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People Try Harder When Gaming Against Humans
Competitive StarCraft Gets UC Berkeley Class
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Knoxximus ver. 5.66
02/06/09

In reply to People Try Harder When Gaming Against Humans
File this under D... for DUUUUH!
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Toasticus
02/06/09

In reply to People Try Harder When Gaming Against Humans
Personally, I play my hardest when I'm gaming against scary psychedelic brain claws.
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bluSCALE4
02/06/09

In reply to People Try Harder When Gaming Against Humans
You know, I never really gave the girl/guy thing any thought until I started playing Tetris on the Wii. Men and women play completely different. Men usually do for tetrises while women turtle or take the dominating approach and use combos. Women have an advantage with the turtle approach (waiting for other player to send you tetrises) since men relentlessly send over tetrises while women go for smaller lines to keep their towers down while keeping their floors clear in order to send men their tetrises right back up their asses. You know right away when you're playing a male or female. It's really quite amazing.

I should add that I've yet to be dominated by a male but female players have dominated sessions.
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2c-b
02/06/09

@bluSCALE4: And I wonder how many people were in your study to come to this conclusion? To be blunt, I believe far more issues come to play than simply pinning it all down to gender. In fact I'd go so far to say that no one could tell the difference online between a hardcore guy gamer and a hardcore girl gamer, provided the alias wasn't obviously feminine or masculine.
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Obama takes time to read kotaku's comments...
02/06/09

In reply to People Try Harder When Gaming Against Humans
no really!?!?

It's the same reason you'll hear me screaming into my mic about how fucking lucky the guy who just killed me was...

Without the lack of swords and wars to fight for kings anymore there is no better way to prove your manliness than in a virtual killing field... we haven't changed just the method...
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R_Shackelford
02/06/09

@Obama takes time to read kotaku's comments...: Whining into a mic at random gamers is "manly?"
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OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear
02/06/09

@R_Shackelford: It is if you are whining while skinning animals and drinking scotch.

Otherwise it is just silly.
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The Moof
02/06/09

@Obama takes time to read kotaku's comments...:

"Without the lack of swords and wars to fight for kings anymore there is no better way to prove your manliness than in a virtual killing field"

um... sports?
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CreateTheTruth
02/06/09

@TheMoof: I thought the same thing.

Anyways, I think the real study should be whether people try harder when playing an online opponent or someone sitting right next to them. I was raised with fighting games and older sports games and FPS's, and they never really had an online component. I guess I would rather shit talk live than over a mic.
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NeonLight
02/06/09

In reply to People Try Harder When Gaming Against Humans
I think studying online video games would show a decrease in brain matter as the player is swarmed with incoherent language of 12-year-olds.
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Darthvinder
02/06/09

@NeonLight:

Nah the 12 year olds were 12 a few years ago. While they may still sound like 12 year olds, they could well be 14 or 16 now!
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Estaj
02/06/09

@Darthvinder:

What? Failed logic.
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Darthvinder
02/09/09

@Estaj:

...okay so the dirty-mouthed-annoying-as-hell-12-year-old-on-live stereotype has been around for a couple years now, so these annoying kids, assuming they're still playing, would be anywhere from 14 to 16 years old now... it's rather simple logic- time passes, people get older.
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ThisCharmingMan
01/28/09

In reply to Competitive StarCraft Gets UC Berkeley Class
I wonder if they're going to outlaw mind control in the tournament. Everyone knows thats a bullshit Protoss advantage. I would probably fail that class because I'm terrible at micro management.
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Omatic
01/28/09

@ThisCharmingMan:

I doubt it - Mind Control is easily defeated by Terrans using the Sci Vessel's EMP ability (which will leave the Dark Archons with only 25hp, and no energy). Trying to mind control Zerg units is usually a futile gesture, since they're individually weak, and there is no reason to bring drones into battle, so they aren't at risk of being mind controlled unless you leave your base open for a drop.

The game is balanced enough to the point where there's really no need to restrict anything (as long as they're using the latest patch).
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ThisCharmingMan
01/28/09

@Omatic: I agree, but camping a few dark archons in your base and taking control of carriers or battlecruisers attacking your fortifications is still kind of a dirty advantage in my opinion. If you hide 12 in your base, you will suddenly have a fleet of your opponents most powerful units. The fact that you can mind control an SCV and build a terran base alongside your protoss forces is also rather cheap. I hope they take away mind control in SC2.
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ninjafetus
01/28/09

@ThisCharmingMan: You seem to only understand multiplayer Starcraft at a beginner level. DAs are not imbalanced at all.
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ThisCharmingMan
01/28/09

@ninjafetus: Well, I am a beginner. I suck. But I still love the game.
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Aeralindor
01/28/09

In reply to Competitive StarCraft Gets UC Berkeley Class
As someone who has taken these DECal courses (Democratic Education in Cal) before, it's not a "real" class. It's run by students and while you do get credit, it's general education credit (usually 1-2 units) and it's basically used as filler. I'll admit that two of the most interesting classes I took while I was a student at Cal (Fencing and History of Punk Rock) were DECals, they aren't taught by professors or even graduate students, and I wouldn't consider it an "offical" class.

That all being said, those taking the class should have a great time for those 1-2 units they're getting :)
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Gray665
01/28/09

@Aeralindor: Thanks for clearing that up cause I was about to post a rant about spending money to go to college and taking a class like this but what you described is actually really cool and I'd imagine its a nice break from the 'real' classes.
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Aeralindor
01/28/09

@Gray665: No problem. I just didn't want people going off the deep end out this. It is a nice way to take a break from "real" classes and still get some credit. And the other plus is that they often start later in the semester so if you've had to drop a class for some reason, you can still pick one of these up to make sure you're still at the right number of units in a semester.
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Xelmon
01/28/09

@Aeralindor: Ahha... Interesting.
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