In response to "World of StarCraft" from The Escapist Forum: I watched some of these videos having been linked to them by a friend. I was impressed by the amount of muscle memory these players employ for a strategy game. The commentators refer to it as "micro". Mad mouse skills are something I associate with twitchy fps players who want to get headshots within .08 seconds of first seeing an opponent. I never expected to see some one control RST unit movements to the extent I saw in these games.
- hamster mk 4
What fascinates me about all of this is that they don't like Warcraft III nearly as much. Why? Sure, the 4 races are weirdly balanced but it's certainly a rock solid RTS. They play the MMORPG as well but...not on this scale. So brand loyalty isn't what's going on here. The graphics were kinda dated even in 1998 but that's not stopping them. Maybe after years of training and mastering one particular sport, one particular game...they don't feel like learning a new one. You don't expect a basketball player to switch into baseball, right?
Could it just be that S. Koreans picked one particular RTS and decided to stick with it?
The real test will be when Starcraft 2 hits the market. If they jump ship, then all of this is bogus conjecture. But it would be pretty funny if they just kept playing Starcraft instead.
- L.B. Jeffries
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In response to "Baang You're Dead" from The Escapist Forum: Death is inevitable. Dying doing something you love is a poetic way to go. Dying by having a stingray stab you in the gut is an accident. Dying sat on your arse for 3days in a public place playing a computer game is depressing, whether they loved doing it or not.
- Cousin_IT
In the spirit of this article, let us not take this as a spurn of Korean culture. I think Russ is trying to articulate that we need to look to what we spend our time doing.
As far as gamers go, North America has equally sad stories about gaming. Destroyed relationships over MMOGs, neglected children and lost jobs. These may not be as recognizable as death, but they are equally as horrible.
I think, in general we need to consider what we do as gamers and balance our entertainment with other aspects of our lives.
- Samboya
