The Idea Shop

As most of you all remember, in the 1930s and 1940s the menace of Hitler and Japanese Imperialism was threatening the safety of the world. Although much credit is given to our troops on the ground and in the air, I feel like not enough credit is given to our geniuses and their chalkboards. Thanks to the ingenuity of America's smart people, we were able to crack the codes of both the Germans and the Japanese, and intercept all radio communications. This information at the same time screwed up all of the Axis's sneaky maneuvers and also allowed the Allies to pull off one sneaky maneuver after another.

In StarCraft and war, information is everything. That's why I like poker and starcraft: both are games of incomplete information. You want to gather as much information as possible, while limiting your opponent's information. If you can do that, you've won half the battle.

It's a common mistake for newer players to forget to scout their opponent. This is huge error, because they will not know what to expect if they don't scout. If the opponent is fast-expanding, you can counter with a quick push or a fast expand of your own. If the opponent is militarizing, you need to prepare your defenses. If the opponent is teching, you can either go for a push, or you better have detection/anti-air/whatever else.

All three races have unique ways to gather information, which fits their playing styles.

The Terran are the best at peering deep inside the enemy base. The Comsat Scanner is unstoppable. However, it has limited energy, so it can only be used sparingly.

The Zerg have the burrow ability. This allows them to place zerglings around the map in order to see enemy movements. Zerglings are extremely cheap, so this is extremely cost effective for Zerg. They can also set up traps and ambushes, such as burrowing a dozen hydralisks under an overlord, and waiting for a corsair to arrive. The downside is that you cannot follow the movement of enemies, so you will have to fill in the blanks yourself. The Zerg also have the innocuous-looking Overlord. It plays a key role in the beginning, essentially acting as a free scout. This enables the zerg to very quickly know where the enemy is on a 4-player map, by sending a drone clockwise, the overlord counterclockwise, and if the enemy is not at one of these bases, then the enemy is across.

The Protoss have observers, which are arguably better than both Comsat and burrowed units. They are cloaked and have detection, which makes them great for following armies around the map as they move. This is something neither Terrans nor Zerg can do. However, observers are pretty darn expensive for a non-combat unit and they can't be everywhere at once. They're also slow and weak, so they're very vulnerable to any unit once they're detected.

Okay, before I start out with this article. I am not a nerd.

Start:

I remember the Golden Days of IMSA, where all our fellow brethren would gather up their computers have enjoy a compelling game of StarCraft. The game was played just for kicks but I thought it really offered B-Wing bonding time; and as bad as it may have seemed, discussing StarCraft over the dinner table was a lot of fun. Note: I never discussed StarCraft as I ate, I just listened. It was mostly Ashwin and Steven talking about it.

So playing the game was fun; however, many would argue that we were wasting our time. Parents say games = wasting time -> becomming a garbage collector. For me, being a garbage collector wasn't so bad as you do get paid quite a bit. Anyways...

Back then, I saw the game as a menacing time guzzler. Everyday I'd be sleeping in Japanese class with my eyes open because I was up too late playing the retarded game. As time progressed, however, the game died. Eventually it would just be me, Seo, and Steven playing...Steven > Seo> me, cuz steven was being gay and using tanks, and seo was being homo and using storm- believe it or not, Seo does have a homo side to him.

So I left the game because it was no fun anymore, and years past...

AND THEN!!!!

I started playing again, thanks to ktao. However, this time the experience was much more different. This time I began to focus on strategic ideas in the game, and also improving multitasking skills. By all means, I still suck, but I find this game as certainly more 3D dimensional than any other game, despite its graphics.

Like poker and go, I think StarCraft possess a quality of strategic balance that relate to life so well, that many of the same applications applied in the game can be directly applied to real life situations.

To name a few ideas presented in the game:
nuance
psychology
precision
multitasking
micro/macro managing
economics
anticipating
Speed
planning
reacting
mouse clicking-yes this muscle will come handy some day, i'm sure
risk bearing
utilitarianism
and etc.

i have just named a few ideas that are well embedded in the game, while there are certainly more. If you looked at each of the items in the list, you'll notice that these ideas are not game specific, rather they are subjects clearly significant in real life situations. So even though I'm writing an article about a game, I'm really not. Hence, I'm not a nerd...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/magazine/11poker.html?pagewanted=1