Why I've uninstalled StarCraft 2 and why I doubt I'll return; an open letter to the devs

General Discussion
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Dear devs; I loved StarCraft 2 and over the last 8+ years it’s brought me great joy so it’s with a sad heart that I uninstall.

This is going to be about why I’ve uninstalled and why I don’t think I’m coming back.

For starters, I vehemently disagree with the direction you’ve taken.
We constantly have gigantic maps that promote eco cheese and eco cheese is the most obnoxious crap in the game.

Next I take issue with your constant mishandling of Protoss. Nerfed Observers, nerfed charge, even more gimmicky Void Rays…no buffs to the Tempest which severely needs to be buffed or reworked as it’s a bad unit, yet one Protoss needs to deal with stuff like massed Liberators.

Then we move onto how Queens facilitate extreme Zerg greed which is what keeps making Zerg imbalanced…

Point being, I disagree with most of the changes you’ve made in the last 2-3 balance patches and in my eyes, you’ve removed a lot of what I considered to be fun in StarCraft 2.

Next we have co-op nerfs. It’s a non-competitive mode with new difficulty modes recently added and you’re nerfing commanders? Really? How about you buff the crappy ones to a reasonable state…I bought Mengsk and I REGRET buying him because you nerfed him so thoroughly that I no longer consider him fun.

I was already on the fence after the whole HK incident regarding a boycott, on one side I wanted to believe in Blizzard and their ability to improve but how am I supposed to support an organization which has literally bent the knee to the CCP? The CCP is an anathema to everything western society values and is consistently committing human rights violations.

So considering the only Blizzard game I actually liked was StarCraft 2 (and Brood War) this feels like I no longer have any reason to continue supporting Blizzard. Both because of the severe mishandling of StarCraft 2 and because of ethical reasons linked to human rights abuses.

I don’t think I’ll ever come back. At least not until Activision-Blizzard can find a way to navigate the CCP waters without indirectly supporting a regime which is literally organ harvesting and detaining people in hell-like conditions and not until StarCraft 2’s balance team reverses course.

It makes me a little sad because StarCraft 2 was one of my favorite hobbies and now anytime I start the game, all I can think of is how low it has sunk over the last year due to inaction or complete over reaction.

Thanks for reading and I hope one day the issues I brought up finally get addressed. Until then I’ll spend my $ elsewhere and I guess RTS is a dead genre for me, outside of niche games like Dawn of War or Battlefleet Gothic Armada.

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Corporations are a western value nowadays. I’m not sure how you reconcile your beliefs if you both want to promote and disavow western culture.

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Irrelevant. Corporations don’t generally support a totalitarian Government that commits genocide, at least not since WW2. If I find additional corporations that support the CCP, I’ll boycott them too, unless they provide service or goods I cannot get anywhere else and absolutely need.

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At the end of the day, its a fun game. Although I play terran as a main, I always play random as well.

Playing random keeps my sanity.

If I were to play terran as my only race, I would absolutely go nuts.

I advise playing random if your main race is frustrating you. It can relieve stress and give you a more fresh feeling to the game. Even pro players screw around off-racing from time to time.

As for the concerns of the corporation stuff, I dunno. That’s life.

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It’s…not really the queens. It’s more the power of roach/ravager counterattacks after failed harassment.

Without queen range, liberators would be nearly unstoppable harassment.

A slight exaggeration, but I do agree with you in spirit.

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Corporations are legally bound to do anything legal that generates a profit. If I were a Blizzard shareholder and they sabotaged their market presence in China I would have legitimate grounds to sue the CEO.

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Protoss has been the strongest race on ladder since 4.0. Protoss populations have increase in all of the higher leagues since then, especially in GM, while Zerg populations have decreased.

When someone goes on a rant like this and blames balance you know the issue is that they can’t accept their own failures which is why they’re so frustrated.

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Usually when I uninstall a game I don’t write a long emotional post about it. It’s usually because I am not that emotionally attached to a video game.

You have to do what is best for you. I never uninstalled a game with tears in my eyes before. I can’t imagine what that’s like.

It’s just a video game man. Take a step back and seriously laugh at yourself very hard. I know you want Daddy blizzard to come hold you and wipe away your tears and never want to let you go.

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Queens and the Charge nerf are not the reason you’re losing SC2 games in Platinum league.

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Oh no, corporations will support whatever regimes they think will increase their profits. Corporations regularly support fascists like Balsonaro, apartheid governments like Israel or the pre-1993 South Africa, or coups like the recent one in Bolivia if they believe the new government will help them screw over workers and consumers, destroy unions, exploit the country’s resources, lower taxes, privatize government enterprises, give them access to slave labor, or provide them with other benefits.

Corporations will not drop support for such regimes until boycotts or abuses by the regime targeted at the company cut into their profit margins, or until sanctions or war with other countries forces them to cut ties.

Furthermore, as HonkHonk pointed out; publicly traded corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders; such that any decision which potentially cuts profits (such as boycotting a country over its practices, raising worker wages, increasing worker benefits, cutting prices in a rigged market, etc) is grounds to sue and dismiss the CEO.

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Im totally lost here, what is HK and the CCP?

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Hong Kong and some way of saying the Communist Party of China I believe.

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To save money, Blizzard should uninstall the last couple years of balance patches since the game is free anyway and then fire the devs that keep making balance patches. This way you don’t have to pay their wages. No one pays for this game anyway, so why keep “balancing” it. This is pointless. If you can’t balance it by 2017, you will NEVER balance it. Your changes will just make a different race stronger till you change something else.

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I don’t advocate ruining someone’s life via letting them go unless it’s a severe issue or a bottom line issue.

The balance team just needs to be more cautious.

Did the statistics support a nerf to charge? No? Then don’t reinvent the bloody wheel.

Were people outright losing games to fast Observers? No? Then don’t pander.

Do all zerg builds that utterly dominate start with a fast 3rd and the inability to punish that greed effectively by the other player? Then Zerg’s early game defense (queens) are probably too strong.

If Adepts are almost never made, the solution isn’t to make them even more gimmicky when everyone was saying it was a bad change…

And the map pools…why is the QC on these things so stinking low? Why are they allowing maps in that have pathing errors? Why are they all gigantic in size? Why are the ramps so large going into the nat? Why do some maps have multiple paths into the nat?

These are all major mistakes that should have never happened and when a company is already on thin ice, it makes players like myself leave. Ones who have been around since the very beginning.

I may come back but only when things get fixed, much like how I came back after mass Raven nonsense was nerfed.

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Last season I went from diamond 2 to losing 3/4 of my games in every MU because the game is so unplayable that everyone just cheeses right now. I may not be bringing my A game but you don’t go from winning 3/4 of your games last season to losing 3/4 of them in the new season on loss of skill alone.

That brings me to another part of why I’m leaving, you guys are so absurd. Like why would you assume I’m plat? I’ve posted replays of me in Diamond last season…and even if I was in plat, I’m not quitting because I’m losing, I’m quitting because the game is a frustrating piece of crap right now that removed all the things I enjoyed last patch. You can’t even talk shop about sc2 because you guys are so freaking dumb about the subject…

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Top 3 signs this is a troll post

  1. Uses the term cheese wrong

  2. randomly throws the queen into the mix despite that it’s actually gotten nerfed or unchanged for like 3 years.

  3. Bring sup hong kong

Bonus point

  1. writes a dramatic post about why they left instead of simply stop playing like most people who decide that a game isn’t fun anymore.
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The post wasn’t aimed at you, dummy. It says right in the title, open letter to the DEVS. Are you a dev? No? Then step off.

You are a good part of why this community is toxic. And no, I did not use the term cheese wrong. Wtf is wrong with you?

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Ive uninstalled as well and havent played a game this season… more of a mental break if anything.
Not sure if ill reinstall any time soon…
im just watching games trying to think of a strategy outside the norm.

Dont care if i ever play again. I find myself playing consoles more and new ones come out next year

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Cheese: most often refers to an unexpected strategy that relies in large parts on lack of information and/or psychological impact on the opponent. Cheese build orders typically revolve around an early attack that, if undetected, is more difficult to defend than execute.

No idea what econ cheese it…it’s just called being greedy. Cheese is a fast strategy to catch your opponent off guard (Bunker rush, cannon rush, 6 pool)

Also, toxic? Sorry , but far from it. Funny how you call me toxic and then name call…pot calling the kettle black.

Pro tip: don’t post something in the forums and then get mad when people post in it. No dev is going to read a post called this because it’s just going to be a bunch of balance complaining. If you actually have some feedback, you actually have to give it. Tell them what the issue is, tell then my it’s an issue, and give potential solutions. That’s what a dev is going to read.

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I would love to see a definitive definition of cheese, as someone who’s been around far longer than you I haven’t seen one and it’s generally referred to as a early game strategy or opener that cuts extreme corners to either (attempt to) deal massive damage or provide massive, unreasonable economy.

It’s cute that you think I’m mad, I’m annoyed. And rightfully so. Don’t be a dick and maybe people won’t call you out on it.