GenXnerd

Hello again. Louie here and today I would like to introduce what will be a weekly article on GenXnerd. This is my first such project, but I have high expectations. I am going to focus on video games, mainly Star Craft 2 (SC2) and increasingly Diablo 3(D3). I know D3 has a lot of problems at the moment, but I am confident that Blizzard will address and fix these issues, seems they have an idea of how they want to do that. Also remember that PvP has not yet, but will be, a part of D3. And bet your sweet ass I will be in there, grinding my way thru the arena. That however is a story for another day. Today I want to talk about SC2, in particular, the SC2 community here in Indiana. I know your thinking ‘What SC2 community?’ Well that is the matter at hand. There are some collegiate teams, but I am looking for something outside of teams. not everyone can be on 1 team, but we can all be part of 1 community. So if you play SC2, or if you know someone who does, this article is for you.

Now I am no great player, and starting my own business means that I don’t get enough time to play. Tho I am top silver, I will rise to at least top gold over the winter. So, Obviously I don’t intend to teach  people how to play the game. What is my goal? To get ppl in Indiana to start talking, start playing and practicing together. By doing so, we will all become better. And beyond a pool of practice partners, we will find friends, the community will grow and our ambitions with it. Perhaps LAN’s or online competitions could come about. Who knows? If you play SC2 I’m sure you watch streams, competition, GSL, MLG, IPL, TSL, IEM….the point is that this game is very open to competition. But that is all in the future, and nothing at all if there is no community to support it. So on to the heart of the matter. Community.

Community is simple, it is the people. SC2 community is just the population of SC2 players. So what I see that needs to be done is also simple. Give that community somewhere to communicate. Now we are all familiar with the in-game chatrooms, but to me, they seem a little ambiguous. I’ve meet many people either through games or in chat, and practiced, but only for a day or so, or start a team, only to ladder for 1 night and and nothing after. The difference and benefit to a community platform like this is that people came to the page to find other players. there will, in theory, be a high concentration of people who are looking for a serious team-mate, or practice partner. People Came here because they are serious, and want to find other serious players. Also, by removing at least some of the ambiguity we will build a stronger community. Information flows better between people who feel connected, be it thru community, in a team, or just that you talk to someone outside of the game. Its easier to take things serious when you think of someone as ‘Jeff’ rather than ‘NoobEater’. As the players start to take things more serious, they will get better. And as these increasingly better players intermingle, practicing and playing together the average skill of the community will increase. I know I’m not inclined to tell players on the ladder how they could have done something different to possibly beat me, but someone I play with frequently, that is a different story. And as information begins to flow freely then people will become smarter players, and in turn more information will flow. I don’t care what league you are in, I would bet your not playing at your top potential. There is always room for improvement, always room for growth.

I plan to get a facebook page going for Indiana SC2 players. Now as I said earlier, this is no attempt at a team, Just a way to get people talking, also a feel for how people feel about and what they expect from the community. I want to get feedback through the page on people’s thoughts. What would keep you inspired? what would you like to see happen with local players? As for what I would like to see, people getting in touch, something outside of the ambiguous in game chatrooms. Perhaps you’re looking for players to do 2v2, 3v3, 4v4. Or maybe you’re haveing a hard time against zerg and would like to find someone to hone your builds against. Or maybe you’re looking for a higher lvl player to ask a question or two, without having to sift thru trolls. As for myself, I just like the idea of local players interacting. This game is very competitive. It takes a lot of practice, study and work to stay competitive. as soon as your XvT is good your working on your XvP, and before you get you XvZ satisfactory, your XvT is slacking. You must Work on and learn the builds for your race, but you also need a decent understanding of the other 2 races. you need to know what your opponent is going for before he is at your front door. You need to know what your opponent is capable of, what timings they can abuse, what tech choices will give you a hard time. I could write 3000 words on this and still have only scratched the surface. The point is, it takes a lot of work to stay on your game, and having friends in the game helps a lot. Working on a build or a style against a race goes so smooth if you have say a Protoss friend you can play 10 straight games against, and get honest feedback from. Rather than going thru 10 ladder games, and getting a toss 3 times, then getting 4 gated 2 of those times when you just wanted to work on your macro style. I hope This sounds appealing to you, that you want to see this happen. Like I said, the community is the people, we all play the game so the community is there. This is simply a way for the community to grow. I want to see myself do better, but I also like to see my friends get better as well. I don’t expect to see any ‘Pro’ level players from this, but I think it is inevitable that players will move up  1 or 2 leagues, and if it brings progress it is all worth it. now go and ladder your little hearts out, hell do some monobattles while you’re at it, you deserve it. check back with us soon for the Facebook page. gl hf