Starcraft 2

I don't like to lose.

It's kind of a thing for me in video games. If I do lose in a video game I will either:

a) Quit playing said video game.

b) Play said video game every spare moment of my day until I win.

Whether I choose to go with option A or option B really depends on the quality of the game. Do I want to commit that much spare time to defeating the obstacle that the game presents? Or would I rather just skip it and devote the time to some other game?

Every game presents a challenge, large or small. Some aren't very challenging at all. Bejeweled for example. Sure, there is SOME skill involved, but mostly how far you get tends to be more a function of the Random Number Generator (RNG).

At the other end of the spectrum... games like Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft, RNG is still (sometimes) a factor, but by and large, skill determines your success or failure.

Starcraft and WoW are fairly simple to pick up, but there are challenges in it that you are not going to easily achieve.

In WoW, you will have bosses / PVP challenges that you are not going to be able to overcome until you work through it and get better.

With Starcraft, and specifically in the multiplayer ladder matches, you are not going to achieve a good ladder ranking until you master the game. And…as I mentioned:

I don't like to lose.

It is the quality of the Starcraft gameplay that makes me continue and put in the time to avoid losing. Thus, I've been in training. Multiplayer training. (Queue 'Rocky' theme. Incoming training montage.)

I've done a lot of 'easy' mode 1v1 matches with the computer, working on various build orders. I think I've settled on two that I really like.

I've done a few 'hard' mode 1v1's versus Terran (computer) working on various counters. I'm getting pretty good at it and I win 90% of the matches there.

I've done a few of the 'challenges' to work on various skills that I'm going to need in the coming fights.

Over the next week, I plan on doing many more 1v1 'hard' mode battles versus randoms to work on my anti-protoss/anti-zerg counters.

Depending on the outcome of those hard mode adventures, I plan to start my multiplayer 'placement' matches sometime next week. My initial goal is to stay out of the 'bronze' ladder. My ultimate goal of course is to rank up to platinum/diamond, but it will be a while on that.

But enough about that…I was going to review Starcraft 2. Lets just say this: If you like RTS games, you will like SC2. Buy it. You will not be sorry.

If you don't like RTS games: You might not like SC2…but then again….you might. It is probably the best RTS game of all time, so I don't think you'd go wrong checking it out. If ANY game in this genre has a chance of pulling someone in who doesn't like the genre, it is SC2.

But I have heard a lot of people say 'I don't like RTS games, and I don't like SC2.', so it certainly isn't going to be universally praised by folks outside of it's niche. I can see where they are coming from.

As for me, you will find me knee deep in zerg for the next few months until something else comes along that grabs my attention away. Until then, I will be honing my skills until I win every game. Because…

I don't like to lose.

Facebook

So Chris has a Facebook account now. Lest anybody be dismayed by my decision to unleash the horrors of the interwebz onto a young kid, let me be clear: I'm permissive…to a point.

He is allowed on Facebook, with the following caveats:

1) He doesn't have the password to his Facebook account. I have the password to his Facebook account. He doesn't go on FB when I'm not around.

2) His email auto-forwards to my email account. I screen everything. I'm invasive, intrusive, and nosy. If (and only if) I deem the message appropriate, I let him read it.

3) He is allowed on the computer only when his chores are done. His room is nearly always clean anyway, so this is an easy rule to enforce. (His room is usually clean mostly because he likes video games and knows that the only way he gets to play them is by cleaning his room. Parenting is easy when you have something precious to a child that you can take away. You can put that in your next book, Dr. Phil)

Do I feel bad about this blatant intrusion into my kid's privacy? Not even a little bit. As he gets older and I start trusting him more and more to make good decisions, I'll let off the leash a bit more. But he doesn't yet have the experience to make some of those good decisions. So I'll make them for him, and in doing so give him the opportunity to see how those decisions are made so that he can eventually make them for himself.

I'm not trying to raise a perfect kid. I know he will make mistakes, and I'm committed give him the freedom to make those mistakes. But…I will do my best to minimize the impact those mistakes have, and protect him from making mistakes that have dire long term consequences.

So yes, I'm equal parts permissive hippy (I let my kid play on Facebook!) and overbearing tyrant (I invade his PRIVACY and censor what he sees). I like it that way.

I'll probably let up when he is 18. Maybe.

For Janel, I'll let up when she is 30.

Or 50...