Why is starcraft 2 so popular

The "ladder anxiety" people feel playing the game is very real as well, and I think playing a team game relieves a lot of that pressure regardless of whether it is a MOBA or something else. I think if back then StarCraft 2 had something like its Co-op Missions mode that it has now, or perhaps something even more robust, it would have gone a long way to feel like a more welcoming and accessible game. I believe that could have had a real impact, but we'll never know for sure.

At the end of the day I think if StarCraft 2 was not the game that it is, there would be a huge hole in competitive games in general. I think a competitive 1v1 game like StarCraft 2 has its own kind of players and following, and I am so proud of what the game is for that community.

There was much discussion about the relative strength of the Korean pro scene versus North America and Europe. What was your perspective on that? Did it help or harm the global scene? RS : Again, I have only been at Blizzard for the last 6 years so this is mostly from my perspective as a fan from the early days.

I think balancing the Korean and Global pro scenes for StarCraft 2 has proved to be a serious challenge throughout the years. You are kind of caught between a rock and a hard place as the developer, because Korea is obviously the heart of esports for Brood War, but you also want StarCraft 2 to be more of a global game.

Esports fans expect you to dedicate huge resources to StarCraft 2 esports in Korea, but then will turn around and criticize the global scene for being less competitive. I think outside of Korea, StarCraft 2 players were at a serious disadvantage in the early days, and the Korean players's dominance was probably inevitable given the many complicated realities of the situation.

It definitely harmed the global scene, because while many of the most dominant StarCraft 2 pros were in Korea, most of the fans were outside of it. Having your hometown heroes get destroyed over and over, or worse not having a hometown hero at all, is definitely going to have an impact. But it also uplifted the scene. The incredibly high bar that the Korean players were able to set has elevated the entire game. As a developer, seeing the game played at that level also keeps you inspired and excited to work on it every day.

And from the esports side, the Korea vs the World mentality that took hold in the StarCraft 2 scene helped to propel it to some degree. Even now the community still often measures global players by how well they perform against Korean pros. Fans still debate whether [Joona "Serral" Sotala] can ever truly be considered the best player in the world without moving to Korea and winning a [Global StarCraft 2 League].

That backdrop creates its own interesting story for StarCraft 2 esports, and it has fascinated the community. And without those rivalries or that history, StarCraft 2 esports would be less interesting today with the rise of the global community to the highest competitive level.

Today we have incredible players from Europe, the Americas, and China all able to compete with top Korean players. That has ushered in a new age of StarCraft 2 esports that feels incredibly exciting, and I think that history is a big part of that. INnoVation : Korean players were dominant in the past but the skill discrepancy between Korean and non-Korean players have diminished with some of the best players today being non-Korean players.

I think what we see today is better for the global scene. StarCraft 2's popularity started to tail off due to the success of League of Legends, which introduced a slimmer, more accessible, and most importantly, free, genre to the general public.

Heart of the Swarm wound up bringing a lot of major changes to the overall competitive game, many of which are still felt today. It also introduced the Swarm Host—a crab-like Zerg unit capable of spawning Locusts that frequently led to unwinnable wars of attrition. Talk about the feeling arounds Heart of the Swarm. How much did it do to reinvigorate the community? KD : I think for many, Heart of the Swarm was a breath of fresh air.

I would argue that at the end of Wings of Liberty, the game was more mapped out than it has ever been, and Heart of the Swarm did a good job of throwing a wrench into all of that. As a fan, community member, and guide writer at the time of its release, I was a little sad that my guides were completely invalidated overnight. But it was much overshadowed by the sense of discovery I felt when engaging with the new units and interactions. I can talk about some of my favorite ones in retrospect.

First was probably the Widow Mine, which offered for lots of exciting explosive moments without necessarily dealing game-ending damage. This unit is part of the famous 4M unit composition Marine, Marauder, Medivac, Widow Mine , which has given us some of the most exciting games of StarCraft history.

The new Medivac Ignite Afterburners ability allowed Terran to show off their multitasking skill with drops and funnily enough, enabled Mechanical unit-based play with the introduction of Hellbat drops. And finally, the Viper enabled Zerg players to break stalemates, especially against the long-ranged siege units of the other races. The Swarm Host famously resulted in some matches that were between two or three-hour slogs.

What's your recollection of that time? It requires balancing three closely related but mutually antagonistic ideals: one, it must be enjoyable for the vast majority of players; two, it must be deep enough to retain the interest of elite players; and, three, it must be fun to watch. This balancing act is made even more treacherous by the fact that the lifespan of an esport is measured in years, and expectations about what makes things fun shift over time.

Some players gravitated towards early-game gambits, while others preferred long wars of attrition. IdrA , Squirtle vs. MVP , Bomber vs. Scarlett , to name a few — rank among the finest in all of esports. In theory, Swarm Hosts would force defenders to defend against an infinite supply of weak units, like waves slowly wearing down a breakwater. In practice, though, Swarm Hosts were tortuously boring to use, and even more miserable to watch.

Rather than the tense wars of attrition they were meant to create, Swarm Hosts largely led to stalemates. People got frustrated. And yet, Swarm Hosts won games. This game is not for me anymore. In virtually every sector, the situation was bleak.

Many teams had gone out of business, or dropped their StarCraft squads wholesale , forcing the players that remained to either compete without sponsorship or sign with underfunded and sometimes fraudulent organizations. But stabilizing the professional scene and setting it up for long-term success would be a more manageable challenge. The first step was to introduce a region lock for the WCS, requiring all players to meet residency requirements for the region in which they wished to compete.

WCS also combined into a genuinely global format, while also including guaranteed qualifier spots for traditionally under-served regions, like Latin America and Oceania. Between and , roughly 30 of all prize money went to non-Koreans; and , that number was That said, the declining winnings of South Korean players likely played a role in fomenting a match-fixing scandal that roiled elite Korean StarCraft.

Blizzard also began providing support for a team house in Seoul, where foreign players can train with and compete against the best players in South Korea. GSL is intact, and the non-Koreans have gotten good.

Beyond the obvious influx of new players, one such benefit is that free-to-play makes old games newly viable in markets where they once struggled. Now, for a normal WCS event, we have eight to ten other streams.

Obviously, War Chest gave Blizzard a way to monetize a now free-to-play game. But it does put a major dent in its production costs, and, more importantly, allows Blizzard to distribute money to the points in the scene that need it most.

We also move our tournaments around to different parts of the world. It is also, in many ways, the ultimate challenge for competitive gamers — a game so fast, so mechanically intensive, that total mastery is out of the question.

The popular real-time strategy game StarCraft commands an impressive legacy: it was so wildly popular worldwide that it essentially created Esports as they are known today, and the competitive scene that thrived throughout the '90s and early '00s defined a lot of the elements that would become standard for big-budget pro gaming competitions in the future.

Furthermore, the game had a reputation as being among the most tactically deep and mechanically complex strategy games out there. Skip ahead a little over a decade, and although the sequel in the series, StarCraft II, drummed up enormous enthusiasm back in , it's hard to deny that the heyday of StarCraft II , and strategy games in general, seems to have passed. Despair not, though, for StarCraft II 's isn't down for the count yet.

Between over a decade of balance patches, expansions, and evolving playstyles, there are now a ton of reasons why even new players should try out StarCraft II. Although real-time strategy games like StarCraft and Age of Empires have a venerable legacy in PC gaming history, the genre has been somewhat unsupported by big-budget developers in recent years save for the upcoming Age of Empires 4 , which might change things.

Most fans of the genre will tell you that it's not quite the same as it was during the heyday of the '90s. However, that's just all the more reason why more people should play competitive strategy games in this day and age. If StarCraft II continues to do well and sparks renewed interest in the genre, it might catch the attention of developers willing to fork over the cash to try and capitalize on that interest.

Those without much background in the world of PC gaming often find themselves fretting about what games they can and cannot play on their current hardware. This is understandable because, for those without gaming PCs, playing a video game isn't quite so simple as inserting a disk into a console. Thankfully, StarCraft II 's system requirements are quite light, meaning that pretty much anybody will be able to install and enjoy the game.

These technical considerations, combined with StarCraft II 's price tag of zero dollars have considerably lowered the bar of entry to the game, making it far more accessible for even those without any experience with strategy games.

StarCraft II is an intensely competitive game, as are its counterparts in the world of RTS, and for fairly obvious reasons. StarCraft was released in — its sequel StarCraft II was one of the most successful titles in The real-time strategy game is a unique phenomenon — and in more than one way.

The sci-fi RTS has seen two expansion packs and is still as popular as it used to be — despite not having received content updates in years. Where many esports stagnate and then fade into obscurity, replaced by more popular titles, StarCraft II has managed to stay popular.