The World of StarCraft

Introduction
The new technologies that make up our “wired world' create countless possibilities for authors, readers, and texts. The digital revolution influenced every aspect of how our society experiences and interacts with media. Technological advancements in the “wired world” changed our experiences with media by making everything dramatically more accessible. If you look at the most significant advancements in the way humans communicate, every advancement increases accessibility but is usually greeted with opposition.

The first transition we looked at dealt with the change from oral culture to one where everything is written down. During the era of Socrates, the remediated form of orality was written words. Even though written word has the ability to effectively distribute stories and lessons to a much wider audience, Socrates claimed that this new media only “offers pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom.” The development of this major innovation spawned the creation of writing tools, methods, and means of distribution. The successive steps we took to reach the modern digital revolution have effectively narrowed the gap between the author and the reader. Even though tensions between old media and new media always exist, each generation of communication technology has expanded the quality and accessibility of media. Rushkoff stated that “just when it appears that a new medium is going to replace its predecessor, we start to recognize the true value of the older.” Even though there are always tensions between old and new, media don’t actually steal from each other. Media constantly incorporates and represents itself through the process of remediation. Throughout this transition, the definition of author, reader, and text has also drastically changed. The author can now spread their work through a wide variety of media, and connect with their readers at a whole new level. Readers now have the ability to actually influence the text by interacting with it directly, or by interacting with the actual author. The definition of text is no longer limited to literature, but can include film, music, print, television, art, video games, and electronic literature.

My project will focus on how the readers, or consumers now have the power to interpret, remediate, and share their own takes on what they have experienced. One of the most popular ways in which the audience does this is through online fan communities. I agree with the response to the Reading at Risk report by Matthew Kirschenbaum which states that "the screen as well as the page as a natural venue for literature and imaginative writing." I will be analyzing the fan communities that have formed around the popular online video-game StarCraft which basically spawned its own culture and in countries like Korea. StarCraft isn’t just a game, it is a career. There are currently over 500 professional players that basically have celebrity status, and eleven teams where a signing deal could be worth as much at $700,000. Due to this immense popularity, this game spawned countless clubs, communities, and teams. The University of Berkeley actually offers a game theory course in StarCraft where areas of study include scouting, player mindset, deception, and army formations. I will be discussing and analyzing the interpretative, lifestyle, and remediation aspects of these communities.

Global Starcraft League


An association called the GOMTV Global StarCraft II league is one of the first, and most popular steps towards the creation of a professional league in South Korea for StarCraft II. This tournament-based league event broadcasts about three nights a week on the streaming service GOMTV. One on one matches broadcast on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The remaining two weekdays are reserved for streaming team games.

The tournament is seperated into two tiers: Code S and Code A. Code S contains all of the top tier players who compete against each other in order to win the tournament. Code A is a tier where lower level players compete for a chance to enter the Code S tier.

GSL content is available either for free, or for-pay. Free users can watch low quality streams and previously recorded matches (first set of each match only). Premium users have access to all content in high quality, mobile viewing, and a complete set of pre-recorded matches. Premium users pay about 19.99USD per season. Just like a sport event, this tournament has seperate commentary and translation for many different languages. Dan “Artosis” Stemkoski and Nicolas “Tasteless” Plott are the English streams main commentators.

If you are even remotely interested in e-sports, it is highly recommended that you check out this event. Even non-fans can appreciate all the comebacks, intense new strategies, and competitive atmosphere. Competitors from all over the world participate (even though the Koreans usually end up wining), and the casting is highly professional and entertaining to watch.

GSL leagues are very interesting communities because they have a lot in common with various "Simulation Arguments" that we went over in class. The main aspect of this game is to simulate a battle, and the audience is fascinated by how the "pro players" master this simulation. Just like a lot of the players in the article "Anda's Game", StarCraft fans almost accept the game as a seperate reality. This is not necessarily a bad thing though, since this is the basis of the newly-emerging e-sports era.

Barcraft
Many of StarCraft's players enjoying watching professionals play the game much more than playing it themselves. This is very comparable to sports like American football, where a large percentage of the fans does not actually play the sport. Just like in football, fans look for places like bars to watch events together. BarCraft is a name for watching StarCraft matches at bars. This lifestyle phenomenon started during the spring of 2011 in the United States by the Team Liquid member "primadog ", the starcraft reddit member "o_Oskar at the Chao Bistro in Seattle.

This event almost immediately exploded in popularity and now there are numerous barcrafts that could be found in almost any country or state per day. The official list of Barcrafts and Meetups is posted under a section of the teamliquid website (http://www.teamliquid.net/barcraft/). If your local town does not have any barcrafts, the general consensus is "go make one!"

The official Blizzard website also now has a section on BarCrafts, with description, location, and fan reviews/responses. This really encapsulates the intention of the company to make StarCraft into a spectator sport.

TeamLiquid.net
This website started as a StarCraft Brood War clan, and was founded by Liquid'Nazgul and Joy "Liquid'Meat" at the start of 2001. For the first few years, the website stayed at pretty low member counts. However, it didnt take long for the website to explode in terms of popularity and become the central platform for everything StarCraft. TeamLiquid.net would attract StarCraft players and fans from all over the world to discuss lore, tournaments, strategy, maps, single player experience, and news. A few of the specialized content sites located directly inside TeamLiquid.net include --


 * Liquipedia : This is a StarCraft Wiki which contains information about everything that has to do with StarCraft. You can find information on any MLG player, tournament, common strategy, or game mechanic.


 * The TLPD : This is a database maintained by players which records the results from the various StarCraft competitons, and calculates a ELO rating for every player (skill level).
 * Liquibet : Fans place figurative bets on their predicted outcome of a StarCraft league. Winners win special icons that are displayed next to their name in forum posts.


 * Team Liquid Fantasy Starcraft : Just like any spectator sports, StarCraft has a community of fantasy playeys. Fans would make teams out of the top Korean StarCraft players and compete with each other.


 * Calendar: Displays past/ upcoming events and news in the StarCraft community.

A very popular dispute in this community is about class balance between the three races (zerg, protoss, and terran). This game mechanic debate is extremely popular because a lot of the games won/lost could be blamed on one class being a little more powerful than the other two. Blizzard releases pretty frequent updates that change certain aspects of each race based on discussion on communities like this, and their own testing. An example of a seemingly minute change was the recent Overlord movement speed increase to 0.586 mu/s from 0.4687 mu/s. It is pretty funny how small change in the speed of the slowest and weakest unit in the Zerg race has changed so many game mechanics. After this change, the user SarcasmMonster conducted a poll which asked TeamLiquid members whether or not they agree with this change. The poll resulted in a 81% agreement after 4500 people voted.
 * Live user Streams : A feature that allows community members to not only watch professional StarCraft games, but to also watch/commentate on each others matches.
 * TeamLiquid Attack : ​ This is meant to be a direct ripoff of the popular Korean broadcasted showTLAttackDRG.jpg "Battle.net Attack!" where the hosts would set up matches with pro players playing against regular players. They usually sit with the pro player, and commentate on the match while it is happening.

Interpretive webshows
There are actually countless user-submitted youtube videos trying to analyze the game and interpret various strategies and game elements. My favorite example is the Day[9TV ] webshow which is hosted by Sean"Day[9" Plott]. This show consists of hour long episodes that focus on exploring and analyzing different strategies of the game. Fans watch this show to get educated about the game, and Sean presents it in a very entertaining and funny manner. The show's motto is "where we learn to be a better gamer" stands true because the episodes are not aimed at only pro gamers, but on players of all skill levels. Lessons range from how to position your hands on the mouse/keyboard, to more advanced micro-organization strategies. This Show is already on the 470th episode, and is only increasing in popularity. My favorite part about this show is that it is not just about StarCraft, but Day[9] likes to entertain his fans in as many ways as possible as you can see in the following example.



These interpretive communities are basically obsessed with gaining as much collective knowlege as possible about StarCraft. Not only do fans try to master everything about the game, but inevitably a spoiler culture also gets made. In Henry Jenkins article "Spoiling Survivor" the author argues that it is not just the possession of knowledge that keeps people interested, but it is the "social profcess of acquiring knowledge, which is dynamic and participatory, continually testing and reaffirming the groups social ties." There are constant discussions and predictions about what the new StarCraft expansion pack contains or who will win the next GSL.

Fan submitted videos
StarCraft videos posted on YouTube or various other sites are not only strategy analyses and tournament streams. Many of the most popular web shows focus on remediating StarCraft, and looking at the game in their own way. A really good example is a webseries posted by Life's a Glitch TV (LagTV) called When Cheese Fails. To understand the premise behind this series, you must first know what cheese is. Cheese is a game term associated with using an unconventional strategy which catches the opponent by surprise. The two most common results from Cheesing is that either the cheeser quickly wins the game, or the cheese fails and the cheeser looses. Since Cheesing is really looked down on in the StarCraft community because of it's annoying and exploitative nature, people love seeing Cheesers lose. When Cheese Fails focuses on analyzing and commentating on games where the cheeser fails in winning the game. These webepisodes are extremely entertaining to watch because every single game is extremely unconventional, funny, and includes some sort of unexpected result.

FanFiction
Another extremely popular activity that fans of this game participate in is reading and writing fan fiction. If you look at www.fanfiction.net (one of the most popular spots for StarCraft fan fiction), you can see virtually thousands of novels written about the StarCraft universe. One of the most interesting ones I found was titled "13th Stepping " and deals with placing Harry Potter's character in the StarCraft universe. The story is very well written, with a strong style, and execution. You do not need a StarCraft background to enjoy the story and definitely takes on a unique approach to the HarryPotter and StarCraft universe. The only thing I do not agree with is how angry/confrontational Harry was in this story. Even though Harry Potter does not work too well with the StarCraft universe, mechanisms behind how magic and psionics relate to each other were extremely interesting. I am really looking forward to seeing how this story unfolds: Will Harry ever find out who the Dark Voice is? Could the Dark Voice be Voldemort? Could Harry possibly use a bone from a Zerg creature as a special wand? Would Harry maybe learn to dual-wield terran weapons as well as magical wands?

Fans also post StarCraft stories in the form of blog-fiction. A good example is the story titled "A Marine's Life". The last entry (chapter X) was posted in January of 2011. This blog fiction focuses on the life that simple marines have during the war against Protoss and Zerg forces. I loved how you get to experience the game from the point of view of one of the smallest and weakest units. This story really gives a different way of looking at the massive wars in the game. It shows how the units would react to the commands they are given, and the situations they are placed in if they had a consciousness.

A popular College Humor video was recently posted which had a very similar idea. This hilarious video gives us the point of view perspective of Marines getting controlled by a sixteen year old "noob". These Marines are basically all forced to kill each other, take a stupid action, or commit suicide.

All of these remediations add something new to the text that was probably not intended by the original author. Remediations serve a purpose of adding limitless possibilities of enjoying a universe by virtually expanding it. Even though the traditional classification of remediation is presenting old media in new technologically advanced ways, StarCraft remediation communities change the way in which fans enjoy the game. This is done through videos, fan fiction, comics, artwork, and even through the game itself. If fans get bored of what the game originally offers, they have many other options of enjoying the universe, and sharing their creations. Rushkoff stated that Books are an experience and a possession; which is an aspect that can never be replicated in a wired world remediation. If people want to experience a work of literature, they would most likely still read a novel. Once a person has received the satisfaction of reading that novel, they now have the option to post reflections, reviews, and questions on said novel on the internet for other people to see. The StarCraft game is just like the "novel" that Rushkoff described, and the remediation aspects only enhance the experience of playing the game.