Art of Virtual War

There are games that we play for fun, and then there are the games that we play for that special screen at the end: The game that this particular image is from is called Starcraft II, the second iteration from a popular game that was released in 1998. Since then, it has become the subject of professional tournaments and leagues with prize pools of up to millions of dollars. I once had the dream of becoming good enough at the game to eventually compete in one, but my skills fell short. It is a game that requires in-depth knowledge and meta-knowledge of both your opponents and what their possible strategies are. In a sense it is like chess in that you need to know effective attack and defense strategies, but while also requiring quicker decision making and information gathering as situations in the game can change by the millisecond as opposed to waiting for your opponent to end their turn. It is also a virtual war game that also involves mental feints alongside army and resource management. There are various game mode to play including exclusive player vs player type matches, player vs A.I. matches, and even custom game modes like tower defense. Each mode requires a different skill set or knowledge of that game type to achieve the victory. I wouldn’t quite call myself an expert at this game, but it is a hobby that I have been working at for years and I continue to hone my micro- and macro-management skills through this game. While I lack the hours everyday to practice and improve like the professional players, I still find myself speeding up my reaction times and improving my knowledge of strategies and army compositions that the professionals use. I doubt that I will ever find myself winning a tournament prize, but perhaps one day I’ll consider my skills sufficient to be able to compete in one.