Celebrating 20 Years in the Khala

20 years! Starcraft is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary this month! You made me what I am today, Starcraft: avid computer gamer, programmer, geek. I still remember the first steps to that Computer shop that brought me into the world of computer games vividly. It was one of the the forerunners of computer rentals back in the day when rent-a-playstation was all the craze. The place where we usually went to (BlueBox IIRC) was full and the wait time to wait was an hour or two long. So we stepped into the neighboring computer rental shop. It was empty save the timekeeper. My friend and I tried to start a game, but we knew nothing about how LAN worked. We both created independent custom games and thought we were playing with each other. We had Use Map Settings turned on so the AI didn’t do anything. I lifted my Command Center and flew it around the map before both of us figured out that we were playing two separate games.

Starcraft holds a special place in my heart. It’s not the first thing that got me into gaming (That goes to Battle Chess in DOS), but it’s memorable for a few reasons. For one, it’s a Blizzard game. It never really gets old. All Blizzard games have me coming back to them every few months. Most of them have stood the test of time, even the classics (Fingers crossed for the Warcraft III and D-2 remake). The games are well designed and are balanced well enough that it satisfies its players well enough. The game plays as a good RTS (Real-time strategy), almost like a faster paced game of chess. You need to have a good memory of what openings all races play with the current meta, adapt to the game as players play and counter-play each other, and you have to know how to finish in the endgame. The meta has gotten so solid that while the game has been played for 20 years in competitive, the last few patches didn’t need to introduce major mechanics changes.

Oh, and the campaigns. I’m a sucker for good story. The gameplay has to be good, but a good story is enough for me to stick with it. Of course, being a video game, there’s still a lot of cliche. There’s always the challenge of trying to write a story where you have to take the player along and have them participate. But that’s where games have an edge over your books and movies. They bring you along for the ride. And Starcraft had a decent enough story line with memorable characters like Zeratul, Raynor, Kerrigan, Tassadar of which I enjoyed reading their lores much like I did Lord of the Rings.

We’ve had a good run Starcraft. And I’m glad the games grew up as I grew up. From Brood War, to first attempts at taking Starcraft 2 seriously with Wings of Liberty, giving up, and finally resting at a comfortable piece of Co-op for the casual player, you’ve given me a lot of good memories and stories. I hope it doesn’t stop there. I’m looking forward to having more fun and more GGs to come. Here’s to another 20 years!

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