In defense of hard counters in real time strategy games

Post by BlueTemplar » Thu, Jul 29, 2021, 9:19 AM UTC

retsibsi wrote: post #111

maverwa wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one big reasons why RTS are having trouble is, that loosing in an RTS, as a new player, can be one of the worst experiences in gaming (not counting player toxicity): you just spend several minutes, maybe a lot of them, playing this game, you finally got your T2 fab, and then the enemy nukes you with his experimental artillery and you are just gone. No way to understand what exactly went wrong. To slow? Wrong…

> Compare that to a shooter I wouldn't claim they're quite so opaque, but Quakelike FPS games have a similar problem. They appear to be about shooting, but in fact at least 50% of the game is resource control (and even the combat itself is more nuanced than a new player realises). So when you're a new player losing to an experienced player, it can be super confusing and demoralising. Confusing because you probably do…

Post by BlueTemplar » Thu, Jul 29, 2021, 9:27 AM UTC

rvba wrote: post #136

opportune wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s just skill. They’re also primarily team based. If you win, you can feel really good because you had a 17/2 K/D. If you lose, you can blame your teammates. You can also play with your friends. With starcaft even though team matches are supported, they are unpopular, and there’s no easy way to look at the stats for the game and feel like a badass if you win.

Team games are quite popular in StarCraft Brood War - not only 2 vs 2, but often 3 vs 3 or even 4 vs 4. In fact the 3v3 and 4v4 games were usually played by lower skilled players, due to the relatively lower skill cap and relatively random results (at low skills win or lose depends more who you get on your team than your own actions). Brood War also has custom maps with relatively crude, but still use programming (lo…