Starcraft is a bad game, though; it’s only popular because the ridiculously primitive 1998-era interface means that actual physical speed is required to control your units correctly, which adds barriers to entry to competitive play and makes it more challenging to play and therefore more impressive for someone to be good at. It’s pretty much the embodiment of fake difficulty in game design.
The relative physical speed is what counts. The best players would benefit from a modern interface at least as much as much as the worst.
Fake difficulty is a meaningful word only in singleplayer. Fake difficulty is giving computer controlled opponents more hit points or map hacks instead of better AI. In multiplayer, the difficulty is provided and dependent on the human opponent who is subject to the same rules as you, and the game is just a medium—a chess board, a tennis court.
Edit: And barriers to entry are actually lower for Starcraft relative to other games because it’s so old and so popular—there is an entire encyclopedia devoted to it it full of advice and ready to use game plans.
Fake difficulty applies to multiplayer too. Anything that adds barriers to entry or needless clicks is fake difficulty. Games like Starcraft, where you sometimes end up fighting the interface instead of your opponent, have a lot of fake difficulty. If you’re going by That Other Site’s definition of fake difficulty, the #1 thing on the list is “Bad technical aspects make it difficult,” which certainly seems to apply!
For example, in Starcraft you have to micro all your workers to different mineral patches at the start of the game in order to get the most efficient economy possible. This is fake difficulty because games with real interfaces allow you to select all and click once, then the workers automatically fan out. Starcraft requires at least 8 (in practice usually 10) clicks in order to accomplish what other games do in 2. Further, some of the Starcraft community actually wants this “feature” to be preserved for Starcraft 2, as it “adds skill.” Fortunately, I don’t think Blizzard is going to acquiesce.
I never really got into playing starcraft because of the primitive interface, i could never really enjoy playing it, but I am into watching korean matches with english commentarys on youtube.
I think that the primitive interface makes the game less enjoyable for me, but doesn’t add ‘fake difficulty’. I like that its a very difficult game to play well in terms of micro and macro, and then on top of that starcraft is also rich in strategy and ‘tradition’ (for some reason I like that starcraft is a very old game)
South Korea begs to differ.
Starcraft is a bad game, though; it’s only popular because the ridiculously primitive 1998-era interface means that actual physical speed is required to control your units correctly, which adds barriers to entry to competitive play and makes it more challenging to play and therefore more impressive for someone to be good at. It’s pretty much the embodiment of fake difficulty in game design.
The relative physical speed is what counts. The best players would benefit from a modern interface at least as much as much as the worst.
Fake difficulty is a meaningful word only in singleplayer. Fake difficulty is giving computer controlled opponents more hit points or map hacks instead of better AI. In multiplayer, the difficulty is provided and dependent on the human opponent who is subject to the same rules as you, and the game is just a medium—a chess board, a tennis court.
Edit: And barriers to entry are actually lower for Starcraft relative to other games because it’s so old and so popular—there is an entire encyclopedia devoted to it it full of advice and ready to use game plans.
Fake difficulty applies to multiplayer too. Anything that adds barriers to entry or needless clicks is fake difficulty. Games like Starcraft, where you sometimes end up fighting the interface instead of your opponent, have a lot of fake difficulty. If you’re going by That Other Site’s definition of fake difficulty, the #1 thing on the list is “Bad technical aspects make it difficult,” which certainly seems to apply!
For example, in Starcraft you have to micro all your workers to different mineral patches at the start of the game in order to get the most efficient economy possible. This is fake difficulty because games with real interfaces allow you to select all and click once, then the workers automatically fan out. Starcraft requires at least 8 (in practice usually 10) clicks in order to accomplish what other games do in 2. Further, some of the Starcraft community actually wants this “feature” to be preserved for Starcraft 2, as it “adds skill.” Fortunately, I don’t think Blizzard is going to acquiesce.
Um, I suppose your evidence is true, but the game is great in spite of its 1998-era interface. The balance between the races is sublime.
I never really got into playing starcraft because of the primitive interface, i could never really enjoy playing it, but I am into watching korean matches with english commentarys on youtube.
I think that the primitive interface makes the game less enjoyable for me, but doesn’t add ‘fake difficulty’. I like that its a very difficult game to play well in terms of micro and macro, and then on top of that starcraft is also rich in strategy and ‘tradition’ (for some reason I like that starcraft is a very old game)