Video Games: Thoughts from a Different Perspective

This is an interesting topic for me, which makes this assignment really exciting! This past year, I've had many conversations about all the benefits to be had through playing video games. I cannot claim to be much of a game player myself, but I have learned a lot about them through the eyes of others.

One game, which I have learned a great deal about these past couple years, is called Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm (SC2), which is a real-time strategy game, where you can play as a single player through a story line, but I believe it is best known for its multi-player game play. Here's a short preview video of just a cinematic that was released just before the game itself.

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Cinematic Preview

Basically, in the multi-player mode, you play as one of three races, Protoss (aliens), Terran (humans), or Zerg (bugs), each with various units, technology, and strategies. In the video above, Blizzard Entertainment created animations of a Terran vs. Zerg battle, which is personally my favorite match-up to watch. Each player is responsible to build buildings, which allow for the creation of units, which they want to make a particular composition in order to defeat their opponent. Along with creating an army, in order to be effective, a player wants to scout their opponent to properly attack and defend against them. This game requires macro play, which consists of building technology, collecting an income in minerals and gas, and constantly creating units, as well as micro play, which involves moving your units, usually your army to most effectively attack your opponent, or to avoid certain attacks, you need to move your army a certain way. 

This game can range from fairly simple, to extremely complicated, meaning that there are professional Korean players making millions each year practicing and playing competitively...they're really really impressive. This is one of the games taken very seriously in South Korea, to a point where people will live in a gaming house, sometimes practicing upwards of 14 hours a day. You can watch their streams on twitch.tv and also watch tournaments of the game too. (There will actually be a tournament in Detroit this August!) Anyways...

Because of this huge range of skill sets, I will try to narrow down my discussion to focusing on the Terran race, which I am most familiar with, in terms of the James Paul Gee article "Good Video Games and Good Learning," which we read for class. 

1. Identity: Players create a username under which they play other players around the world. They are matched up against players with a similar skill level, and can play games from 1v1 all the way to 4v4, where you have four players against four. Players usually in it the game for the long haul as they "ladder," which means they play game after game, trying to beat their opponents to gain points and move from the Bronze league all the way to the Grandmaster league (which is the top tier players in the region).

2. Interaction: After each game, each player will see a screen such as the one below, which shows their stats in comparison to their teammates and opponents. The graphic below shows a 2v2 game of the amount of resources collected throughout the game by each each player.

This feedback allows for players to see specifically where they could use improvement, whether it be income use, army size, APM (actions per minute), or the order they created their buildings and units. Players also have the opportunity to watch replays of the games, where they can see the perspectives of all players to better understand what occurred throughout the game, and what they may have missed.

3. Production: As was discussed above, players are responsible for creating tech/buildings as well as units to create an effective army.

4. Risk Taking: Because you're playing a live opponent usually, often there is a lot of risk taking involved. The point system makes it a challenge, as you want to gain more points by beating your opponent, but if you lose, you only lose so many points and you can re-queue a game to try again. As I said before, you want to scout your opponent to know what they are up to, but this is not always possible, and when attacking blindly, you are taking a huge risk. But, once again, you learn from the risks you take. One even more important aspect of risk taking in this game has to do with the economic efficiency you reach for while playing. Each game, with the requirement to collect and spend resources, you want to effectively spend, which requires knowing what buildings, tech, and units to spend resources on, which resources to collect and how much at each base, and when to spend you resources collected. As you can tell, it gets complicated really quickly, and there's a lot to think about while playing in real-time (as it is an RTS). It's so complicated, that I know I'm not properly explaining it all, even with all the time in the world...

5. Customization: The game play is set into different leagues, so when you first start playing, you begin in Bronze league, and as you gain more points, by beating your opponents, you can move up into Silver league, then Gold, then Platinum, then Diamond, then Masters, and for those elite player, then Grandmasters. This allows for players to play at their level and progress at their own pace. 

6. Agency: In this game, you are totally responsible for what occurs, and have the power to be in total control of your units. One example of this is the micro mechanics involved in using your army at the top levels. Below is a video of MarineKingPrime, the person (who introduced this game to and explained everything to me)'s favorite player, microing his Terran (blue) units against a larger Zerg (red) army, in order to survive an insane engagement against one of the best Zerg players, Startale Life.

MarineKingPrime vs. StarTale Life

7. Well-Order Problems: Because the players move up through the leagues, they are allowed to learn gradually the skills needed to play at the top leagues, and the game-play is tailored to their needs and skills.

8. Challenge and Consolidation: Similar to 7.

9. "Just in Time" and "On Demand": Although players cannot demand which league to be in, they are placed based on win rates and points, and can play against the computer at whatever level they may choose.

10. Situated Meanings: The game is learned through playing and watching others. So any actions or instructions are usually accompanied by images or run throughs.

I think from just these 10 aspects of video games you can see the relevance SC2 has, and there is a lot to figure out while playing and a lot to learn. This game is based on a lot of risk/reward quick decision making, and is extremely difficult, because of the multi-tasking involved while trying to make these decisions. I believe there really is a lot to learn from such a complicated game as this, and when you take the time to understand the economic ideals, and the mathematics behind cost/benefit decisions, this could be a tool used to gain knowledge and learn to apply some aspects from school to the game. 

I know I just attempted to share a lot of information that may have been confusing. So if you have any questions, feel free to leave them and I'll do my best to answer!