12 years later

Success has always been a delicate thing. However, if there’s one thing that’s more fickle than success, it might very well be the opinion of video-gaming enthusiasts.

With this week’s release of “StarCraft II,” Blizzard Entertainment’s attempt to maintain a high level of both success and gamer approval is a fickler task yet. As the sequel to the universally acclaimed “StarCraft” and “StarCraft: Brood War” expansion, the game has a monolith of a legacy to uphold.

And that is no exaggeration.

The original “StarCraft” is considered not only one of the greatest video games of all time, but one of the most important as well. Virtually every major gaming publication, from IGN to GamePro, has recognized the game on “greatest of all time” lists and the like.

“I don’t really play video games,” senior Steve Yim said. “But I’ve been playing ‘StarCraft’ for 10 years. It’s just such a great real-time strategy game (RTS). ...  It’s impossible not to like.”

It’s easy to see why. The game broke ground in 1998 with its three unique playable sides: the Terran, Protoss and Zerg. It maintained the competitive balance through update patches that older RTSs were able to attain only by making each side exactly the same.

The game was also praised for its high-quality audio, composed by Blizzard’s own in-house composers to have a unique soundtrack for the game. The company also brought in professional voice actors for the characters.

The characters themselves were lauded for their depth and believability. The two leads, protagonist Jim Raynor and antagonist Sarah Kerrigan, were both in the top 10 of GameSpot’s survey of top heroes and villains, respectively.

So now, 12 years later, how could Blizzard possibly top itself with the sequel?
It starts with a careful, meticulous approach.

Though the earliest work for “StarCraft II” began in 2003, full production didn’t start for at least another year. Rob Pardo, Blizzard’s vice president of game design, explained to MSNBC in 2007 that the company tries never to put the horse in front of the buggy — that is, they try very hard never to compromise for the sake of a release.

“You see a lot of companies that are so focused on the release date that they put 100-person, 200-person teams together to hit that date, and at that point you’re really the runaway train,” Pardo said. “You have to hit that date and live with decisions that you might not have been 100 percent happy with. We take the opposite approach.”

That is most of the reason for “Starcraft II”’s long production time. This time there was no Operation CWAL, the group that famously wrote fan fiction about stealing the original “StarCraft” from Blizzard headquarters — and when the beta testing began in February, fans scrambled to get their hands on a copy.

“I had the beta pretty early on,” said sophomore Rob Jiang, president of Gaming @ IU. “The game is pretty different now than the first time I played it.”

Now that the beta testing is finally over, the early reviews of the release itself have been generally positive.

ME Gamers rated the game at a 9.4 and raved “it’s blatantly obvious how far the game has come in all these years, though it still retains the loving look and feel of the original game.”

The online gameplay is to be improved, introducing a skill-based matchmaking system for opponents and further expansion planned for the online community Battle.net, Blizzard’s online multiplayer gaming community.

“I think that’s one of the strengths of the game, is that Blizzard is very responsive to the communities,” Jiang said. “Some of the time it takes them a while, but they’ve definitely made some necessary changes.”

Jiang added that the matchmaking system offers players new reasons to improve.
“You’re actually trying to earn a higher rank now — it’s not just a win-loss anymore,” Jiang said. “They measure you in tiers and rankings, so there’s a lot more of an incentive to get better.”

Yim added that the new system also gives players more of a chance to improve by playing against opponents of similar skill level, rather than being blown out by someone much better.

The fanfare that surrounded the release of “StarCraft II” has been almost unprecedented, especially for a RTS. It has even permeated the IU campus, where Gaming @ IU will host a launch party on Saturday at the Kelley School of Business.
This is the first time the group has organized an event for a specific game.
       
“It’s so much easier to get excited for the game now that everyone can play and it’s not just a beta,” Jiang said. “The community is such an important part of the game. I think everyone is really excited about it now.”