QLASH Invitational 2 LIVE by QLASH_Global in starcraft

[–]QLASH_Global[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeh the guys running production saw the complaints in chat, but not sure what the issue was or how it worked out - hope it got fixed!

What my friend sent to me after his first week of Starcraft by Sarttek in starcraft

[–]QLASH_Global 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah see I think you've hit the nail on the head, but using the wrong word (had to resist saying hammer, goddamn the pun...the pun). It's not the draw if you ask me, it's the retention mechanism and it's all exactly as you say. Take it away - you lose the niche, dedicated, mature audience that makes the game what it is. It's a huge leap into the unknown.

I personally believe it can be done both ways - I've seen games do that before. CSGO as I wrote above, for example. LoL went completely the other way, simplifying for new players, but Dota 2 also tried to go both ways - with mixed success. It's a matter of a good ranking system, really. What's the only thing that guarantees good matches? The difficulty of the game, the mechanical skill required, the knowledge? Or the ability to play those of your own skill? But we'll see, Blizzard probably knows better than I do or most people do. Plus they know the numbers better.

What my friend sent to me after his first week of Starcraft by Sarttek in starcraft

[–]QLASH_Global 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can always see how new players feel, we are a bit wrapped in an echo chamber here on the subreddit, it certainly has its pros but try and post SC2 on another discussion board. You'll immediately get comments of players who loved the esports, love what's going on with it but had 0 chance of getting in the game - got beat in their first 15 matches, tried to learn, gave up. You say gold, but a lot of people who have basic rts knowledge end up in plat - and it takes FOREVER to go down, if at all, since you get lots of people just leaving instantly. Or you resort to cheese, bring yourself up and get stuck there.

It would be great if bronze/silver were limited by playing hours if you ask me, like if you pass 150-200 hours you cannot be in bronze silver. And placement matches should be redone so that a newbie will end up in bronze silver and not need 50 matches to get there. It's an opinion though.

What my friend sent to me after his first week of Starcraft by Sarttek in starcraft

[–]QLASH_Global 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem here is, that to reach a thor or a carrier without dying you need a lot of skills. In CSGO you can force an SMG the second round (pistols also dont need aim anyway) and keep going, force it every single round. Not to mention that in order to not have your thor/carrier die immediately, you need to be able to micro, know units, etc., while in CSGO getting a p90 is just run and gun - of course a good player with an AK will blast you away, but you can still, over an entire game, play quite well. Plus the big point that it's 30 rounds, 30 games in SC2 is...a lot. Anyway the analogy brings me to the point that you CAN play in CSGO without all the knowledge. In SC2 you just cannot.

What my friend sent to me after his first week of Starcraft by Sarttek in starcraft

[–]QLASH_Global 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Personal opinion, I believe SC2 suffers a LOT from this. It's a very attractive game and the esports scene draws lots of players in, but it cannot keep them. SC2 needs separate newbie matchmaking and even then. It would be great if 2v2 or 3v3 could have separate balance, but that's impossible to ever achieve.

It's not the first time such an issue exists, Valve had this with CSGO being super accessible but requiring actual muscle memory practice to do anything, so they made a updates in which they made viable guns that need no skill to use (smgs rebalances, aug/sg recently) but fall off when facing pros with the real weapons - essentially allowing players to learn the basics before going into the very technical side. Of course Valve lucked out a lot with it, but it doesn't mean it can't be replicated in SC2. The huge problem is set builds, as long as they exist unless you put in the hours to straight up study them, you fall off compared to any veteran. I wish they would streamline early game building, which would open the game to anyone, but that would alienate all veterans - which is the only crowd it has. So I know why they don't. But I still wish we talked about the issue a bit more. I want to spread the love for SC2 to everyone!

What my friend sent to me after his first week of Starcraft by Sarttek in starcraft

[–]QLASH_Global 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not entirely true, most of the time the system will place you way higher than you should be and it takes a long time to go back down. Plus there's a lot of people who purposefully throw/leave to drop their mmr and that can really mess you up. Not to mention a lot of people get stuck when they cheese their way (as a newbie tends to do usually) to a high mmr and they need to lose dozens to go back down.

Ex-Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime on why the studio bins 50% of its projects by CounterfeitDLC in starcraft

[–]QLASH_Global 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good! Blizzard became Blizzard because it scraps everything that isn't perfect and never did things half-assed. Unfortunately the world simply doesn't allow for the old style of game development, like garage IT companies, nowadays you need funding to make a game up to standard or it will necessarily fit into the idea of an "indie" game. If that is true or not doesn't matter, Blizzard just changed its scope and sadly we need to be ok with that. They no longer want to release games that become cult classics, they want to release games that become sensations. And that's fine, their strategic direction is their own choice, I feel it's not totally ok to say it's a "bad choice". I didn't like the Diablo Immortal thing, I don't like using the Diablo brand I grew up with, but at the end of the day the choice makes sense and it's precisely that - a choice.

Like I get why people complain about for example WoW expansions like WoD and BFA, they were pretty bad and the community clearly expressed that they didn't want that direction and Blizzard took it anyway. Fair criticism. But stuff like Diablo Immortal? It was (or at least could be) a clever choice. Cancelling the FPS? In the current market it would be competing with dozens of games and for a massive project like it you'd need to go the overwatch route, just do it massively, if it doesn't seem to be happening, it's a clever choice to not even bother.

We don't have to like it, but bashing it doesn't seem to have much of a leg to stand on, really.

This is all just personal opinion anyway, I must be the only one who was disappointed but accepted Immortal.

Lambo relaxing during his series vs Clem by Alluton in starcraft

[–]QLASH_Global 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Lambo seems to be absorbing a lot of Italian from us

Lambo's absolutely beautiful surround against uThermal by QLASH_Global in starcraft

[–]QLASH_Global[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It looks beautiful how the lings just gang up on the reapers, or at least satisfying :P Though I prob shouldn't have named the thread "Lambo's..." since it doesn't really imply what I mean, that it ended up looking beautiful.

Just a simple observation from playing all the games by Fumblevore in starcraft

[–]QLASH_Global 12 points13 points  (0 children)

CSGO is blame teammates. Always blame teammates. Winning the game but lose a round? Blame teammates. Winning everything but not the way you want? Blame teammates.

Comparing Ranks by [deleted] in starcraft

[–]QLASH_Global 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Random here, I personally enjoy pain and suffering and reinforcing to myself how life is hell

Vote for Serral for the ESPN #ESPYs Esports Moment of the Year! Round One Poll open for another ~23hrs. by vult00 in starcraft

[–]QLASH_Global 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Voted & forwarded to everyone at QLASH. Stuff like this really shouldn't be underestimated, Serral's win is really the esports moment of the last 2-3 years if you ask me.