19 Oct 2012

Is Starcraft 2 facing a serious crisis?


Personally we do not feel that Starcraft 2 is facing a crisis, but there is currently so much talk about the state and future of Starcraft 2 as a game that it's actually insane.

Two days ago it practically exploded when Destiny submitted this post on Reddit:

Starcraft 2 will be dead long before Legacy of the Void if Blizzard doesn't change its course

Most of what he is saying is undoubtable very interesting and impossible to ignore.

One of the issues he discusses is the fact that Starcraft 2's design is focused a lot on hardcore competitive 1v1 laddering, and that this is a major problem because most casual gamers aren't interested in this type of gaming.

In his opinion this is one of the main reasons why Starcraft 2 quickly will lose to games like LoL and DotA.

Destiny doesn't really offer any solution, but concludes that it's up to Blizzard to take drastic measures. Or else he sees no way of SC2 surviving.

With this rather depressing post in mind it was nice to see that Grubby today posted a list of suggestions that he feels could help improve SC2 as a game and the community in general.

This was based on his own thoughts along with the responses he got after inviting everyone on Teamliquid.net to give their takes on the problems that SC2 faces. Especially with regards to what he called "viewership tournament fatigue".

Grubby's Manifesto on SC2 eSports

There are a lot of interesting points and suggestions in his post and it is certainly worth a read.

It's also interesting to see how Destiny and Grubby show quite opposing viewpoints when it comes to having faith in Blizzard. And this is generally something a lot people in the community disagree on.

Does Blizzard listen to the community at all?

In the newest episode of State of the Game which came out yesterday JP McDaniel, Root.Tod, D.Apollo and Col.QXC also discuss Destiny's post and the problems SC2 is facing in general.

At some point while airing, JP was able to confirm that Blizzard has apparently noticed all that's been going on, and that they've agreed to meet with some notable people from the community and discuss the game.

Announcement on State of the Game

This discussion will most likely center around ideas for improving Heart of the Swarm, but hopefully they will also get a chance to discuss the game in general.

Yesterday Artosis also posted his opinion on the state of Starcraft 2 as a game, especially with regards to all the criticism of Heart of the Swarm.

Artosis discusses Heart of the Swarm

In his opinion Starcraft 2's survival isn't threatened, as he sees it as the best and most complex game in the world, and he also concludes:

I listened to people decreeing the end of SC1 from 2002 until 2010 (when the SC2 Beta was finally released). They were all wrong, and anyone talking about it now is wrong too.

We agree that Starcraft 2 is still a fantastic game, and that it offers something that no other games offer.

And perhaps it does not need to appeal to as many gamers and viewers as for instance LoL, in order to continue thriving on it's own terms.

But at the same time there are no doubt a lot of problems facing SC 2 and the community surrounding it.
The number of gamers and viewers is crucial when it comes to how much money the game generates. And the amount of money that the game generates is equal to how much work Blizzard will put into continuously trying to improve the game.

So naturally it's relevant to discuss ways to attract more gamers and viewers and hopefully Blizzard can find some good ways of doing it in the future.

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