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Starcraft II Launched Today (goodbye free time)
- bsiemon 16y agoI feel a funeral for a distant but important relative approaching.
- incomethax 16y agoI am confused as to why this is Hacker News.
- _pi 16y agoObviously all hackers learned their leet skillz from the Starcrafts.
- adamilardi 16y agoI'm confused as to how you're confused.
- robryan 16y agoA rare game that gets even those that have put their gaming years behind them back into it. It would be hard for any other company to have the ability to spend this much time and put this much polish into a game. Given the long development time and the relatively few changes being made from the original and thus far only the one campaign. Guess that's the luxury you get from developing the cash cow that is WoW.
- crystalis 16y agoDuke Nukem Forever had a longer development time, but a sadder ending. Team Fortress 2 from Valve had a similar development time and has had over a hundred patches since release, in addition to a fair amount of media developed outside of the game. It's true that both have had significant backing bankrolls. However, you can also look to some indie 'studios'. Cave Story was a one man project that took 5 years (of spare time) to complete, and is often lauded as an indie star. Dwarf Fortress has only ever had one programmer (who is now supported by user donations), and probably deserves noting even if it doesn't quite attain any significant degree of polish.
- pclark 16y agostarcraft 2 will gross $1Bn over next few years. why is an oil spill related to hacker news? or why we buy airplane tickets? or wikileaks? hell, if anything starcraft 2 is a factor of 10 more relevant than any of those, you know, because starcraft 2 is on a computer not only will starcraft 2 reiterate what a big deal video games are, it's going to shape popular culture, it's going to be played by millions of players each and every day for the next decade or so. starcraft 2 is a game that values practice is thinking out of the box more than anything else, I know far more starcraft players amongst startups/hackers than settlers of catan, or anything else. hell, nothing unites startups more than a good old lan party. (i'm aware of the irony of this point) but most importantly, its related to Hacker News because over 30 people have said it is (upvotes)
- _pi 16y ago>starcraft 2 is a game that values practice is thinking out of the box more than anything else, I know far more starcraft players amongst startups/hackers than settlers of catan, or anything else. I love it when people say games value thinking out of the box. Yeah! My Zerglings can beat a Yamato Cruiser right? Because they can like jump off of a cliff onto it... or something. Every game has a tiered structure of what works and doesn't SC2 is no different. At competitive levels of play there's only a handful of strategies people use, they'll work them selves out over the next month or so and then be set in stone unless people find glitches in the game that don't get patched like the original SC. SC2 is a game of rock paper scissors at the core. Every strategy game is. >not only will starcraft 2 reiterate what a big deal video games are, it's going to shape popular culture, it's going to be played by millions of players each and every day for the next decade or so. You know every other pop music group is listened to by millions of people some for even 3 or 4 decades! Example Led Zeppelin, so how come Led Zeppelin posts aren't on HN? SC2 is entertainment pure and simple, essentially by posting entertainment links it's going against the spirit of the rules. It's essentially cat pictures. And you know those are big on the internet which we're on, and that argument makes as much sense as your "on a computer clause".
- pavel_lishin 16y agoI upvoted you for your explanation of videogame tactics, and then wish I hadn't wasted it after your pop music explanations.
- fizx 16y agoAre you more or less confused that the apple trackpad is sitting at number one? Actually, somewhere around a year ago, Hacker News became less "all startups, all the time" and more "news for nerds, startups featured."
- mattmanser 16y agoI've been reading here two years and it's never been "all startups, all the time".
- eru 16y agoIt used to be called "startup news" and had startups all the time. (Became a bit boring after a while, but it was focussed.)
- DeusExMachina 16y agoI think that flagging the item (as I understand it) is a better way to show dislike for some item. Comments are filling up with "why is this on HN?".
- pixelbath 16y agoJoin the club: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22this+hacker+news%22+OR+%22why+is+this+on+hacker+news%22+OR+%22how+is+this+hacker+news%22+site:ycombinator.com http://www.google.com/search?q=%22this+hacker+news%22+OR+%22... Also, http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- sown 16y agoI think that for many of us SC2:Wings of Liberty is picking up right where high school left off.
- zacharypinter 16y agoBefore internet gameplay really took off, my friend and I used to use our parent's fax lines to connect directly and play Starcraft against each other. Even if it's not directly Hacker News, I'm sure many readers have similar fond memories of playing Starcraft in their past.
- darklajid 16y agoBut why? Surely you read about all the neat things the producer added to the game to make it more profitable. To monetize it in a better way? - Tournaments only allowed if you ask Blizzard kindly - LAN play is gone - Integration with 3rd party social network partners This is a good example for having a good idea, a (as far as I can tell from reviews) decent implementation but you try to overarchive on the monetizing part and ruin it for some. I guess there's a lesson in here for startups somewhere..
- thecircusb0y 16y agoI still hate how they remove LAN play from games now'a'days. My buddies and I have lan parties all the time, and its getting harder and harder to have them when lan play isn't allowed and you can't host a local server.
- pclark 16y agoI like to be flippant and just blame Activision for that nonsense.
- darklajid 16y agoI hear you. But is that backed up by real evidence or is this just the naive "But Blizzard made me happy when I was young. They wouldn't possibly change for worse" feeling, mostly created by the common theme of holding ones past in favor? It was better, back then, right? Now - was it? Or was there no way to pull off a restricted, overpriced release at that time and no way to go for the "online only" approach without broadband? Or was it impossible to create this amount of hype with TV commercials for your next big thing (tm) everywhere without having World of Warcraft to back you up? What about "Money corrupts"? How much is WoW bringing in these days?
- francoisdevlin 16y agoEven Hackers have fun, you know.
- jw84 16y agoMaybe you're not a hacker. Maybe your opinion is different from others. Maybe it doesn't really matter. Maybe you don't have to click the link and comment.
- mfukar 16y agoIs Korea still alive?
- fizx 16y agoQuick, invade! ;)
- MikeCapone 16y agoDon't let Kim Jong Ill hear you...
- apu 16y agoWrong Korea.
- adamilardi 16y agogoodbye free time hello bliss
- sabj 16y agoI can't do it, I just can't. I want to give in too badly.
- jcromartie 16y agoI hear that if you pre-ordered it from Gamestop, you might spare your free time for at least another day.
- simonsarris 16y agoWhy? Has there been a shortage problem with Gamestop? My little brother pre-ordered with Gamestop so he could get it at midnight, and there seemed to be more than enough copies for everyone when we went last night. I actually pre-ordered my own copy from Amazon (Conveniently, it shipped from the Amazon warehouse in Nashua, NH to my house in Nashua, NH)
- jonpaul 16y agoI pre-ordered from Gamestop and picked up two copies pretty quickly after midnight.
- Qz 16y agoSadly I pre-ordered this so long that it's being shipped to my old address. Not sure what to do about that...
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- thecircusb0y 16y agoI just went out during lunch and bought the collectors edition from best buy. Waiting to get home to open it ...
- GrandMasterBirt 16y agoSo this is the first launch of a PC game that is 60 dollars (base value)? Wow. Even xbox games that are also out on pc the same day are 50.
- pclark 16y agothe real kicker will be if they do not allow you to disconnect your game serial from your battle.net ID - eg: you can't resell it.
- ptomato 16y agoI think that was Modern Warfare 2.
- Magneus 16y agoNot the first launch at $60. Warcraft 3 was also like this. I imagine there are also other titles at the same price point.
- MikeCapone 16y agoThat's still a lot less expensive per hour of entertainment than most other games, not to mention eating out or seeing a movie. Still doesn't beat getting a good book at the public library, though...
- sgoraya 16y ago$60 for this particular release - I believe this release only includes the 'Terran' missions - subsequent releases, each $60, will include the 'Zerg' and 'Protoss' specific missions. Thats what got me...I would have purchased it but the pricing out for each set of missions and removal of LAN play has made me postpone purchase...Shoot, I'll try to wait till it comes out in a 'combo' release in a few years...I'll try!
- sprout 16y agoAnyone up for a game of Age of Kings?
- jordanroher 16y agoIt feels strange to consider myself a hardcore gamer, with gaming PC, Xbox 360, PS3, etcetera, and to have never played the original Starcraft. Not a big RTS fan, I suppose, but I love most other genres. And yet here I am with a Wings of Liberty box sitting at my desk. Read through the manual, especially the nine (!) pages they devote to the plot in teeny tiny text. For a newcomer it's extremely confusing. The Zerg make sense, but the constant shifting of Terran allegiances and Protoss character names make my head swim. IGN's five minute video summary helped, though I had to watch it three times. I take it Kerrigan is the anti-hero everyone loves, vaguely like FFVII's Sephiroth. And there appears to be some slight debate as to whether there's any humanity left in her, though her temporary alliances appear to be more for strategic convenience than any real compassion. What I'd like to know from my fellow HN gamers is the emotion of it. What were the shocking moments? The tearful bits? Were there any? What would I feel about Jim Raynor if I played through Starcraft and Brood War? Am I supposed to think Kerrigan as the Queen of Blades is sexy, or am I supposed to be repulsed by the... things growing out of her back?
- albertsun 16y agoThe story was never the strong point of StarCraft. It's a fairly generic cowboys in space run into Aliens and Vulcans type plot. What made StarCraft stand out was the incredible depth of its competitive multiplayer that allowed for emergent strategies to be discovered. The map editor was also brilliant and let people create incredible new variants.
- moultano 16y agoThe transition from the terran campaign to the zerg campaign in the original was the only real genius of the plot I felt. Leaving Kerrigan to die was one of the last things that happens before you start playing as the zerg. As the zerg, you have to guard this mysterious chrysalis for the first several missions without having any idea what it contains. It was a real "Oh Wow" moment when out pops zerg-Kerrigan.
- Qz 16y agoAm I supposed to think Kerrigan as the Queen of Blades is sexy, or am I supposed to be repulsed by the... things growing out of her back? That's a rhetorical question right? :)
- teilo 16y agoBlizzard must not be up to the traffic. I tried to purchase the digital download. It errored out. Tried different browsers. Same thing. Tried calling Account and Billing support. Busy signal. The one thing you absolutely do not want to fail on a popular product launch is your digital purchases. I'm going to venture to guess that this is their largest product launch ever.
- moultano 16y agoI got errors when I had spaces in my credit card number. Removing the spaces let me purchase. (true story.)
- teilo 16y agoNo spaces here.
- MikeCapone 16y agoI bought the game at a store, and I'm having trouble playing multi-player. Guess they are overloaded.
- MikeCapone 16y agoUpdate: Multiplayer seems to be working now.
- mlinsey 16y agohttp://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html
- mrinterweb 16y agoI'm going to wait till it is sold on Steam, if that ever happens.