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firenze, it's the level of complexity and fanaticism that's the turnoff. It's complex enough that it's really hard to just jump into a game and hold your own against anyone. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but contributes to being hard to get into. You really can't say the same about pickup baseball.

The fanaticism on the other hand is analogous to baseball. And it's one of the reasons I fucking hate watching organized sports. If I had to play with those people I'd chew my arms off. And admittedly this is where the real rub lies. Because it's really hard to put up with the complexity of SC, and the memorization it requires, to play with people who live and breathe these games.

I never meant to say other people can't enjoy all that. But multiplayer RTS games always seemed like way too much work for not a lot of payoff to me. And the single player campaigns have rarely done it for me, so you're one up on me there.

So there's no problem with other people being incredibly pumped about it. I'm just saying there's no hook here for someone like me. Didn't mean to be a downer.

Edit: And thanks for the suggestion notbov, I might just do that.
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Yeah, I used MGO as an extreme example because, like you said, it's one game practically designed from the ground up to be goofy. So would it be unfair then to read what you're saying as SC and SCII are built as competitive games and that I'd be missing out if I didn't play them competitively? Kind of like how someone would be missing out if they didn't fuck around in MGO? Sorry to put words in your mouth.

If so then it's painting the game as just not for me again. I'm not really the competitive type. Ah well.
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Reviving this topic to say I've actually been getting into this game after my initial reservations. I gotta say, out of the few RTSes I've played this one is the most accessible. It's got a well paced campaign where you can mess around learning things like macro, control groups and build orders without too much worry and very decent help and tutorial options available. And the grid hotkeys! Rough to get used to after campaign, but I really like the practicality.

Actually played some 2v2 with Booji yesterday against 2 medium AI opponents and discovered just how terrible I am. We got rushed early and rolled a couple of times due to lacking the defenses to take out those early roaches or the mutalisks following soon after. Campaign habits were clearly showing as we were forgetting important, basic things like researching siege tech, stimp packs or unit upgrades. Eventually we settled into bunkering down with decent siege tank forces and focused on grabbing a couple of extra expansions and tech-ing up to battle cruisers before rolling over the AI. Rinse and repeat about 3~4 times. It felt good, but I know that's not how the game is supposed to go. With even moderately more capable AI we'd be sitting ducks while we teched up and stuck holding the bag if the AI had a hard counter to Battle cruisers. Not to mention I vacillate between having 1000+ minerals to being mineral locked when I'm trying to pump BCs. So. A long way to go.

Those early rushes were a serious pain in the ass by the way. Couldn't build marines fast enough to deal with the roaches they'd send in so on half those maps I had to beat a hasty retreat and take a hit to the economy. It didn't help that I didn't know what the counter to roaches were or what the hell that unit was even called (Seriously, whose idea was it to have all enemy units labeled as 'Enemy swarm'. Experienced players already know the difference, only beginners are penalized by this obfuscation). Was happy to learn this morning though that the early challenge missions are actually all about teaching you what the enemy types are and the counters to them based on race. Basically I should have been pumping a couple of marauders to deal with the roach rush instead of marines. So again, definitely like some of the help options available in this game.

Also this topic has been rather helpful for suggestions so thanks for that!
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Good to know the BC build up isn't completely useless. Still, I gotta work on either a midgame solution to push the enemy (MMM - though I suck with medivacs, or Siege Tank & Thor artillery bombardment. maybe? Orbital scans for line of sight). Or work on defending more efficiently and teching up faster. Kind of unnecessary to have 50 marines sitting around when I'm making a BC push.

I just realized you could save during the challenges! That makes things a lot more doable. Also I now feel slightly silly for looking up video walkthroughs on how to beat Protoss Assault. Because Jesus Hell what am I going to do with Templars and sentries. Apparently wall a lot.
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I get what Retreat Syndrome is saying, at least as Terran. As Terran those first 40 seconds are ALWAYS spent the same way, i.e. train those two scv. Then supply depot so that you can build a barracks. Then a barracks so that you can build anything else.
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In a strange twist it was the first rts that Booj and I got familiar enough with to enjoy, but the rest of our friends (who previously always wanted to play warcraft and starcraft) never really got hooked. It's been gathering dust and I've completely forgotten how to play it.
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