but it’s a survivor.
Also, it’s great to have an RPS writer providing this sort of perspective. Quinns complements the original hivemind nicely, I think.
04/09/2010 at 09:01 loGi says:
Good read. I, personally am really intimidated by the Starcraft 2 multiplayer although I’m not that terrible. The panic causes anxiety.
04/09/2010 at 12:35 Terr says:
Hi, my name is Terr and I’m afraid to play 1v1, until I read all your comments.
I really enjoy playing SC2 team matches with friends while Skyping, to be able to get or give advice, vent frustation and share the victory or defeat. But without that support, I get too tense and make mistakes, or freeze up if I don’t know what to do.
It’s very good to read that I’m not the only one and that with time, even I might enjoy the rush.
Anyone up for some 1v1 matches? :P
04/09/2010 at 12:49 EtsSpets says:
SC2 is a pretty good tactics game but its too illogical and has too little strategy to suite me.
04/09/2010 at 13:23 Dworgi says:
I tend to chase this rush in the online games I play. Battlefield 1942 clan matches definitely had this quality at the best of times (eg. trying to find the last surviving enemy player before the time ran out.
Duels in UT2004 were also a rush like this – especially after getting a kill, being low on health and needing to shut down the enemy before he got properly geared up. Because of its shield gun, chases in UT were also exciting, because it was possible to evade the enemy for a long time, get a proper gun, then get a cheeky kill and get back in the game.
Now, I’m finding that EVE gives me that same rush when you jump into a bad situation or tackle something and wait for your fleet to land, trying not to die. Afterwards, you either swear or take a little walk to get rid of the shakes.
04/09/2010 at 15:18 Sunjammer says:
I have a real love/hate thing with Starcraft’s “rush”. My favorite genre of video games is bullet hell shmups, which is an odd realization since i mostly play adventure/rpg games. Danmaku shooters induce a state where speed and precision is all you care about. Played right it shuts out the rest of the world entirely. It’s just you and buttons and sensing patterns in chaos.
In Starcraft 2 I have to admit the “rush” isn’t entertaining to me. It is entertaining in something like Dawn of war 2, because that game puts your focus squarely on the immediacy of what it is you are looking at. SC2′s main challenge, to me, is simply multitasking strategy, tactics and economy. It’s not intense because it’s hard, it’s intense because it’s literally too much, and reading interviews with SC players that state again and again that speed is all just makes me deeply tired.
I don’t really go to games to get tired. I go for transcendence.
05/09/2010 at 02:50 bill says:
This.
I always feel like i’m fighting the limitations of the interface (multitasking, controling precisely at speed, seeing the whole situation) rather than the battle.
I never tried Endwar (and I heard it wasn’t great) but I always felt that an RTS with decent voice controls might be the answer. Viewing the whole battlefield and commanding units to the best positions – rather than scrolling around and trying to quickly select the right units.
05/09/2010 at 03:21 pkt-zer0 says:
Speed isn’t all, far from it. Sure, that lets you do more stuff at the same time, but if your strategy is flawed, that’s not going to help a lot. It’s not as if units are a thousand times more effective when microed or something.
As for there being too much to do in the game at any given time: that’s kind of the point. You don’t get infinite time units in X-COM, either.
05/09/2010 at 01:58 bill says:
Maybe I’m approaching RTS games the wrong way, as I always just play the singleplayer campaign – which quickly gets frustrating and repetitive. Maybe the only way it’s rewarding is playing against another human player – in the same way that tennis against another person beats a ball machine.
05/09/2010 at 02:02 bill says:
I think i’d enjoy RTS games a lot more without any “fog of war” effect. It sounds great in theory, but in principle it’s like playing chess when you can only see one square from your pieces – and it means everything is speed and reaction, rather than planning.
05/09/2010 at 03:30 pkt-zer0 says:
Having incomplete information about the state of the battlefield doesn’t mean you can’t have a plan. Simply that you have to expend extra effort (scout) before you can make a choice that’s geared towards specific situations. Hell, you can’t even do that much on reaction, because constructing buildings and units takes time. If you see mutas pop into your undefended main, that means you should’ve built an engineering bay two minutes ago, so you could get some turrets in time.
05/09/2010 at 05:02 Spacegirl says:
CS was tense as balls sometimes.
Being the last alive, sitting at the hostages….just waiting….You know they are coming. You know you’ll have half a second tops to react. pretty tense.
1v1 RTS’ are pretty crazy, tho. The isolation is kinda terrifying. Just knowing that somewhere out there, some1 is planning…something and you are alone against it. It kind of reminds me of this scene in the japanese horror movie One Missed Call where this guy is just staring into the blackness of a dark elevator. I guess the Unknown In the Dark is like a pretty common fear, and SC2 combines that WITH the fact that you have to be super on top of like 4 different things at all times every second, AND YEH IT’S PRETTY TENSE AND CRAZY SHIT.
I just play team games cause it’s more relaxed :)
05/09/2010 at 15:39 Shakermaker says:
Late reply, but since the adrenalin and endorfins are still pumping as we speak … I love the rush. Just beat two zerg opponents in a row, playing as zerg. They both went 6pool and I both pwnd them by going 8pool and out-spam them. The distance between our bases made up for the difference in production time. An added spine crawler shooed them back to their base to recuperate. At that time I was already spawning my Spire and with Mutas I then proceeded to mop up what was left of the resistance. GG. Both games only took 12 or 14 minutes but they felt timeless in a sense. You’re in a different zone, not picking up most of the things happening ‘outside’. When you click to the score screen, the chemicals set in and the resulting comedown can be very nice.
06/09/2010 at 09:50 Butler` says:
I only play for these thrills these days
Back in the day it was Diablo2 hardcore mode and 5v5 CS matches
then it was WC3 1v1s and fighting for for rank1 on wow arena
SC2 matches have obviously inhereted the former’s charm
08/09/2010 at 00:38 Anfhann says:
Exactly this. I never have enough energy to play these adrenaline games!
08/09/2010 at 18:58 Harry says:
A friend and I used to guild scam* people on UO. Our guild was called the Cult of Remmacs (read it backwards), and the house which we locked the unsuspecting guildmember in was Macs House (again). The moments building up to the great scams had my hands shaking and we used to be on an adrenaline high for a good while afterwards.
The best scam was when noobs bought tonnes of items on ebay and didn’t have them insured (aka lootable). We once scammed this poor chap who had 30million gp worth of artifacts. Then we logged in with different characters and convinced the local townsfolk that this guy was having them on. A good reign of terror that was.
*When a player accepts the invitation to join a guild they can be attacked. So one can also loot them. The noobier the player the easier the scam. More experienced players need to first be pursuaded with a cunning tongue, then overwhelmed and killed quickly before they can react.