So, picking up from my last post, I stopped four-gating a while ago. I wanted more variety, so I went back to playing Random. I stopped relying on what had been easy win builds and just started doing whatever. And losing. A lot. I couldn't spend all my money, often because of a shortage of either minerals or gas. I realized I'm just not experienced enough to fly by the seat of my pants, because I haven't developed a feel for how to sustain whatever crazy build pops into my head. And I really wasn't learning anything or getting better. I guess I'm kind of stubborn about wanting to be a jack-of-all-trades. It's the same reason I never look up build orders online. Instead of following the instructions of those who have tested these things extensively, I wanted to get to the point where I would just naturally do efficient builds, based on an understanding of the game. But that's just too extreme. I should treat build orders like I treated joseki in Go (I'll eventually create or link to glossaries for my two games some time, but a joseki is sort of like a Chess opening). I used them as a study tool, trying to understand why each move was made rather than simply memorizing them. Similarly, I can study particular build orders (especially via replays of top players) and copy them to the extent that I understand them. After all, build orders only ever cover the first few minutes of the game, so it would be impossible to rely on them completely.
Speaking of BOs, this is an interesting thread on TL about someone who claims to have built a program that can tell you the fastest way to get to any set of Zerg units. There are the obligatory know-it-alls saying that it's crap because it doesn't take everything into account, but I think it could be a valuable tool to point toward better strategies.
So anyway, I've decided to stop playing Random so that I can focus on refining a small number of builds with only one race. In choosing a race, I ruled out Terran because I didn't want to put up with people saying that my race is OP and that's the only reason I ever win, blah blah blah. But then I was torn between Zerg and Protoss. On the one hand, I love how Zerg is fundamentally different from the other two races and how it gives you more flexibility in terms of expanding and tech switching. But I decided to go with Protoss just because I love using forcefields, blink Stalkers, Observers (who needs hax) and Void Rays. I've been opening almost every time with 3 Gateways and 1 Robotics Facility, but I haven't bothered to refine it to the same pattern each time, especially in deciding when to get the Robo. So establishing that exactly will be my next step. Another exciting thing I've been doing in quickmatch is working on late game macro. Earlier I made the decision to always stay on only two bases because I knew I couldn't handle the multitasking involved with keeping any more than that. But I can handle it now, and it's really fun. I can already see that if I get fully comfortable with that, it'll easily add at least 200 points to my rating.
Speaking of points, I haven't improved since after my 4-gate winning streak from last time. You get 1 bonus point added to your pool every two hours, and if you take that into account, my rating has actually gone down slightly since my last post. That's a little discouraging, but I want to be dedicated to this pursuit. I want to see just how good I can get at this game, no matter how long it takes me.
On another note, WTF?! They shut down Nexus Word Wars because the word "dyke" was in it?! That's a perfectly benign word (it means "dam", people) unless you specifically use it in an offensive way. I'm pretty sure I played that game about 50 times. There's something about this sort of typing game that I just love, probably the frantic pace and the thrill of having your fingers flying every second as you try to make intelligent decisions (probably why I like sc2 itself).
--
And finally, I made this post to reddit.com/r/starcraft, and I have to say I was surprised by the negative reaction (right now, 21 up votes, 24 down votes). I've been frustrated for a while about casters mispronouncing words, because (1) I'm always frustrated by people misusing English, and (2) I don't want to believe that video games, even at the highest level and most cerebral, are exclusively the realm of twenty-something basement dwellers. I've seen many posts on Reddit about individual words, including zealot (many people seem to finally grasp the first syllable but not the second), centrifugal, and barracks. Day[9] also recently jokingly bragged (I think it was during his sc2 release party) about knowing how to pronounce all the difficult words in the game, including chitinous, which is one I didn't know. And after hearing one or two people pronounce the word Templar (I thought it sounded like pulsar) as "tem-pler", I looked it up and found to my delight that I was wrong and those one or two people were right (although in both games, it is pronounced the "wrong" way). So I got curious as to whether there existed a "Starcraft glossary" to help with pronunciation and in some cases definition. I couldn't find any, so I had my idea for my first Reddit post. I've always been fascinated by languages and understanding the correct way of speaking and writing them (fun fact: I speak fluent French). And I love to find out about misconceptions, particularly when it's my own. Turns out not everyone likes to be corrected. Perhaps pronunciation is tricky because it's the least concrete of language skills since there are so many minor variations from person to person. There were some positive comments, but the general message was, "Don't tell me I'm wrong! This is how I'm used to it! Language can't be pinned down to what you find in a dictionary! Your pronunciations sound dumb, anyway." I wasn't sure how to feel in response. There was a part of me that just wanted to be angry and hoity-toity about people getting upset about me writing down what was in the dictionary. But in general, I don't like to be elitist. If so many people thought I should shut up, there had to be some sort of validity in that. I'm still struggling with coming to a conclusion, but here are my main ideas:
(1) I simply cannot allow myself to hold to a belief that others should use correct language if it is only for the sake of correctness. I get annoyed when people complain about there being too much foul language on TV, and my justification is that there is no inherent evil in it other than that which you create by the arbitrary rule that certain words shouldn't be used. It would be hypocritical of me to treat grammar/spelling/pronunciation/usage mistakes any other way. Just because I like to be right doesn't mean you have to.
(2) There are many good reasons, however, to be correct. The most important is that it facilitates communication. A great practical example of this comes up when you try to communicate with a non-native speaker of English. A mistake here or there might not hinder understanding since the context makes up for it. But if you combine too many mistakes into one sentence, you may start to have some real trouble. But that points to perhaps the core issue: it's not about speaking correctly according to the dictionary, it's about speaking according to what the listener is used to. In other words, we should make an effort to conform to the standard expectations of our community.
(3) What are the advantages and disadvantages of sub-communities developing their own variation from the wider standard? Perhaps it may instill regional pride, but it may also contribute to stereotypes from without. Consider, for example, the southern U.S. accent and all its effects.
(4) To what extent does social context play a role? Is there an obligation to have the ability to speak correctly even if we don't exercise it in informal contexts? Is pronunciation fundamentally different from the other language skills in this regard, since people tend to be comfortable with only one pronunciation per word?
So I'm going to try to relax about pronunciation, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to stop shuddering every time Artosis sits at a microphone in front of the biggest global Starcraft tournament of all time and says "zell-awt".
Games played: 514
League/Points: Diamond/1176
