Most
gamers have heard of StarCraft, the strategy game by Blizzard Entertainment.
But very few people actually know what it is. Most people know that the game is
very popular in South Korea, and that there are tournaments and “pro-gamers”
that spend their entire lives playing this game. This produces the general
perception that StarCraft is incredibly difficult to play and that it’s
impossible for a normal person to enjoy this game.
But
the game has changed. In July 2010, a sequel to StarCraft was released. Though
this game is just as difficult to play as its predecessor (I would argue that
it is more difficult), the game has been completely redesigned so that it is much
easier to watch. This means that it can be enjoyed by people that do not
actually play this game. And it shows. In 2008, only around 30,000 people
outside of South Korea followed the StarCraft: Broodwar professional scene. During
the beta of StarCraft II in May 2010, the top tournaments would be lucky to
have 3000 concurrent viewers. By the end of 2011, popular online streamers can
easily break 60,000 viewers and the top-level StarCraft II tournaments would
have more viewers than nationally syndicated television channels such as Comedy
Central. (in the millions)
And
I am a strong believer in the power of professional gaming, or “e-sports”. I
want it to succeed, even more than it already has, because I love this game and
I love the community. So I decided that I want to write a guide to StarCraft
for people who want to watch the game, but don’t really want to spend much time
learning how to play it. Therefore I want to explain this game in a simple way
that may not be very good for people who actually play the game, but would
suffice for those who want to watch a StarCraft match and know what is going
on.
