I'll just leave this here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/34075/Interview_Making_The_Fun_Meant_Taking_Out_The_Fun_In_StarCraft_II.php

Now, this doesn't mean that there's nothing "fun" left in SC2 or that you, personally, don't find it fun. What it does mean is that perfectly valid gameplay could not be implemented because of this whole eSport BS. SC was not designed in this manner. This is why I, and possibly one other person on the planet (but probably just myself), think SC2 is a massive step backwards and not really what we should reward the industry for producing.

It could just be a new development in competitive gaming, seperate from mainstream multiplayer, where games are created for just that market. "Pro" gaming has often been adhoc and I don't see a problem with giving its own legitimate games. SC just happens to be a victim of this transitionary period. I would guess that more "Pro" versions may be produced from popular fps/rts titles with a few dedicated indies as well.

EDIT: I could be wrong but I believe that a few FPS's (UT or Quake, maybe?) have released pro versions for particular events.

Fair enough, but it's being marketed as a mass appeal game as well as competitive. The insinuation is that these don't conflict, but the reality is that that may not be true. I also wonder what it sucks out of the storytelling in such a game. Some people didn't mind the Wings of Liberty campaign but a lot of people reported that it somewhat lackluster.

Thanks for the link. Old time SC guy here and on sclegacy since who knows when. And yet ...

Still have not purchased SC 2. Watch some competitive replays now and again. Watched mission play throughs a bit. Just did not grab me. This article helps explain why. I mean leaving out medics? Gotta be kidding, right? Voice acting is professionally bland. Sound effects bland also. Music just leaves me cold. Tremendous graphics, have to give it that.

Perhaps further down the line. The editor that comes with it is good. There are some interesting mods. Perhaps when I have time. There is an enthusiastic community that may succeed in fixing it right. For instance the old SC missions are being redone in SC 2. There are videos of them on YouTube. Quite well done.

I have not give up all hope for SC 2. Just not my game yet.

Well, there was nowhere to go but up when it came to the characters and story of SC2, so we can always dream of the what could have been.

Absolutely, they were stuck pandering to two crowds. Everyone can appreciate high quality gameplay and that is why SC is so popular across the board, however the two crowds play for very different reasons. The intriguing story is lost on a packed sweaty crowd of hardcore "Pros" (probably unfair to them) and detailed twitch strategy requiring high focus is not as fun for mainstream. I just hope they learn before releasing anything else.

As someone whose play SC2 a lot, I must confess that it feels bit lacking compared to SC:BW. I follow the SC pro scene for a while and I must say that SC:BW is more entertaining to watch than SC2.

For one, SC:BW's mechanics are very complex but this allows for infinite strategy to be devise on constant basis. For example, my favorite player Flash, whose is Terran player, is notorious for using same build over and over but he's unique in that he can freestyling to suit any situations as needed to be.

When I watch SC2 pro matches, it really lack a lot because so much units are so similar to each other that it doesn't really make any difference at all. Basically, it's just ball vs ball firefight that only last for few seconds so we're reduce to watch macroing war, which can be very tedious.

The units in SC:BW are so vastly different from each other, which makes it more interesting to watch. For example, Terran users may use vulture to harass while sending in Goliaths to finish the job, which is more fun to see. Protoss's units are vastly weak against Zerg so Protoss user has to pair up different units together, which requires lot of strategy and insane micromanagement.

Also, I dislike the lighting scheme in SC2, which can be very fuzzy to see. It is hard for me to tell which units is fighting units. Whereas, it was much easier to see which units is fighting which units in SC:BW.

I can see SC2 going through balance patches several times, which can suck for pros whose hasn't figure out the specific mechanics. I find it interesting that SC:BW only goes through 4 balance patches.

I dislike how they pander to 2 separate crowds in SC2 at same time, which makes SC2 bit offish. Honestly, I'm not too hot on SC2 but I still play it because of friends.

Plus, the campaign in SC2 is pretty much same in SC:BW, ugh. Talk about recycle crap.

Best thing that has happened to competitive gaming since DotA. :p

Best RTS game since Warcraft 3. :p

EDIT: I don't want to play "fun" matches that last for hours with casual base building or whatever.

I want to play adrenaline filled matches with big intensity. Starcraft 2 offers me exactly that. ;)

Oh, and the story was the best since Warcraft 3. :p

Really? Was so boring it couldn't keep my interested enough to finish the campaign even once....

The point is that developers rarely admit that they've screwed up. It's frequently not fun to play multiplayer games because the developers obsess about what might be broken in high end play, forgetting that their worrying about a small fraction of the player base, many of whom are directly harmed by those decisions.

Granted SC has a much larger professional following than most other games, but still, they've also got a much larger casual base than most other games as well, and nobody in their right mind ought to be trying to make one game to cover both. At very least they ought to be providing specialty rules for competitive play if they really want to go after both markets.

I don't see where they screwed up exactly, if you were saying that. :) . Starcraft 2 was supposed to be an eSports game, and it is exactly that. :p

Well, SC2 is not a game for everyone but it has a lot going for it - the campaign, ladder and custom games appeal to different crowds and offer lots of replayability. Then there's, of course, the fun of watching the GSL ^^"...

Yeah, there's some tension between "sport" and "fun". Fun fact: this is actually something that I need to elaborate on in my thesis ;P.

If that is the case, where exactly are the planned expansion packs fitting in? Map packs?

It wasn't a step backwards Orcish but it was a step in a totally different direction. They saw the potential of tapping into the competitive market and ran with it so to speak.

I personally love the move but its really easy to see how it would alienate a lot of people. I have always been interested in e-sports but never cared much for sports. Every time someone asks developers in a game that looks promising, like Dawn of War, they basically say that they cannot cater to the e-sport scene because it is 'niche'. 500k unique views for a Starcraft 2 tournament isn't niche but I digress.

Small companies like S2 have tried to make DotA with the same type of mindset but ultimately failed because of the company size. So when Blizzard does something like this it means huge things for the people who like to watch tournaments as much as those who like playing in those tournaments just because Blizzard is massive.

Granted it would suck for someone just wanting to have a good time. Games like these should be marketed towards the e-sports scene and not the general public because it is bound to piss someone, like Orcish, off.

Honestly, this whole thread is academic as far as I'm concerned as it doesn't affect me one way or the other. At least not until they roll back the DRM to something acceptable. It's mostly out of curiosity that I'm in here at all.

The point is that they aren't just marketing this game as e-sport, they're also marketing it to other people as well. I can't personally blame them for doing that, but if they believed in making it focused on balancing for e-sport that it wouldn't have a serious and deleterious effect on more casual players, then they definitely were mistaken.

I can't personally comment on the merits, I've tried the demo a bit and it's got a bit of a learning curve, it looks really pretty, but I didn't really get sucked in the way that I did with the original. And definitely not enough to regret boycotting the DRM.

They could very easily have provided an e-sport edition as well, given that a lot of the more obnoxious DRM was in part an effort to make sure that Blizzard gets a cut of any professional competition, balancing the retail version for casual players, and balancing the e-sport edition for e-sports really would've been the way to go.