Questions:

1) It’s StarCraft B.net Season 2, You are on River Styx versus some Protoss player. A few minutes into the game, your worker line is decimated by a very surprising strategy – a Reaver that pops in and out of a shuttle.

n

Fill in the x’s in your opponent’s name:

x_COOL_xxx

n

2) Name at least 3 members of the IN clan.

n

3) What was the name of the popular 20$ one-time fee service that WarCraft 2 games were played on?

n

4) What was the name of the league that put Tillerman on a trading card?

n

5) What MIT student became a brilliant Protoss player, contributed greatly to StarCraft: BW’s balance, and later became a Blizzard employee based on the aforementioned achievements?

Send your answers to Anderson AT Sc2blog.com, along with your name. The first four people to answer all questions correctly will receive a confirmation, and their details will be sent to Blizzard.

Remember that you must not only answer all questions correctly, but also be able to attend to convention at Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on October 10 and 11.

 2746 unique votes have been cast, which constitute more than enough for a significant statistical representation of SC2Blog readers. Keep in mind, however, that the average SC2Blog reader is not the average Blizzard gamer - our audience is composed of the sort of people who follow news about Blizzard games in the pre-beta stage.

The results are in, and we are delighted to report that only a mere 12% are disappointed with what they’ve seen so far. The most popular choice was actually “Better than I could ever Imagine“, which hopefully makes a few Blizzard employees happy in their pants.
For most readers, the impressions of StarCraft 2 can only truly be judged against two reference points, and both are Blizzard games – the masterpiece predecessor, and the Micro-oriented WarCraft 3. Despite the fact that StarCraft 2 is heavily influenced by multiple successful titles, the games Blizzard create tend to reside in a league of their own, each serving as the gold standard of its genre.

Blizzard, in their infinite kindness, are providing an incentive to the participants. The winning players will get:

3 G51 Logitech Surround Sound Speaker Systems

3 StarCraft 2 Shirts

The SC2 Blog is giving our readers the opportunity to enter this tournament and win the prizes for themselves. That’s right – two of our loyal readers will get to represent the SC2 Blog in this friendly tournament and collect the reward.

If you want to represent the SC2 Blog in this battle of the fansites tournament and win the prizes for yourself as our official representative, you need to:

1) Write a comment to this post, mentioning that you wish to play in the tournament.
2) Mail XalKurat at Gmail.com with your full details, using the following format:

Real name: Zetaras Xal’Kurat

 

Alias: The Twilight Arbiter

 

Full Address (prize shipment): 51 Tassadar St., Talematros, Shakuras

Make sure the email address you use to mail your details with is the one you wish to be contacted at. Please put “StarCraft Tournament” in the mail subject.

3) Tell us about your StarCraft background. Are you a pro gamer? A total newbie? Let us know. Do not be discouraged if you don’t play StarCraft daily or have trophies at home – this is a friendly tournament!

The chosen players will become official representatives of the SC2 Blog. A qualifying, in-house tournament will be held to determine which of the players get to participate in the official tournament.

Tournament rules and details:

• Games will be played using StarCraft BroodWar with the latest patch.
• If a team does not show up after 30 minutes past the round start time they automatically forfeit their match.
• There are no official pauses during any match, be sure to take the appropriate pee breaks before hand.
• After each game that is played, all teams are allowed to take a 10 minute break before starting the next game.
• Games cannot start until teams on break have returned in under 10 minutes between games.
• Starfeeder admins have the final say.
• No observers are allowed except for Starfeeder staff, commentator DiggitySC, or Blizzard’s Karune.
• Seedings will be randomly drawn.
• Games will be played on Battle.net East, tournament channels will be announced closer to game day.
• The tournament will consist of two 16-team brackets, single elimination best of 5, no losers bracket.
• First Round Map will be The Lost Temple
• Second Round Map will be Azalea
• Third Round Map will be LUNA
• Fourth Round Map will be Python
• Finals will be best of 7 and order of maps follows (1)Lost Temple (2)Vampire (3)Luna (4)Python (5)Lost Temple (6)Azalea (7)Python (Obs versions of these maps will be used)

Download the tournament maps here.

Ever since that event, the SC2 Blog team has been covering every bit of information that Blizzard has released about StarCraft 2. Throughout this time, we have gathered great amounts of data, which this post will succinctly summarize.

In seven months of StarCraft 2, we’ve had:

24 Question and Answer batches, posted by Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager:

1. Protoss Mothership, Nukes and Terran Addon Clarifications – The first of many.
   
2. SC2 Interface, Automation And Mothership Clarifications – Where we learned about multiple building selection; resource rally points; unlimited unit selection.
   
3. Heroes, Unit Count, Hotkeys, Warp In, And The High Templar Avatar – Max population similar to StarCraft 1.
   
4. Yellow Minerals, Resource Sharing, Allied Chat, Zealot Charge and Future Updates – Yellow minerals confirmed.

   

5. Max Players, Multiple Spell Casting, Grids and Marine Shields – Where Blizzard explained how smart casting works.
   
6. Phase Cannons, Drones, Critters and Health Bars – No creeps!
   
7. Siege Tank, Music, Hallucination and the Fan Kit – Siege tank redesigned.

    

   

8. Upkeep, Upgrades, Map Editor, Charge and Capacity – No upkeep.
   
9. GUI, Archon, Warp-In, Map Editor, Pop-Cap, Lift off – Classic units available in the map editor; 200 maximum population; Twilight Archon has abilities.
   
10. Predator, Tower Detection and the Thor – Phase Cannon can travel outside of pylon range in energy form, but can’t deploy; players will control units of allies who leave the game.
11. Hero Abilities, Mutalisk Attack, Submerged Depots – Supply depot mechanics; similar map sizes.
    
12. Colors, Unit Roles and Firebat Testing – Medics interpret attack move orders intelligently; Firebats back in the game.
    
13. The Return of the Ultralisk and Burning Thors – VoIP announced; hybrid units in the campaign?
    
14. The Answers You’ve Been Wating For – 1.5 tier Ghosts; Colossus transportable by Phase Prisms.

     

    

15. The Return of the Ghost – Starbase cut; upgraded Command Centers can’t be salvaged or lifted off.
    
16. Terran Updates; UI and Automation – Mothership Time Bombs stop Nukes; Individually upgraded Battlecruisers.

    

17. The Beginning of the Thor’s End? – Statis Orb removed from the game, Cobra takes its slowing weapon.
    
18. The Map Maker – First in the Map Maker series. ScumEdit introduced, is better in every way.
    
19. Exploding Doodads and Protoss Nutrition – No Protoss healing, increased shield regeneration speed; units are unaffected by physics; Protoss nutrition explored – are they plants?
    
20. Mega-Ghosts and Unspotable Siege Tanks – Ghosts get an advantage against light armored units and the EMP ability; Siege Tanks don’t reveal themselves when attacking.
21. The Sound of 150 Nomads Casting Auto-Turret – Auto-Turret ability for the Nomad; 150 units in a control group; Stacking air units fixed.
    
22. Map Maker; The Story So Far; Factory Firebats – Second Map Maker post; Firebats produced from the Factory.
23. Q&A 23: Campaign Videos, Ghosts & EMP, Speed Automation – Ghosts can cast EMP and follow up with a Nuke; No wall structures; No same-speed automation in group selection.
    
24. Q&A 24: The Thor’s New Role and the Reaper’s New Home – Thor redesigned, takes the role of an anti-tank tank that can also engage heavy air units; Merc Haven now a preq. for Reapers, who are built from the Barracks.

21 Official Unit and Building Pages:

Each of the posts about these updates contains the relevant history, the features and abilities, and our in-depth strategic analysis.

1. Protoss Phoenix
2. Protoss StarGate
3. Protoss Colossus
4. Protoss Warp Ray
5. Protoss Twilight Archon
6. Terran Marine
7. Terran Reaper
8. Terran Ghost
9. Terran Viking
10. Protoss Dark Templar
11. Terran Banshee
12. Terran Thor
13. Protoss Mothership
14. Protoss Immortal
15. Protoss Stalker
16. Protoss Phase Prism
17. Terran Battlecruiser
18. Protoss Carrier
19. Terran Sensor Tower
20. Protoss Observer
21. Terran Nomad

16 SC2 Blog Exclusive Posts:

1. StarCraft 2 Preview Video Thoughts / Gameplay Thoughts – Early thoughts and analysis.
2. New Stacraft 2 Resource – Yellow Crystals! – Our discovery of the more valuable Yellow Minerals.
3. PC Gamer Leak: Gameplay Analysis – An Analysis of the leaked video featuring the Twilight Archon, Phase Cannons, Tempest and Soul Hunter.
4. StarCraft 2: Unit Evolution – An illustration showing the evolution of Protoss units from StarCraft 1 to StarCraft 2.

   

5. StarCraft 2 Unit Focus: The Zergling – A review of this game-defining unit.

    

   

6. Kerrigan’s Path: Part One / Part Two / Part Three (coming soon!) – Where we explore Kerrigan’s history in the StarCraft universe.
7. Blizzard’s Development Cycles: A Review – Where we examine Blizzard’s game development statistics and try to find a pattern. Our prediction for StarCraft 2′s release? Somewhere between April and July, 2008.
8. 10 Changes We Want to See in StarCraft 2 – Can you count how many are already in the game?
9. BlizzCon: Changes to StarCraft 2 – Our coverage of BlizzCon. The post that received the most comments on our blog to date.

    

   

10. Perfecting Real Time Strategy: StarCraft 2 Influences – A deep look inside StarCraft and an exploration of the inspirations it draws from other games.
11. BlizzCon StarCraft 2 HD Terran Video: Analysis – Dissecting the video that officially presented the Terran race.
12. StarCraft 2 Fan Concept Art and Unit Ideas – A round up of interesting fan created units.
13. Automation and UI improvements in StarCraft 2 – A detailed look at one of StarCraft 2′s hottest issues. Auto-Mining Peons, Multiple Building Selection, Automatic Unit Formation, Context-Dependent Unit Behavior and Smart Casting. Read the post to see what the SC2Blog Verdict was.

     

    

14. StarCraft 2 Comic – New Webcomic launched – Our official webcomic. Comic #2 coming soon!

     

    

15. Mysterious Artifacts and Kerrigan’s Mighty Heel – What does Kerrigan’s heel have to do with the StarCraft 2 campaign?

     

    

16. Neurotic AIs Are the Future of Real Time Strategy – Will Neurotic AIs rule future RTS matches?

13 Interviews:

1. Early developer interviews.
2. Insider Interview: StarCraft 2 Marine – Interview with Nick Carpenter, Blizzard cinematic creative director.

   

3. Inside Blizzard: MTV Interview – a video interview with Blizzard developers: Chris Metzen, VP Creative Development; Mike Morhaime, Blizzard’s President; Dustin Browder, Lead Game Designer; and Jungwon Hahn, Managing Director for Blizzard Korea.
4. Leaked “Games for Windows” scans – Featuring an Interview with Chris Sigaty, StarCraft 2’s lead producer.
5. StarCraft 2 Hands-On Report from 1UP – A long interview with Dustin Browder, lead designer, and Chris Sigaty, lead producer.
6. E3 StarCraft 2 Interview – Interview with Paul Della Bitta, Senior Community Manager at Blizzard.
7. Dustin Browder Interview – Dustin Browder, StarCraft 2’s lead game designer, answers some questions by Korean journalists.
8. Interviews with Sam Didier, StarCraft 2 Senior Art Director – Two interviews with the ecstatic Sam Didier, Senior Art Director for StarCraft 2.
9. The State Of Blizzard’s Union – Gamasutra’s long interview with Chris Sigaty, lead producer of StarCraft 2, discussing all things Blizzard.
10. Interview with Chris Metzen: StarCraft 2 Lore – A long interview with Chris Metzen, Blizzard Entertainment’s Vice President of Creative Development.
11. CNN Interviews Jungwon Hahn – CNN interview with Jungwon Hahn, managing director of Blizzard’s Korean office, and talk about the StarCraft phenomenon.

    

12. StarCraft 2 Lore: Interviews with Christy Golden – Two interviews with Christie Golden, author of the StarCraft trilogy of books that serves as the introduction to StarCraft 2.
13. Karune Updates and Interview – Karune plays a lot of StarCraft and likes sharing his thoughts about it with us.

6 Magazine Leaks and Releases:

1. Leaked PC Gamer StarCraft 2 Video – Where we first heard of the Soul Hunter, saw the Phase Cannon relocate itself using its energy form, the old incarnation of the Carrier – the Tempest, and the awe inspiring Twilight Archon.

   

2. PC Gamer Leak, Round 2: The Scans – The text from the leaked magazine, transcribed for your reading pleasure, followed by our gameplay analysis.
3. Leaked “Games for Windows” scans – Gameplay pictures and a few detailed answers by Chris Sigaty, StarCraft 2’s lead producer.
4. Terran Units Revealed in Swedish Magazine, Super Play – The first look into the main units of the Terran war machine, and an out of place Dark Templar showing its doubled psi-bladed weapon.
5. New Terran Units Revealed, Round Two – A much more detailed version, leaked from a Korean magazine.

   

6. GameMeca StarCraft 2 Terran Images – Siege Tank concept art, the first appearance of the neutral observatory and the Merc Haven, and a few great Thor screenshots.

4 Monthly Discussion Topics:

• StarCraft 2 Official Monthly Discussion Topic – The Mothership – After the nerfing and just before reaching some sort of unit role crisis, Karune has initiated an official month-long discussion around one of the most controversial units to ever be put in a progamer-oriented RTS game: the Mothership.
• Official Mothership Discussion: What Our Readers Have To Say
• StarCraft 2 October Discussion Topic: Battle.net Wishlist – Blizzard is putting a lot of effort into improving and refining every aspect of StarCraft, and the new Battle.net version that will launch with it will be no exception.
• Summarizing October’s Monthly Discussion: Battle.net
• StarCraft 2 November Discussion Topic: The New Terran Ghost – A discussion about the hero-fied Ghost of StarCraft 2, featuring more powerful abilities than any other unit in the game.
  
• StarCraft 2 December Discussion Topic: Artistic Direction – Perhaps the most important discussion topic to date. This month’s topic deals with the artistic direction of StarCraft 2, and also incorporates discussion of unit designs and roles.
  

4 Axed Units:

Soul Hunter No Longer a Part of StarCraft 2 – The Soul Hunter was removed from the game after fan complaints about it being a cliche, and Blizzard realizing it’s too much of a perfect Zerg counter.

Carriers Are Coming Back – And are replacing the Tempest. “Tempest didn’t feel right and that there was too much of an emotional connection with the original unit“.

Star Relic Renamed to Statis Orb, Then Removed from the Game – This unit has always been in a weird state of limbo, never finding its place in StarCraft 2. It very rarely appeared in screenshots and has gone through many changes, until it was eventually removed from the game – its latest role taken over by the Cobra.

Cobra Cut from the Game, Role Taken by Thor – Without much in the way of a discussion or an explanation, the Cobra has been removed from the game. The Thor, which was close to being cut as well, instead took on its role – killing heavy ground and air units.

Unfortunately, all four of these axed units are completely new designs. Some were replaced by old units, and some were completely cut out of the game. Hopefully, their replacements are new designs as well and not rehashes of old units.

2 Tech Trees:

Protoss and Terran Tech Trees – These have gone through significant changes since they were released in BlizzCon, but still offer some insight into the Protoss and Terran available tech options.

It seems that Blizzard is attempting to make every multiplayer match of StarCraft even more diverse and unique than it was before, with more options to choose from and with more strategies to try, instead of having to follow a linear path of technology. For a more comprehensive review of the tech trees, make sure to check out the post.

Too Many Pictures to Count:

1. GameMeca StarCraft 2 Terran Images – Siege Tank concept art, Thor screenshots, and a Nuke going off.

   

2. BlizzCon Media Collection

    

   

3. Afternoon at Augustgrad – StarCraft Wallpaper

   

4. StarCraft 2 Fansite Kit – Cool StarCraft 2 themed wallpapers.

    

   

5. ScreenShot Easter Eggs – Finding Jim Raynor – Jim Raynor appearances, hidden in plain sight in gameplay screenshots.

    

   

6. Brand New StarCraft 2 Screenshots – Firebat Inside – The new Firebat version and a few other beautiful shots.

   

7. Three New StarCraft 2 Screenshots: Zerg Attack! – The first Zerg life sign in ages.

    

   

And of course, many other screenshots in the constantly updated StarCraft2.com gallery.

That’s it for our summary of StarCraft in 2007. It has been a great year for StarCraft 2 fans, and we can only look forward for an even better 2008!

We assure you – it’s not that Blizzard doesn’t care, or that Vivendi doesn’t want to know. WoW is the most commercially successful product in the history of video gaming, and the monthly fee model will receive major consideration in all future Blizzard titles – be they MMORPG, RTS, or of any other genre.

Our poll, which has been up for close to two months, represents the opinion of Blizzard’s most important demographic – the sort of people who follow their announcements, play on beta servers and [religiously] cling to every bit of information released. The sort of people who play Blizzard games now, and will continue purchasing every game with a Blizzard logo as long as Blizzard sticks to the standards we all got used to.

With this poll, our readers have sent a clear and undeniable message to the people responsible for the monetization of StarCraft 2 – 72 percent simply won’t or can’t pay the monthly fee. An additional 14 percent won’t pay more than a special one time fee.

A total of 86 percent are firmly against the monthly fee.

This leaves roughly 14% of Blizzard’s most loyal demographic – and with 3% sitting on the fence, we are left with just 11% of all poll participants are willing to pay a monthly fee for StarCraft 2.

Hopefully, our efforts and your votes will help Blizzard make the right decision.

StarCraft 2 is coming – the Zerg, the closed and open betas, the game’s gold release and its collectors edition are just around the corner. The inevitable tournaments, battle reports and replays, custom maps, fan fiction stories and other art – millions of gamers will generate more news than our small but dedicated team could ever cover.

This is why we need YOU. We are looking for people who like to write, cover, analyze, and share their expertise with fellow gamers. Community and clan leaders, professional gamers, modders and replayers, fans of the StarCraft books – if you feel the need for a bigger stage and a larger audience and you are eager to be heard – we need YOU.

Currently, there are four key positions that we would like to fill:

1) Progaming tournaments and League coverage – if you play StarCraft, WarCraft 3 or Vikings professionally and plan on switching to StarCraft 2 as soon as it comes out, we’d like to hear from you.

2) ScumEdit and Modding – if you are proficient with StarEdit and enjoy releasing original maps for WarCraft 3, you will have the opportunity to release your StarCraft 2 maps to thousands of fans. People working with DoTA, Tower Defense and other popular custom games are more than welcome.

3) Replays, Videos and Battle Reports – Proficient in creating high-quality battle reports? Know about every live tournament video and good at spotting A+ quality replays? We’ll gladly have you on-board.

4) Lore expert – Have you read all the books? Know Kerrigan‘s maiden name and Raynor’s shoe size? Well, most people don’t, and sometimes Blizzard themselves get lost in their own complex universes. Covering lore-related stories, fan-art and books requires quite a lot of knowledge and a deep understanding of the StarCraft Universe – not the easiest position.

Here is a brief FAQ. We will also answer questions via email and comments.

Q) How do I apply?
A) Email: anderson AT terranozergus.com – tell me as much as you can about yourself and don’t forget to send links, attachments and other relevant examples of your work.

Q) I already have a site/blog/online presence – what’s in it for me?
A) You’ll get proper credit and exposure for your site, as a writer or as a source – particularly if you specialize in fan fiction, replays or custom maps.

Q) I want to apply for a position which is not listed in your post – what do I do?
A) You are more than welcome to either email me or leave a detailed comment – there are plenty of ways a talented person can contribute.

GL, HF.

The comic will be updated on an irregular basis, and we suggest subscribing to it via RSS.

Nostalgic piece by BadassHamster:
*To see the comic better, click the thumbnail

 Penny Arcade’s old comic about World of StarCraft.
*To see the comic, click the thumbnail

Penny Arcade’s slightly newer comic about StarCraft 2 and Blizzard’s motivational methods
*To see the comic, click the thumbnail

Alt-Ctrl-Dels take on Korea’s perfectly normal obsession

Have a good weekend.

During the very first seconds of the initially released StarCraft 2 gameplay video, the flying Protoss formation of multiple Phase Prisms and Phoenixes grab the attention. However, it’s what lies beneath the Protoss armada you should be looking at.

Hidden in plain sight, below the flying units, are several very awkwardly placed crystal patches, with two distinct units, of what looks to be Terran design.

The unit appears to be of sturdy mechanical construction, not unlike the Harvester in Westwood’s series of RTS games (Dune, Command and Conquer), and apparently harvests crystals by firing a short-ranged energy beam at them for long periods of time. Unlike the Yellow Crystals, that were spotted in such formation and placement that didn’t leave any doubts for the Crystals’ purpose, these Harvesters do appear to be placed near crystals not in the proximity of Vespene Geysers, and in quite unreachable surroundings – which might indicate that the unit is just a well designed doodad.

Moreover – a somewhat similar, if not identical unit, makes an appearance at 0:50 into the gameplay video, and can be spotted in the top right corner of the screen prior to the Terran base landing sequence. The unit appears to be firing at nothing, just passing its laser over the barren ground.

None of the Harvester units have moved around, and are only seen turning the energy beams on and off, or moving the beam around while firing. This introduces another option – that the Harvester is a stationary building or unit, somewhat similar to the Colony of Civilization games – an outpost dedicated to collecting resources, which is later picked up and “unloaded” by SCVs.

Either way, it’s the first time that Blizzard introduces an alternative crystal harvesting method, or a mechanical laser-shooting doodad.

Additional theories explaning the strange Terran Harvester.