The mac version of the beta just went online yesterday, so I pre ordered to get the beta today. I played brood war for so long I'm so psyched to play 2. I was never very good at the original, but me and some friends sure sunk a lot of time into it... Any other cerebrates out there

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"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." -- Bruce Lee

Yep, definitely playing SC2 right now and loving it. I don't play much on the ladder, but I'm in Plat league atm. I've been mostly watching Husky and HD's commentary videos on youtube which are fantastic, and probably spent more time watching their replays and going over them myself in SC2 replay mode (mostly my own for improvement and other strong players'). Day9's commentary is also good, but I just need that 1080p goodness . Currently trying to get decent with Phoenixes, but atm my younger brothers are using my account to play FFAs so not much chance for me to play now :p.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a beta key

But I know a few people who did, and it looks great. Can't wait to get my hands on it. I already pre-ordered it from Amazon


Guess where I got my screen name from

Hmm, that's weird. I got the beta key by pre ordering it from gamestop, and I thought amazon did the same...

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"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." -- Bruce Lee

Only fairly recently.

Also, while we're on the discussion of SC2, there's a reality TV show going on in Korea called "Nal_rA's Oldboy" where Nal_rA (very famous SC player) tries to get back into the SC pro game scene as a player rather than as a commentator. It's the only reality TV show I'm genuinely enjoying right now and it offers a glimpse into the SC pro scene (and soon SC2) in Korea.

First episode of Nal_rA's Oldboy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeqYkGtWfh0

Only amazon.com, not amazon.co.uk

At least I have the advantage of saving about 15€, because the pre-order price at amazon.co.uk is a lot lower than the rumored final price

I played Starcraft for 2 years on and off, i still watch the pro scene on South Korea but i've quited atleast until starcraft 2 comes out

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There´s always more important things than someone´s dreams.

...and now I'm three episodes in... Yesterday I was intending to play go, but started watching this instead. =)

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Someday I want to be strong enough to earn KGS[-].

Update, turns out my 3 yearbold MacBook is too old to play sc2 ugh, now I need to buy a new laptop when I get home...

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"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." -- Bruce Lee

Yeah its a nice show, i also tend to watch "HyungJoon Becomes Progamer"

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There´s always more important things than someone´s dreams.

There are a bunch of songs regarding the blizzard-beta-keys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvYdj4-g7Ec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym8AYEUq ... re=related

Oh and there was a very big uproar in the german SC Community because all newbs got betakeys but not the best german starcraft-pros

Cool songs.
I think there is no reason to be mad about that... its just beta.

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There´s always more important things than someone´s dreams.

Fortunately, for those without keys so far, the game's coming out quite quickly for Blizzard's standards (July 27th).

Also, I read a Korean news article a while ago that compared the brain activity of a Starcraft professional gamer playing Starcraft versus a Go player, and found that the Starcraft player's brain was more active and engaged than the Go player's. I'll see if I can dig up the article later.

Did the article address the difference in visual cortex stimulation between the games, or was it just a baseline amount of brain activity in general? I'd be interested in reading it if you can find it. (provided it was in English )

It was more the latter than the former; it's in Korean but I'll see if I can get the article translated after I burn in flames, I mean take my midterm tomorrow >__<.

Starcraft is definitely intense. After several years of (sporadic) playing, I'm still pretty weak. My fiancee and I occasionally play LAN games against computer opponents and I still marvel at how much I'd have to learn to be a good player. I'm not the gamer I used to be, so I don't even entertain thoughts of becoming much stronger.

I don't even want to think about Starcraft II, but I'll probably check it out at some point as I inevitably play every game Blizzard releases.

I've always been mediocre at RTSes. I sometimes know the tactics and strategies pretty well, but I'm too slow. I'm a mediocre player at best, except at Multiwinia, where I'm a medium player. I made top 50 on one gametype.

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a1h1 [1d]: You just need to curse the gods and defend.
Good Go = Shape.
Associação Portuguesa de Go

It will be interesting to see if their implementation of game replays in SC2 make the game close to being a perfect information game during review.

I don't mind hidden information during the game. Fog of war is an important game mechanic. But after the match, I want to be able to see exactly how I inevitably lost.

There are no "hero units" like in WC3, are there? That was annoying.

Not that it matters, there's about zero chance my computer meets minimum requirements.

Nope, no hero units. Also, the game replay functionality is mind-blowing. You can even toggle a "Player Camera" mode that actually shows you what the player you're observing was looking at and clicking on throughout the game (which can be a bit nauseating if you're watching a player who has very high APM and only looks at one part of a map for less than a second or two). And of course, tons of statistics available at your disposal, so with all these features yes I think the reviewing implementation is very much near perfect information. I analyze my own replays and find so many mistakes, reminds me of my 20k days in Go whenever I would review and find so many mistakes.

Just finished my ranking matches and got put in silver league, which is fine for me.Is it true they're shutting down the beta soon? Only two weeks till I get home and buy a new comp...

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"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." -- Bruce Lee