The Voices My Voice Follows: Videogames

Previously, I spoke about the authors who inspire me.  Originally, I intended this follow up piece to be about both videogames and boardgames.  But I quickly realized there's too many of each to write about them in the same place, so I'm splitting them up.  Today I'll talk about the videogames that inspire me (and the ones that I play the most often).  I'll start with the ones I've talked about the most here.

StarCraft: StarCraft was one of the first PC games I ever owned.  I'd played WarCraft II on the Mac and my step-brothers owned WarCraft: Orcs and Humans.  But StarCraft was all mine.  I've always slightly leaned more toward Sci-fi worlds than fantasy, and I really enjoyed RTS games.  StarCraft's real strength, to me, is that there's a bigger story going on than what we see, and we can know that but still stay focused in on the game.  At it's heart, the games in the series are about the relationships between characters, but these relationships play out on grand scale.

WarCraft: WarCraft II was a game I picked up because I'd heard a lot about it and because I'd played a few Blizzard games before (more than I realized at the time, actually).  I loved it.  The characters weren't really there yet, but the story was interesting, especially in that depending on if you played Orcs or Humans, it would end differently.  I was amused by the things the characters would say if clicked on, and the game world has grown far beyond what it was.  The writing may not always be top notch, but it's clear Blizzard spends a lot of time planning where the games can go and where things were before the moment they exist in, and that kind of world building always resonates with me.

Diablo: To be completely honest, Diablo was definitely the third place Blizzard franchise for me.  I played mostly because my friends did and I wanted to play games with them.  Diablo III really changed that for me. While I still play mostly co-op, D3 was the first time I really wanted to push through the whole story alone and try different difficulties.  I know that a lot of people feel like D3 doesn't live up to the standards of Diablo II, but I think they have different goals in mind.  I like where Blizzard seems to be going and I'm curious to see what's going to come in the next expansion.

Assassin's Creed: Assassin's Creed, I think, speaks to a lot of people's urge to be the guy that's so badass that he can do whatever he wants and get away with it.  At least, that's what it does for me.  I'm still not quite sure I know what to think of the storyline with Desmond.  I really liked Altair's story, wasn't a little hesitant for most of Ezio's, and enjoyed Conner's, but I'm just not sure of my investment in Desmond.  I didn't like him much in the first game, and I've gone back and forth with being okay with him since.  I'm curious to see where the next game goes, and I think that'll change a lot of my opinions on the modern era storyline.

The Walking Dead: First off, I love the Walking Dead comics, and I greatly enjoy big chunks of the TV show, so I had some reason to come to this game expecting to like it.  And it blew those expectations out of the water.  The story of the game is healthily complex and we get to see some hints at what may have happened before we first see the characters "on screen" in the comics/show.  It hits the right notes of both horror and sorrow, while still giving glimmers of hope.  And in true Walking Dead fashion, no one is safe.

Left 4 Dead: I do enjoy me some zombies.  Left 4 Dead, like Diablo originally was for me, was a game that I picked up because all my friends were playing.  Despite this grouping of games, I'm not much of an FPS player.  I'm not terribly skilled at it and I tend to get bored easily.  That said, Left 4 Dead (and Left 4 Dead 2) is one of my most played games and I'm fairly certain it more than doubles the playtime of the rest of my Steam list.  The characters greatly entertain me, and we still drop "I hate ____" and "ALMOST THERE!" jokes in both my game groups.  I'm curious to see if Valve will ever do a third Left 4 Dead, because I get the sense there's a bigger story waiting to be revealed.

Half-Life: Speaking of games on which I'm waiting for a third installment...  Half-Life is an interesting game.  I love the world and the way things have come together.  The community around the game is pretty amazingly creative and involved.  But I'm not a big fan of Gordon Freeman.  I know, this is blasphemy.  I don't mind silent protagonists (I mean, heck, I really like Chell and Master Chief), but Gordon just gets me.  Maybe it's that he's supposed to be a scientist; a scientist that doesn't talk or do science is a pretty lackluster scientist.  On the other hand, the supporting cast is great.  So I keep coming back for more.

Portal: Chell is awesome, despite not talking.  Personally, I ascribe to the "Chell doesn't talk because it's a dig at GlaDOS" camp.  For that matter, GlaDOS is pretty amazingly entertaining.  I love the puzzle solving and mind games of Portal and it's full of things that can be called out later ("When life gives you lemons...").  All in all, I feel like Portal is a bit of an homage to being a smart nerd and that endears it to me quite a bit.  Plus, as you can probably see as a theme, it seems to be connecting to a larger world in a way yet to be fully revealed.

Halo: I really wanted to not like Halo when I first played it.  It was the overhyped game of choice for a lot of jerks on the internet.  But I ended up liking the fact that the games were focused on giving players a contrast between the small dramas of the characters and the greater dramas of a galactic war that turned out to be a battle in a larger galactic war.  Over time, a lot of depth has been added to the game world, and Bungie and then 343 Industries worked hard to link a lot of out-of-game material into an in-game system of discovering it.

Worms: So the Worms series is definitely not about storyline for me.  But it's good fun.  Sometimes I just have to blow something up and there's always plenty of options in Worms.  Plus, it's still entertaining when I fail spectacularly to do what I want, which isn't something I can always say of other games I play.  It's good to get away from all the heavy story and Worms serves as a good palate cleanser when I feel like I'm leaning my writing/roleplaying too close to a specific game studio's style.

StarCraft II WCS and Why I love eSports

You may or may not already know (or have guessed) that I'm a big fan of eSports, particularly StarCraft.  I watched a bit back in the early days of Brood War, but dropped out of paying attention until StarCraft II launched.  During the last phases of the beta, I got back into following some of the names I'd known from before such as Day[9] and Husky who had become casters.  I also quickly became a big fan of HuK, Stephano, and WhiteRa.  As I watched more and more tournaments, I got back in to cheering for Grubby, Machine and iNcontrol.  And if you haven't noticed by now, if I was specifically supporting a StarCraft team it'd be Evil Geniuses (and I own 5 eSports-specific shirts, three of which are EG related).

All of that is a roundabout lead up to describe why I'm very excited for the return of the Blizzard sponsored World Championship Series.  Last year, the event ran concurrently but basically separately from the various leagues already running professional StarCraft tournaments (examples being MLG, GSL, and NASL) and didn't really interact with those other leagues.  That set up was fine and the WCS had some great players and amazing matches, but it was a little strange that the other leagues didn't really have strong interaction with it, since they've had plenty of their own crossover and have previously shared players  This year's event is a clear step up from that.  While there will be WCS specific qualifying tournaments leading up to the actual 2013 World Championship Series, players will also be able to earn standing and qualification points in other events.  Very cool to see Blizzard respecting the other people who bring their game to the eSports community.

I think a big part of why I like StarCraft as an eSport is the same as why I like watching basketball, baseball, or hockey.  I've played the games and understand a bit of the strategy, but also understand that I'm not a world class player and don't have the time or dedication to put in to become one.  Still, I get enough of the action to know when someone's pulled off a big attack or survived an aggressive assault.  I remember freaking out at Blizzcon two years ago when I got to see MMA vs Mvp and NesTea vs Mvp in a single weekend.  The final game by Mvp against NesTea to win the Blizzard Invitational was amazing, with a use of ghosts and nukes that I'm not sure I've ever seen matched.  I remember clearly staring up at the screen while in line for a last run at StarCraft II's preview with my mouth open as the roars erupted in response to Mvp's play.  It was definitely up there with the baseball playoff games I've been to.

Similarly, my love of watching StarCraft has been greatly enhanced by attending a few BarCraft events here and there.  While I don't drink (long story, but let it be said that I don't begrudge anyone who does), it doesn't really matter at a BarCraft.  What's far more important is that typically the place is filled with people cheering the way I normally associate with playoff atmosphere for other sports.  I've watched the ends of a few different MLG seasons in this way and it's been tons of fun to sit and talk about what's going on in the matches, joke about which casters are best (I have an strong affiliation for the Day[9]-Husky pairing, but think they often can overshadow games with their awesome), and cheer on the various players.  I'm excited to get out to a couple BarCrafts this year to see WCS qualifications happen and hopefully I'll be at Blizzcon to see the finals!