The Batlord

Okay, so, a few months ago I got StarCraft 2, and I'm kind of really getting into it, and would like to start a new journal to sort of give myself some kind of motivation to counteract my normal tendencies toward gloriously self-defeating laziness. I'm hoping that documenting my progress in the game (especially the multiplayer aspect), giving my thoughts on the game, gushing over some of the things that I've already discovered, uploading replays to Youtube and posting them here (if I can figure that out), and just in general creating a timeline for my journey into Starcraft 2, will "keep me on track" or some such bull****.

Since this is an introduction to this series, a bit of self-indulgent historifying is in order...

I've been mildly interested in StarCraft 2 for a little while, but it had certainly never dominated my thoughts to much of any extent. Most of my curiosity came from a love of Real-Time Strategy games (if you don't know what that is then you probably don't care, but they're basically games about fighting large scale battles by controlling non-player units). However, due to my introduction to the genre being from Red Alert 2 and other Westwood Studios RTS games -- combined with a lifelong propensity for stubborn, nerd tribalism -- I generally scorned Blizzard's WarCraft and StarCraft games, despite the fact that they seemed to get more love. They just weren't my games, and so they were the enemy (though not nearly so much as Star Trek, for example, due to my history as a rabid Star Wars fanboy).

But that was all in the past, when I was a high school kid, still with a working computer (which I have again, after nearly a decade, thank Kerrigan). Westwood Studios is now defunct and their IPs are the property of mother****ing EA, who is predictably running their franchises into the ground of mediocrity -- so no real point in continuing a rivalry I probably never actually cared about in the first place -- whereas StarCraft has become a phenomenon, with legitimately professional players and tournaments, which are even televised in South Korea, the spiritual home of eSports and StarCraft in particular.

Seriously, South Koreans are crazy about StarCraft. I've seen a video filmed around the time that SC 2 was just about to come out, and there is a giant, electronic billboard, like you'd see in Times Square, advertising the game, and just a minute later, a bus with a SC 2 ad goes zooming by. It was kind of crazy. Not surprisingly their players generally dominate the tournaments...



I was still only vaguely cognizant of StarCraft until sometime around the summer/fall of last year, but that all changed with my discovery of Day[9]. Oh my god how I love this man, this charismatic uber-nerd who reminds me a bit of Joss Whedon, were his hint of smarmy ego not obviously tongue-in-cheek (I love Joss, but he does come across more than a little self-satisfied).

Day[9] is a StarCraft commentator who originally made a name for himself as a pro player in his own right during the days of the original StarCraft, and then transitioned to self-made "Dailies" on Blip.TV, Youtube, and his own Day9.TV.

Each Daily consists of Sean "Day[9]" Plott sitting in front of his computer and giving in-depth analysis of replays from others' online StarCraft games, with a level of expertise which, combined with a heavy dose of humor, has made him one of the biggest figures in the StarCraft community. Often this analysis is directed at an audience already very familiar with the game, but his Newbie Tuesday entries have provided me with some of the most invaluable advice I have ever received in any video game, and Funday Monday adds a delightful dose of irreverent silliness to the mix by Day[9] challenging his viewers to play games while restricted to often outlandish rules -- such as imploring players to never attack -- and then "analyzing" the replays sent to him.

This is a personal fav of mine, as it really just takes the piss with the game, while making it fun and introducing unique challenges one would otherwise never face by playing "normally".



Probably the aspect of Day[9]'s videos that has resonated most with me is his unbridled passion. Sean is often giddy just to be talking about his favorite game, and regularly goes on at length for over an hour, yet I never tire of watching him, despite the fact that I'm so green to the game that I can only take so much away from his lessons.

If you have the time and inclination, then I would highly suggest that you give his Daily #100, "My Life of Starcraft", a watch. It's almost two hours long, but even if you don't care about StarCraft in the least, Day[9] is a masterful storyteller, and the sheer level of passion that he exudes while waxing nostalgic about his entire history as a StarCraft player (and StarCraft itself, since he's been playing since literally day one), occasionally even breaking into tears, is the perfect example of the feeling he transfers to his viewers. You just want to go play ****ing StarCraft after watching a Day[9] video. It would just be wasting everyone's time if you didn't, ya know?



I honestly couldn't tell you how much Day[9] I've watched over the past few months, even before I actually bought the damn game. Just last night, after being unsatisfied with my performance in a multiplayer training mission against an AI opponent, I promptly watched two Dailies dedicated to basic economic mechanics of my chosen race (Zerg), and then shat upon the computer much more convincingly. Got my ass handed to me in the final multiplayer training mission a bit ago, and so I'm in the middle of another Daily to figure out a strategy to fixate on until I can get it to work -- one of his lessons is to just pick a strategy you like, even if it doesn't seem to be working, and just do it, over and over and over again, refining as you go, but only doing that one strategy until you've got it down like clockwork before trying something new. I'm thinking early-Mutalisk harassment. Flying units kick ass.

But enough Day[9] asskissing. He's a new hero of mine, but this thread is about me. Me, me, me! Anyways...

So in closing, I'm hoping to keep this journal going, along with my StarCraft 2 multiplayer career (full disclosure: never even played a single game against a human being yet), as this just seems like a fun world to dive into, and writing about it seems like good motivation. And if I can figure out how to post some replays, and I get good enough to be able to brag like a douche, well then that's just a side benefit.

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