Interview: “Nazgul” Victor Goossens

The Modern Age

For a minute, let’s throw a bit of nostalgia into the wind and see what comes back and hits us in the gut.

There was BroodWar.com and ~NoHunters and Legacy, Guillaume and X17 before it was that X17 which you roll your eyes at. Testie was a pariah for his hacks and not just his hair. There were battle reports and then there was BattleReports. GG## reigned and three thousand clans copied the tag. Bertrand Grospellier played with a mouse and keyboard, not a king and an ace. Elky dressed in an AMD uniform and not a maniac’s uniform. There existed a culture of abuse, hero worship and the seeds of a decade long competition.

StarCraft has a crowded history, one that you can be mostly pleased to be a part of. Outside of the twists and turns of the game itself, there have been countless personalities looming large over the stubborn community at any given moment. A decade ago, when a friend of a friend handed me a blank CD with vanilla StarCraft on it, I took the plunge not knowing that the people would, on occasion, be as engrossing as the game itself. Unsuspecting, I had my first taste of the demo at a neighbor’s house and have been jonesing and keeping one eye on the game and its loyalists ever since.

Somewhere in the Tsunamis of Iszards and Blizzards, Team Liquid came into being during those early days. From a simple desire to do better for themselves, the community and the game, it rose to become the premiere english language StarCraft site, serving for many years the role of e-sports beacon and community ban factory. It’s the subject of ire and affection, it’s on the receiving end of accusations of elitism and compliments of expertise. For all of its faults and strengths, one thing is obvious:

Team Liquid is the face of non-Korean StarCraft. And with all due apologies and many thanks to co-founder Joy Hoogeveen (Liqud`Meat), Liquid`Nazgul has long been the face of Team Liquid. Like many old faces, poker and real life pulled him away from playing StarCraft. But as a major force within the community, he never did truly leave – he’s been one of several guiding hands within Team Liquid since its inception.

Although he had his foot out the door as a player, StarCraft 2 has pulled Nazgul right back in.

In fact, his choppy stream was the first one you saw if you happened to be one of the thousands frantically refreshing Team Liquid on the day the beta launched. Nazgul has already played hundreds of games of StarCraft 2 but has it lived up to his expectations?

“It’s just the beta,” says the 26 year-old Dutch Protoss user. “It would be strange if it lived up to my expectations. The game is good and will give people lots of years of enjoyment. Its probably going to be the second best RTS after Brood War.”

Much of his criticisms seem to echo Inka’s worries about a lower skill ceiling in the sequel and run directly contrary to players like Day[9] and Liquid`Drone.

“It’s hard to describe but I feel that the game evens good players too much. There’s too few things to make a difference. If everyone plays perfectly, games can be decided on coin-flip like things such as build orders. I fear a few years from now that might be the case.

“I’m having fun with the challenge of a new game. Being a gamer first with StarCraft and then with poker, I love to find a new game that’s worthwhile to explore. StarCraft 2 definitely is that game right now but it’s hard to look into the future.”

The rift of opinion is widespread in the community but, for now, it does not run deep. Criticisms put aside, most players quickly make the jump to the sequel given the chance. Gamers like Louder and Inka play either for personal success or thanks to patience, hoping that during the beta, the game will improve.

The specter of a lower skill ceiling brings out the fear of all prospective players: that StarCraft 2′s lifespan will run considerably shorter than its famously persistent predecessor.

“With micro the way it is, the game isn’t going to be as good as it can be,” wrote Nazgul in response to Louder’s criticisms. “That’s unfortunate for the future of e-sports. The future needs a game suitable for non-gamer viewers to be in awe over moves done by top players without understanding the strategy behind the builds.

“There is so little difference possible between two players when they’re attacking each other that the games just play out as build order vs. build order. Once you’re ahead it’s really hard to give away your advantage because even if your units get caught off guard they will still do the right thing in battle. Zergling surround and worker micro is something that was so important to the early game of Brood War, that decided games based on how you performed it. That element is completely gone now. If you have enough Zerglings you’ll just kill your opponent almost regardless of what he does.”

The StarCraft community is not unique for these worries. Before it, the competitive communities of Counter-Strike and Smash Brothers complained that game developers insisted on an easier game for the sake of popularity at the expense of competitive gaming. Is this sort of dumbing down inevitable? Can any company, Blizzard included, go out of their way to create a game that is purposefully difficult?

“I thought that company was Blizzard,” says Nazgul. “They have built a reputation of delivering highly competitive, balanced games that last forever and that you can play for the next 10 years after you buy it. These last few years, they seem to go with the general mood on a lot of things instead of choosing their own path.

“I won’t say that either way is the most successful one for them as a company, but it does worry me a lot that the one company that was into competitive gaming moreso than others now tries to find a tricky balance between the competitive scene and the casual scene. Of course I would have preferred, and many StarCraft fans with me, that they had aimed it much more to become the flag carrier of e-sports and less a noob friendly game.

“It’s a rather simple solution: these companies will do whatever is best for their profits, be it long term or short term. If competitive gaming raises their profits then they will do so and if it doesn’t, they won’t. It is perfectly reasonable to make these decisions.

“Companies insist on making games easier for the sake of popularity. There’s really no denying this at all.”

In his opinion, it is not any one unit or map that mark the most significant change in the sequel. It is the dumbing down of A.I. (or ‘improved A.I.’, depending on which camp you land in) which will have the most resounding consequences.

“I’ve lived in Korea and I have shared an apartment with Koreans that had little experience with the game just like many other Koreans,” says Nazgul, talking about the ease of micromanagement, “but they still watch it on TV like a national sport and were able to admire the things that were going on.

“My opinion is obviously based not on what will have millions play better but it’s based on is what will make this game suitable for professional gaming. With that, I don’t just mean if people can play it on a high level but can people who have little experience with the game also watch it on TV and have appreciation for the moves that are going on? My answer to that is no.

“StarCraft 2 seems very much aimed at the casual player, not the longetivity or the spectator.”

It’s important to note that, in fact, Nazgul stresses that he likes the game a lot. He’s played hundreds of matches – it’s no challenge to find him complimenting the sequel in between his climb up the ladder. As with many of StarCraft 2′s critics, it is only in comparison to Brood War that it falls short. Many players agree that the StarCraft 2 beta is already more polished than most games ever become. It is only the incredibly high bar set by its predecessor that magnifies the games problems a thousandfold.

“I don’t want StarCraft 2 to be Brood War,” says Nazgul, sensing that his critique may be misinterpreted, “but there are some good concepts from the earlier game that made it so suitable for watching it on TV in Korea.”

So while his optimism seems at best tempered, he does see a vibrant competition forming for at least a few years. And during that time, he says that non-Koreans can once again challenge their long superior counterparts.

“[Foreigners] have a good shot now. It’s likely the A-team Koreans are continuing to play StarCraft 1 as that’s what they are good at and receive high salaries for. That means competition will come from Korean B-teamers, whom foreigners can definitely beat this early in the game. The best Koreans will probably be new faces but as long as they are not in professional teams, they shouldn’t be that far ahead of the foreigners in terms of environment to practice in.

“I’m not particularly impressed with the understanding of the game from Korean B-teamers and the edge of mechanics they had is pretty much gone. It will be interesting to see foreigners face off with Koreans on even grounds. We will see winners from both scenes is my guess.”

There is no doubt in Nazgul’s mind about whether or not the game will be a success, only whether it will reach the heights franchise fans have long sought.

“I do think this game will blow e-sports up in the gamer scene,” he says. “I just don’t think it will do what StarCraft: Brood War did in Korea. ”

The question of what will come to pass will provide more than enough intrigue for the scene going forward and, with a lot of luck, the new game will bring to light new personalities, legacies and cutthroat competition.

But a new Nazgul? Unless I see ‘em going head to head with the new Boxer, it just seems doubtful.