The Blizzard Carrot

Blizzard games are mostly boring games where you don't have to think that much, just be patient. It can be relaxing, mind you.

An example was Diablo II. You didn't have to be good, you just had to be patient. Keep clicking on them monsters all day, and you'll end up in the top of the ladder.

From a game like StarCraft II, though, you'd expect something more. It's supposed to be a strategy game, the S in RTS. I have to say, it's not.

In a good game, the difficulty should be there naturally, you should have to think or show some peculiar skill to beat the game. The game's interface should be there to help you use your skills as directly as possible. The difficulty in a good game shouldn't come from imprecise controls, lack of save-game possibilities, or purpusefully tedious game controls.

StarCraft 2 could have been a good game, a game where you have to plan a strategy, manage your resources, etc. It's not.

• The introduction of the "carrot" system should be a warning that playing the game isn't rewarding in itself, but that instead you have to accomplish some boring achievements just in order to get the "Sarah Kerrigan" portrait.
• It's not about being smart, it's about being fast. In higher difficulty levels, you can't adjust the speed of the game. Most missions are simply about watching multiple fronts, keeping producing units, etc.
• The previous point wouldn't be so bad, if there weren't artificial difficulty added on purpose : you can queue up only that much units or research per building, and you have to pay them in advance. So basically you have to keep clicking back and forth from each building to build one unit after the other. Is this strategy? I don't think so.
• There's a lot of micro-management, your units being purpusefully stupid to force you to watch all of them. They'll stand and let themselves be burned by lava, they won't defend themselves against brood lords, etc. Does it require any skill or thinking to tell your units to get out of lava? No.

Of course, the huge success of games like The Sims should have warned us about what the public wants. In the near future, expect strategy games to be defined as games where you have to send your soldiers to the bathroom at regular intervals.

2010-12-28