Starcraft 2 vs. Starcraft 1 – Will It Split The Community Like Counter-Strike Did?

May 21st, 2009

The release of StarCraft 2 will split the online and competitive community in two. On the one hand, you will have those who can’t wait to migrate to Blizzard’s latest masterpiece. On the other hand, you will have those who see no reason to change games, and they are perfectly content with the current game. How do I know this will happen?

StarCraft is one of only two games that has experienced amazing longevity on the competitive scene. Counter-Strike (CS) started out as fan mod based on the Half Life engine, and exploded into popularity online. For those who don’t know, CS is a team-based first person shooter with a heavy emphasis on co-operation to complete the objectives on each map.

CS was eventually bought by Valve, creators of the Half Life series. They steadily improved it until it reached its best version, CS 1.6, in 2004. CS 1.6 was a massive improvement after all the previous versions, and it featured prominently at all the major E-Sports competitions. Not unlike StarCraft, CS 1.6 had a staggering following online. Despite a vicious learning curve, it continued to gain fans at LANS and casual online play, while some of the most highly paid E-Sports players battled it out on the highest level. It was the game for everyone.

Valve decided to remake CS with its newly created Source engine in 2006, and CS: Source was born. To the casual observer, the only difference between the two versions was the graphics. Source was much prettier than the garish CS 1.6. However, Valve fettled with the two most important aspects of CS – the gun physics and map layouts.

The key to becoming a good CS player was learning how the weapons worked, and knowing the competitive maps like the back of your hand. Once you understood those two aspects of CS, it simply became a matter of reflexes and tactical thinking which separated you from your competition. CS: Source changed those two basics of CS, and many players didn’t like it. Many found it too easy to kill the opponent, and that all the skill was taken out of game. This group stuck with CS 1.6.

On the other hand, players loved the new version of their favorite online shooter and migrated across. This posed two problems: 1.) Popular teams sat on different sides of the fence, reducing the amount of competition at the highest level, and 2.) It split the online and LAN’ing community into two camps, with either side refusing to budge.

The major E-Sports organizers had to choose which version to host, as they couldn’t host both. Naturally, they chose Source and left the CS 1.6 players out completely. I cannot stress how much of problem this was at the time, as it drained the competitive pool of all the competition. CS without competition is a completely pointless endeavor. Consider this, you have played X game for a number of years and you are now forced to play against newbies simply because there is no one of your skill level to compete against. This is what happened with CS and CS: Source.

There were other consequences too, like killing the competition completely in the smaller communities, but that is almost irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that CS: Source, an updated version of a preposterously popular game, created a schism in the community that is still felt three years after its release.

StarCraft finds itself in a similar situation. It is a fiercely competitive game that has stood the test of time through a tight knit community and a healthy E-Sports presence. The graphics are archaic, but the game play is brilliant. StarCraft 2 updates the graphics, but has made enough changes to the game play mechanics to warrant concern from hardcore competitors. StarCraft is heralded as the perfect RTS, so how could StarCraft 2 possibly improve on that?

Blizzard may find themselves in the same situation that Valve has. They are trying to change a game that doesn’t need changing, and they may burn themselves horribly from this.

Let’s not forget that playing StarCraft 2 online will require a better computer and a faster internet line. All those pretty particle physics need to be rendered by something. That’s another reason for players to stick with StarCraft; they cannot afford to play StarCraft 2 online.

There are so many unforeseen factors that could lead to a split in the community. The only way we will know is post- StarCraft 2 release, when the major competitions have to choose which game to host.