So it’s nearing the end of my Vacation Week.  I’ve done quite a bit this week, Tina isn’t feeling too great, so I essentially did nothing “productive” today.  Productive being relatively speaking.

I did finish up Starcraft II.  The game is alright, though the ending is pretty meh.  I kind of hate how none of the choices you make during the game really affect anything plot wise.  Also, Blizzard seems to think the Betrayal of Kerrigan by Mensk is like the greatest piece of storytelling ever because the whole Starcraft universe seems to revolve around this moment.

I’m not planning to do a review or anything, not here, I have a blog for that.  I really should decide what I want to do with Lameazoid.  On one hand, I am tired of writing about video games.  I could use a “Brand reboot” which I sort of tried with ReadySetGeek.  RSG isn’t a failure or anything, it just… isn’t all that different.  I still like the idea fo doing themed monthly PDF Zines, an idea I’ve been kicking for ages, but why?  Why, in an age when that style of distribution is dying.

But then, when have I ever given a shit about how receptive anyone is to my ideas and projects.  I pretty much just do all of this online crap because I enjoy it, when I stop enjoying it, it just doesn’t get done.

Anyway, I’m not going to bitch about all that.   I’m also tired of complaining about my lack of desire to work on all of my old projects anymore.

Back on Starcraft, while I used to play Starcraft 1 online quite a bit, I’ve only played one competitive match so far against my son.  He reminded me why I never bother playing against people, I am not a competitive person.  It’s not that I am incapable, it’s more than, I don’t care about “winning”, for the most part.  SC2 is just one example of this.  We played, 1v1, both of us Terrans.  I built a little base, build a little defense by my chokepoint entrance (I know my son well enough that I know he doesn’t know crap about how to “Flank”.  I started expanding a bit, then he shows up with some marines and tanks. 

He pretty much wipes out most of my main base, though I lifted off my buildings making his Tanks useless.  I then proceeded to focus on building some quick air, the idea being “He’s going for tanks, I can crush him with a hand full of air units”.  I flanked around with my air, noticing though that he had several of the large Thor Walkers wandering his base already.  I flanked around back like I prefer to do, crush the SCV force and cripple him, but his Thors killed my air.

Fifteen or twenty minute later, he wiped me out.

Which brings up another point about my play style in a lot of games.  I don’t care about winning much, but I don’t like to lose, and I won’t surrender.  My son was complaining from the other room that I wouldn’t “just surrender already”.

Nope, I kept running my SCVs and Command Centers around the map trying to rebuild in the obscure corners.  I’d rather push it out as long as possible or into a stalemate before I surrender.

I’m reminded of a most hilarious Star Wars CCG match I played in college.  A buddy of mine who also played kept bragging about how strong his imperial army was and how many Star Destroyers he had.  I hadn’t played in years but I took out my cards and built a deck.  I didn’t build a deck to kill Star Destroyers, I build a deck centered around Jawas.  I don’t recall the card combo, but essentially, when my Jawas were killed, they would go to a special discard pile, then, each turn, I could pull them back out and redeploy them.  I had essentially created an infinite loop of unkillable Jawas.  I had no effective means of dealing damage to his forces, but he had no effective means of dealing damage to me, since the rules essentially required he kill my Jawas before me, and the Jawa presence prevented a “Force Drain” attack on my (the player’s) life.

Something to that effect. 

This match lasted a while and I think eventually we ended up just going off to do something else.

A stalemate.

I had a similar experience with Magic the Gathering once.  My force had been crippled and the other two players were going at each other while I laid out land after land.  Eventually I drew a card which dealt X damage to all players and monsters, where X is the number of lands.   I wiped out everyone and everything, including myself.