NOLAG Lans

If anyone is interested, I have created a Forum topic on the Escapist regarding what a memorable video game intro movie was for you. If anyone is interested, head on over to http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.86160#1268289

While the big Christmas releases have passed, their is still plenty to look forward to in the world of gaming before the infamous gaming drought arrives. For those of you that don’t know, the gaming drought is an annual period that encompasses most of the Spring and Summer months in which few big name titles are released until September and the subsequent Christmas rush.

Take heart though, for February is shaping up to be a fantastic month for gaming. While their is certainly a range of games coming out, I would like to draw you attention to two in particular. On the console front, I know that fighting game enthusiats across the world are already booking off time for the release of Street Fighter 4, a sequel that will mark a decade wait since the release of Street Fighter 3rd Strike into arcades. For those of you unsure of what Street Fighter is, allow me to jog you memory…Hadōken. Now that that’s out of the way, we can move on to First-Person Shooters (FPS).

The long awaited sequel to FEAR, titled Fear 2: Project Orgins will be making its debut in early February on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. While the single-player demo shows off some of the fantastic combat that made the first such a success, the choice of less realistic art style reminiscient of Project Snowblind raises questions as to whether the horror atmosphere will be conveyed as well as it was in the original. Regardless of graphical qualms, if the combat and multiplayer are able to match the excellent standards set by the first FEAR, then February will be a month to remember for FPS fans on PC and Console alike.

While Console strategy fans (all three of them) are likely to be left out in the cold, hopefully they will be able to salvage some warmth from Ensemble’s Halo Wars demo, slated for release next month. PC Strategy game fans on the other hand, are shaping up for a very good month indeed. Relic’s Dawn of War 2 will be hitting shelves in the second half of the month and promises to offer a souped version of the physics engine present in their award winning game, Company of Herores. Given the success of the original Dawn of War and Relic in general, it’s hard to imagine how Dawn of War 2, despite being radically different from the original, will be anything less than the excellent standard that Relic has set with the original. With that said, in almost completely scrapping base building in favour of combat management, Relic has severed the Dawn of War franchise from the tried and true base building formula used in most Strategy games, most notably Starcraft 2, which is slated for release approximately whenever Blizzard feels like it. In lieu of base building, players will be expected to manage their units positions in and around cover, ensure the right troops and equipment are present, as well as manage various abilities associated with the various troops.

While promoting NOLAG at our student recruitment week booth this week, I’ve been receiving a lot of questions and comments about Starcraft 2. Specifically, I have noticed a lot of gamers whose last game was Starcraft claiming that they plan to get back into gaming with Starcraft 2. Of these, virtually all I have met claim that they were L33T (expert, elite, or high level players for those of you not familiar with gamer lingo) players back in the day and are looking forward to “dominating” the internet community.

I shake my head every time I hear this as I feel that if this is the reason why many of the gamers are getting back into the game, they are setting themselves up for a big letdown. For you see, while many of these gamers may have possessed some skill and maybe even placed high in the Internet rankings back in the day, the vast majority of them had quit playing the game before some major developments occurred in the Starcraft gaming community.

Most significant would be the explosion of popularity in South Korea and the development of Starcraft as a borderline sport in the country. So popular has it become that many of the top gamers of Starcraft live a lifestyle similar to that of an athlete. Practicing for 8 eight hours a day, following a carefully regulated diet and exercise regime, and enjoying the boons of corporate sponsors, these “professional” gamers have taken Starcraft to a whole other level than “old” professional players. Below the professional level, Starcraft is still played to a degree which, during the time of these old-school Starcraft players, was in a relative minority.

Excluding the gap in weekly hours played between current Starcraft players (particularly those in South Korea) in comparison with older players, the difference in the timeline in which the two groups have been playing will account for the scale of gaming skill to tip out of the old-school Starcraft player’s favor. Much like riding a bike, while you may not forget how to play Starcraft despite not having done so in five or more years, your ability to do so will certainly be no match for someone who continues to play every week.

On top of all this, it’s common knowledge that Blizzard is putting Starcraft 2 through a lengthy beta-testing stage; as they should, considering the success and reputation the original has garnered as a Tournament game. In the course of beta-testing Starcraft 2, Blizzard has recruited several top-level Starcraft players (largely from South Korea again) to give the game a thorough testing. This result however, is that with the release of Starcraft 2, despite likely having undergone some post-beta changes, will be a game which at least some of the current professional and high-level players of the original will be familiar with. While some may argue that Starcraft 2 will largely mirror the original in game concepts (a point which will be argued until the release of Starcraft 2…and likely long after), thus reducing the benefits the beta-testers received, I would like to point out that experience is experience and beta-testing the game will surely give them an edge over those who haven’t

Taken together, these factors will spell disaster for old-school “professional” or self-described L33T players intending to repeat the successes they enjoyed with the original game. While these gamers may have logged many hours  back in the day and may even intend to book some time off work to maximize their gaming when the game comes out, they just can’t expect to compete with gamers who:

1) Play or have played the game to a degree rivaling that of a job
2) Continue to regularly play the game
3) May already possess a degree of familiarity with the sequel

By no means however, do I wish to discourage these old-school Starcraft gamers from purchasing the sequel. It will very likely be an excellent game and keep with the quality which Blizzard has become known for. The campaign will likely be well thought out and reveal more of the Starcraft mythos, the multiplayer will, given the large amount of beta-testing, be as balanced as a multiplayer game can be on day 1(though I highly doubt it will be long before patches start rolling out), and that many of the elements that gamers loved about the first Starcraft will be present in the sequel. What I do want is for these gamers to temper their enthusiasm for online play. While I am sure that they will have lots of fun playing online and with their friends and in matchmaking, I feel that they will be deeply disappointed if they intend to regain their position in the top 100 players without being prepared to lay down some serious time commitments. By all means buy the game and enjoy it for what it is, but just don’t feel disappointed when a 14 year-old who puts in 8+ hours a day wipes the floor with you. Not everyone can be L33T forever.

We were recently running a booth during student recruitment week and accepting email addresses from students passing by to be added to our mailing list. Unfortunately, an email which so far as I can tell reads spaulex5@hotmail.com is being bounced back as an invalid email address. If you are a student whose email is spelled in someway close to this and recently visited the NOLAG booth, please email us at nolaguofm@gmail.com with your real email address. Thanks.