Memories of an Obsession
Have you played a game for more than 100 hours? More than 1,000? Even longer? Some titles are pretty easy to invest a lot of time into. Role-playing games tends to have long stories, with sidequests and battle mechanics that contribute to a lengthy playtime. Match-based games may not take long to complete a single match, but offer enough reason to return to again and again. It’s common to see reviews on Steam where players have several thousands of hours in their favourite (or in some cases, most hated) games.
Based on conservative estimates, I probably put well over 5,000 hours into StarCraft, its expansion Brood War, and its level editor. It was my favourite game for many years. It ran well on cheap hardware and was easy to play at any time. Many friends had it, and playing on Battle.net was free and simple to setup. Most people probably know that SC is a real-time strategy game that features three asymmetrical teams to pick from: the Terran, Protoss, and Zerg. It was extremely popular in South Korea for many years, and contributed in large part to the then-burgeoning esports community. SC is also partly responsible for the rise in popularity of multiplayer online battle arena games, since Aeon of Strife (the inspiration for Defence of the Ancients) began as a player-made map.
One of the best parts of SC, in my humble opinion, is its inclusion of StarEdit, a relatively simple level editor that could be used to make custom maps. Players could make maps that could be used in the default game mode, or, by using the game’s rudimentary scripting system, one could make special scenarios by setting the game mode to “use map settings”. I definitely spent most of my time trying to make different levels for friends to play. Most of these were attempts to capture other genres in the limited toolset that StarCraft offered. I made RPGs, horror games, diplomacy games, and many, many others. Most of them were unfinished, of course. It would’ve been better if I had a more versatile game engine to play around with. Even something like one of the many versions of RPG Maker may have proven to be a better way to learn coding concepts.
I should pause for a moment to note that there were unofficial software packages that expanded upon the limitations of StarEdit. One of the most well-known nowadays is probably SCMDraft 2. Especially notable is the fact that Blizzard officially deprecated its own StarEdit in favour of the community-made SCMDraft 2 not that long ago. SCMDraft 2, and other software tools like it, allows map-makers to place units almost anywhere, place terrain in such a way that is impossible in StarEdit, and even gives access to units that are otherwise impossible to access.
Recently I stumbled upon a website that collects player-made maps. Although this isn’t the only one around, its features are pretty neat. I particularly like that you can see how each map would look in the HD version of SC without needing to download it. Simply pick any map at random and wait for the “map image” to load. Then you can drag your mouse pointer over the image to see a zoomed-in version. I browsed through the collection for a few minutes and found old maps that I remember fondly. Thinking back on it, however, I can’t help but think how simple most of these scenarios really were.
It was unfortunately trivial for someone to take a map and remove the original author’s name. A cursory glance through this database and you’ll find many maps that had been “stolen” in one way or another over time. Although there was unofficial software available to “lock” a map and prevent anyone from editing it, there was also software to unlock them.
One of my favourite maps ever is one called, quite simply, “Dungeon”. (Note that there are many versions of this map; I picked one version at random that is probably similar to the one that I played.) The map is an RPG in which players are tasked with defending their city from regular monster attacks. The ultimate objective is to defeat the powerful enemy simply called “Dragon”. The map is especially creative for how it features many elements of randomness. Monsters and items are spawned in random locations. Even the final boss can be in one of any four locations on the map, which forces the players to scout in order to find it. Players collect gold and various types of plants for trading to receive items and power-ups. Each player gets to use each class of character once before getting a game over. It really feels like a map made by someone who knew how to get the most out of the engine.
Sometimes I’ll feel a hankering for a game that I can lose myself in, to fill the hole in my gaming heart that was left when I stopped playing SC. Most massively multiplayer online role-playing games aren’t terribly appealing to me. The gameplay is usually kind of boring. Some of the most popular MMORPGs have been around for more than twenty years, and yet the mechanics are as dry and uninteresting as ever. I tried Final Fantasy XIV on my own a few years ago. It was just so slow. Not in terms of performance, but in terms of actual gameplay. I couldn’t get into it. The large areas had the feeling of a theme park ride. It didn’t feel like a living world to immerse oneself into; it felt like a hollow virtual casino where we’re all gambling away time and money, with little hope for anything in return.
Are there any games out there that are multiplayer, cooperative, and moderately complex with fun gameplay? I guess something like Minecraft can be as complex as you want it with mods or custom rules. Rust is sort of intriguing, but I don’t like the griefing culture that seems to be common. There definitely feels like an untapped market for something like a multiplayer Elin or Kenshi.
Come to think of it, perhaps the hole left in my gaming heart is not a game to play so much as it is a creative tool to explore and use. After all, more than half of those 5,000 hours were spent in StarEdit, patiently placing units and fighting with the engine’s limitations. Maybe I need to spend a bit more time messing around in something like Godot, or one of the many other game-creation tools.