After 12 years of waiting, the sequel to Blizzard Entertainment’s much loved computer real-time strategy game StarCraft finally saw its release this summer.
The release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was met with much fanfare as gamers celebrated the return of a franchise that helped shape computer gaming into what it is today.
Kyle Bolton, senior in computer and electrical engineering and president of the Multiplayer Gaming Club on campus, explained the original StarCraft has had a lasting presence in computer gaming, despite its release more than 12 years ago.
“It’s still played strong today. It’s one of Multiplayer Gaming Club’s point games. We play it at pretty much all of our events, and there has been a lot of expectation hype, not even advertised hype, just expectation for when [StarCraft II] is going to come out,” Bolton said.
The original StarCraft came out at a time when both the real-time strategy genre and computer gaming as a whole were exploding. What set StarCraft apart from its competitors were several key factors.
“In a sense, it’s a good RTS game,” Bolton said. “It had three playable races: Protoss, Zerg, and Terran. It had 50 single player missions between all three races. It had a very excellent multiplayer system based on the original Battle.net system which had just gotten its legs, and they had built it very well. It had a full chat system — online lobbies where you could just sit and hang out. You didn’t need a full broadband connection, and it had local area network play, which was a big thing. You could just have a couple guys, hook their computers together and just play.”
It is impossible to discuss StarCraft without also mentioning the immense popularity it has gained overseas, especially in Korea.
“You might even say that it set off video gaming as a culture item in Northeast Asia,” Bolton said.
Simon Jung, a freshman in biomedical engineering and a Korean-American, said when he was very young, he remembered being exposed to the original StarCraft.
“Whenever I would go to someone’s house and they had an older kid, that would be what they were playing,” Jung said. “It’s on television. They have StarCraft tournaments. There are teams that are well known; off the top of my head I could name a few.”
Part of the game’s lasting popularity could be due in part to its evolving multiplayer gameplay. Like chess, though the pieces stay essentially the same, players are constantly developing new strategies.
“There will be an era where Zerg completely dominate because someone developed this crazy strategy for Zerg, and other days Terran will dominate because of some strategy someone developed. It’s alive, I guess,” Jung said.
In addition to developing strategies that change how the game is played, players have also been able to change the game through the robust map editor included with the title.
“People are constantly making new maps that aren’t necessarily the same as how StarCraft was meant to be played. That definitely keeps the interest alive,” Jung said.
Though heralded by many, the release of the new game brings about some challenges, especially for competitive gamers who have had 12 years to become accustomed to the original game.
“I’m not sure how long it would take for the pro players in Korea to adapt to StarCraft II,” Jung said. “From what I’ve seen, it’s kind of different, and [the original StarCraft] is something that has been tried and true, so it’s hard to get someone to wean off of that. I could see separate tournaments at first, and maybe over time the StarCraft tournament would get smaller and the StarCraft II tournament would get bigger.”
Another challenge the new game faces is its lack of support of local area connection play, which Bolton explained was one of the most beloved features of the original StarCraft.
“I don’t know of anyone that has hacked it yet to include LAN play, but I think it’s only a matter of time because everyone wants it. There has been some discussion that Blizzard will release a patch to include LAN play later on, but right now there is no official word on it,” Bolton said.
There is also an issue with price. Blizzard Entertainment is releasing StarCraft II in three parts. The first part, Wings of Liberty, which focuses on the Terran race, has a retail price of $60.
Despite these problems, players say StarCraft II has lost no momentum with its release.
“This is 10 times [bigger than the last release],” Bolton said. “You have to look at the modern culture. Back then you might put up a couple newspaper articles and advertise in some gaming magazines. You look now, StarCraft II advertisements are everywhere. Billboards, I’ve seen ads in movie theaters, TV ads, a bunch of different conventions, not just gaming conventions. StarCraft II is probably the most advertised game I’ve seen to date.”
In the opinion of Tim MacNeil, a senior in mathematics education, the new game lives up to the hype and is a worthy predecessor.
“The original set the bar high, and [StarCraft II] met it,” MacNeil said. “It felt like I was replaying StarCraft for the first time. It feels like the original, but they changed it up enough that it still feels like a new game.”
MacNeil also explained the other complaints gamers have about the new installment — the price, the lack of LAN play and the three-part game — may not be as important as they seem to be.
“I’m a console gamer, and most console games are $60, so StarCraft II being $60 doesn’t really bother me. It’s something that happens over time. Prices are going to go up,” MacNeil said. “And overall, the three [parts] will have a bigger story [than StarCraft].”
Whether the new game will become the classic that the original StarCraft became is still to be seen.
