6 ms·

I am confused as to why this is Hacker News.

by incomethax 16y ago

_pi 16y ago
Obviously all hackers learned their leet skillz from the Starcrafts.
adamilardi 16y ago
I'm confused as to how you're confused.
robryan 16y ago
A 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 ago
  Duke 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 ago
starcraft 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 ago
    I upvoted you for your explanation of videogame tactics, and then wish I hadn't wasted it after your pop music explanations.
    - _pi 16y ago
      Care to explain your vague statement?
  - krig 16y ago
    You're right about SC2 reducing to a game of rock/paper/scissors, just like chess is a very simple game (not to mention Go). Yes, this unit counters that unit, which counters this other unit.. but there are quite a few units in the game, and adding terrain considerations and building/tech options (and the list of variables goes on) you start to get the situation where you can develop quite intricate strategies. The classical example from Starcraft 1 is Slayers/Boxer, the Korean player who played as terran when everyone thought it was completely inferior, and developed new strategies that made him world champion. Sure, you can snicker at it being "just a video game", but it's fundamentally no different from any other game or sport. Even rock/paper/scissors can become quite interesting with just two more options, see: http://www.samkass.com/theories/RPSSL.html http://www.samkass.com/theories/RPSSL.html
fizx 16y ago
Are 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 ago
  I've been reading here two years and it's never been "all startups, all the time".
  - eru 16y ago
    It 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 ago
I 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 ago
Join 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 ago
I think that for many of us SC2:Wings of Liberty is picking up right where high school left off.
- zacharypinter 16y ago
  Before 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 ago
But 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 ago
  I 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 ago
  I like to be flippant and just blame Activision for that nonsense.
  - darklajid 16y ago
    I 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 ago
Even Hackers have fun, you know.
jw84 16y ago
Maybe 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.

I am confused as to why this is Hacker News.

_pi 16y ago

Obviously all hackers learned their leet skillz from the Starcrafts.

adamilardi 16y ago

I'm confused as to how you're confused.

robryan 16y ago

A 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 ago
Duke 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 ago

starcraft 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 ago
  I upvoted you for your explanation of videogame tactics, and then wish I hadn't wasted it after your pop music explanations.
  - _pi 16y ago
    Care to explain your vague statement?
- krig 16y ago
  You're right about SC2 reducing to a game of rock/paper/scissors, just like chess is a very simple game (not to mention Go). Yes, this unit counters that unit, which counters this other unit.. but there are quite a few units in the game, and adding terrain considerations and building/tech options (and the list of variables goes on) you start to get the situation where you can develop quite intricate strategies. The classical example from Starcraft 1 is Slayers/Boxer, the Korean player who played as terran when everyone thought it was completely inferior, and developed new strategies that made him world champion. Sure, you can snicker at it being "just a video game", but it's fundamentally no different from any other game or sport. Even rock/paper/scissors can become quite interesting with just two more options, see: http://www.samkass.com/theories/RPSSL.html http://www.samkass.com/theories/RPSSL.html

fizx 16y ago

Are 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 ago
I've been reading here two years and it's never been "all startups, all the time".
- eru 16y ago
  It 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 ago

I 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 ago

Join 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 ago

I think that for many of us SC2:Wings of Liberty is picking up right where high school left off.

zacharypinter 16y ago
Before 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 ago

But 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 ago
I 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 ago
I like to be flippant and just blame Activision for that nonsense.
- darklajid 16y ago
  I 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 ago

Even Hackers have fun, you know.

jw84 16y ago

Maybe 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.