Ah, the keeping of journals is a wonderful thing, allowing one to look back and see an earlier version of oneself in the days when the future was golden and one had not yet stupidly fallen prey to cannon rushing. More than once. My shame is endless. I'm serious about the journaling, though - I think it might be interesting to chart my progress and changes in perspective while I learn this game and look back later to see how silly I was. So that might be what this blog is turning into, we'll see. I'm buying Guild Wars 2 soon, and I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about that. Also Assassin's Creed 3. By the way, I am incredibly sleep deprived, so this may get a tad rambly.
Until very recently I inhabited the Practice League. I've read varying opinions on the usefulness (or lack thereof) of playing through the Practice League, and I'm so far firmly on Team Useful. For one thing, the fact that the novice maps are designed to prolong the game by circumventing cheese tactics means you have more time to learn the mechanics and focus on strengthening your early game macro. At least that's what it did for me. Also, playing through the Practice League gave me a taste of what it was like to win. Yes, yes, I know I said losing is good for you - and it is. But knowing what its like to outwit your opponent is a great motivator, and unless one is some kind of RTS savant that won't be the permeating experience when you first hit the ladder. So I played my 50 practice games and headed off to the qualifying matches, telling myself I would probably lose every single one. I was not entirely wrong - technically I won one match because the other guy disconnected right when the game started. That gave me a WAY better starting ranking than I should have gotten, but the universe has since balanced itself out. And that's ok, because even though losing most of the time is frustrating and recounting the times I have actually won is pretty awesome, that's not really why I'm doing this.
So, why am I doing this? Why am I focusing so much serious attention on a game when I could be doing a million other things that aren't as much work? I recall what I said about FPS games and how I never bothered to try to improve because I wasn't interested enough. The case here is the exact opposite; I've watched quite a few pro matches at this point and its just freaking fascinating. Its like watching a concert pianist amalgamated with an expert chess player topped with a sprinkling of cartographer. I used to play in an orchestra, and the feeling of all the parts coming together to form this awesome sonic experience is something I've never been able to replicate. But when I manage to go a whole game without getting supply-blocked, or I time a chronoboost just right I get a bit of that feeling back. I look forward to the days when I can actually time a build properly - I bet that'll feel amazing.
But that's not the only reason. My therapist might say that this is a desperate attempt to prove that the years I spent serving the foods were not a complete waste, and if she did she would be really smart because that is totally correct. Here's the thing - my restaurant macro is amazing. Am I an unhinged weirdo? What the hell am I talking about? Listen. Being a server (or a bartender) involves a series of steps - take order, input, deliver, check, hound for payment, etc. It also involves being able to mentally process that series of steps over multiple areas at once, prioritizing tasks according to importance, and accounting for inevitable changes. The kitchen is your base, and the tables are where the enemy lurks, waiting to unleash their army upon you. Or sometimes the tables are your expansions, depending on how far you want to take the metaphor. Out of Bombay Sapphire? Supply blocked. Quadruple sat? Early aggression. Full hands in, full hands out? Constant unit production. And so on. Some people spend years waiting tables and never get the ability to handle more than three tables at a time. I was not one of those people. And so in this era of finding a career (or something) it would be really nice to know that those years of hopping from bar to bar are something other than notches on the bedpost of wasted youth. I will transpose those skills to something by god, and yes that something is a video game. I did say I would throw myself at this thing until one of us breaks.
That turned out a little more autobiographical than I originally anticipated, but that's the nature of the journal. Also, did I mention the lack of sleep? Yes, I believe I did. But I will get back to actual game talk briefly. Canon Rushing. Its one of the most frustrating things ever, only because it is so EASY to prevent if you remember to scout properly. That's on my list of things to do: avoid getting supply blocked, don't forget probes, and NEVER get canon rushed AGAIN because you DIDN'T SCOUT. This probably isn't the greatest tactic, but whenever I'm up against Protoss I just build a Forge as soon as I can because I assume that's probably what's going to happen.
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