Leveling Down

Learning to play Starcraft II & Super Street Fighter IV at the same time is rough stuff!

cmfl3x and I are both caught up in the Starcraft II beta and Super Street Fighter IV as of late, so we decided to each write about how we’re doing and feeling with regards to both games. Considering the two of us are writing as aging hardcore gamers, Starcraft and Street Fighter are probably among the most hardcore games you can possibly play. In each game, you’re primarily pit against a single opponent (at least, for 1v1 in Starcraft II) where your objective is to destroy your opponent. Whether you want to settle a score with another player in a couple minutes or several, it doesn’t matter as apparently both games have gotten my adrenaline pumping and give me trouble falling asleep at night when I play too close to bedtime. It’s hard to believe that 10 years ago my buddies and I were playing Starcraft on the PC and Marvel vs. Street Fighter on the Saturn back in college. Read on for my thoughts and progress on the next major games in both universes.

Starcraft II
I’m definitely getting better at this game. I continue to learn viable strategies and favorable units to use in different matchups. What’s interesting is that when I first started playing, I would almost always do a natural expansion, regardless of my race. That won me games against easier opponents who didn’t scout or just turtled, but as I continued to play more matches, I began going up against more difficult opponents. This has forced me to play a lot more aggressively.

I’ve been sending my brother replays of some of my close matches and him being the intellectual strategist as he is, has questioned various holes in my playstyle and they are almost always right on the mark. He would ask me why I did certain things, and why I didn’t kill my opponent once certain advantageous positions presented themselves. “Why did you expand when you could have just finished your opponent off? You had a clear advantage and could have just won with your current forces.” So succinct and to the point. Well, what he doesn’t understand maybe is that I think part of me enjoys the sim city aspect of building expansions! As much of a gamer as I am, I actually am sort of a passive guy when it comes to competition. I joked around that I think I enjoy just building bases and don’t care as much for the actual combat. Part of me is happy seeing full scale bases and expansions constructed and thriving. Sounds silly right? But part of that is really true. Maybe that’s why I can’t get into online RTS games such as Dawn of War II since they’re all about combat and not about base building. If I can’t build a base or expansions, then half of the fun is gone for me!

In any case, I do heed my brother’s advice though because at the end of the day, a repressed part of me still desires the win. Nowadays I’m scouting more, hard rushing, etc. His instructions: “Scout early, scout often, and punish when you can. 1v1 is all about you throwing off your opponent’s game. If you lose something but hurt your opponent more, you will still win.” He should write his own book or something. Anyway, I’m doing OK – moving slowly up to the top of the Bronze league. I’m 10 and 10 right now, and unlocking new portraits as I win more matches, which is enjoyable in its own way.

What has been helping me learn the most is applying a tactic that has beaten me in the next time I find myself in a similar matchup. I keep using that strategy until I get beaten by it, and then it helps me think about new units. For example, earlier today I got Protoss against a decent Terran. In an earlier matchup when I was Terran against a Protoss, I just massed marines and siege tanks like classic Starcraft. The Protoss player massed Stalkers, researched Blink, and just blinked his way into my mineral line and shut me down. GG. Tonight as Protoss against a Terran, I tried a similar strategy but the Terran player massed Marauders to counter me. Those things owned my Stalkers. I’m actually having a hard time thinking what to make to counter Marauders as Protoss, but hopefully it comes with time. You bet that I will mass Marauders next time I’m Terran and go up against a Protoss player to see if I learn anything new! What I like about Starcraft II is that I’m decent enough to play it since I played the first one, so as I get beaten by something, I can try that strategy for myself. Super Street Fighter IV is another story.

Super Street Fighter IV
I’m enjoying this game, and I’m very happy that I found a new character that I want to use and get good with. In previous fighting games, like Soul Calibur IV, I never found a character I could get attached to enough to want to get good with. In Street Fighter IV, I chose Sagat but got people that were complaining to me about how cheap of a character I chose, and that did get me to stop playing not only him, but the entire game altogether. Now with Cody though, I have a fresh start to really get into the game.

Unlike Starcraft II where I’m .500, I’m like .200 at best in Super Street Fighter IV – winning maybe 1 out of every 5 matchups I get. While Starcraft II is a considerably hardcore game, I find Super Street Fighter IV to be even more hardcore, as I have to worry about all these different characters to fight against as opposed to Starcraft II’s 3 races. And what makes things even more difficult (and I would even say frustrating on my part), is that I have to deal with input issues so I can’t pull off moves that I want to do. In Starcraft II, I can scout the situation, prepare accordingly, and go to battle. In most cases, building the right counter units often wins the game, so I don’t have to worry too much about execution as much as I do strategy. But in Super Street Fighter IV, execution is practically everything. Getting that anti-air medium punch out when you’re getting jump kicked. Linking your block string into a special. Juggling an opponent and then Focus Attack canceling it into an Ultra. All this stuff can make or break whether you win the match. And for me, let’s just say I’m not winning too many matches. In Super Street Fighter IV, everything needs to be processed in that millisecond before you perform a move. There’s so little room for error. Still, I am learning though, and I’d like to think I’m getting better. I’m just happy that there are still some newbies to the game as well, so I can feel good about winning every once in a while. But even then, I wonder if I’m improving when beating them. Part of me feels like I’d gain more by simply playing against an AI with infinite health in the training mode.

Again, I think about my brother, who routs me practically every time a fighting game. At least with games like Starcraft II, I can still win based on my experience and what I know counters what. But with fighting games such as Street Fighter, my brother has this innate quality that I don’t – he reads his opponent. I think about this from time to time, because we’ve played so many fighting games growing up and he always was the better fighting game player. I could play a fighting game for weeks and he would come check it out one day, and then just beats me in his first match. I feel like his playstyle for fighting games is very similar to the advice he gives with Starcraft II: destroy your opponent by any means possible. He plays Chess and Go competitively, so I guess he’s used to these 1v1 do or die situations. For me, I squirm a bit when I know it’s down to me and only me against another human player.

The Future
While the training wheels have basically come off for me in Starcraft II, they are still very much on in Super Street Fighter IV. Starcraft II is enjoyable for me now. I want to keep playing it. I’m comfortable enough to play doubles now. As soon as I’m done with a match I want to hop back in and play another. After losing so much in Super Street Fighter IV, I almost feel like retreating into Starcraft II. Of course, I know that the more time I put into Super Street Fighter IV, the better I will get so I can’t give up on that front. I just know that the road for me to becoming good at Super Street Fighter IV is much longer than Starcraft II and I almost want an easy out and would find comfort in just getting good at Starcraft II. But that’s not an option! Super Street Fighter IV is my chance to actually jump into the series and actually be good!

It’s funny that I’m learning to play two highly competitive games at the same time. In the office, I’m trying to get work done while also browsing different sites to read up on strategies and discussions on both Starcraft II and Super Street Fighter IV. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been doing so much research on playing a game, let alone two. But, I’m learning and I guess the process is fun in its own way. Of course, I need to inject myself with that bloodlust of wanting to destroy my opponent. Too many single player games these days have made me become a softie. “Forget other people’s feelings and just crush them!” I have to yell at myself now when I play. Maybe I’ll have to play some angry music also and get myself worked up into a frenzy. Who knows – I may check in again later and let you guys know if things are progressing along.

Be Sociable, Share!

•