OK, story time. Stacraft costs what, $50? Let’s go with that. Not too bad for a game, but how much of my youth was spent mining there? Literally merge mining with peons and attention paid. Hint: a lot, most of my youth. That’s not to say never play games or that having fun is not allowed, or that I regret my youth. I’m emphatically not saying any of that! It’s just an observation.

I spent so much time playing SC, or rather, sitting in the channels staying up to date on the latest clan war results, newest clan members or community shift, or hacking accusation drama … Side note: I’m ashamed to admit how many times I joined a replay to watch some rando attempt to convince / prove to me (or us) that some other rando could not have possibly known about his incoming dropship unless he was hacking. See! Right there, put it on only on his vision and you’ll see 100%, he can’t see my ship but he moves defensively just at the right time. See! Cheater! Nevermind that a game timer and enough experience playing might remind you that now is when drops usually arrive if you’ve seen no activity out in front of their base. Also, drops generally come from the same spot. Or maybe rando#2 was actually hacking. In any event, it wasn’t playing a game - it was closer to being a member of a community. But I digress.

The point isn’t that I have regrets about spending a lot of time on the battle.net. The point is that I wasn’t consciously deciding how to use my time. My default settings hadn’t evolved enough yet to include thinking this kind of stuff and I don’t believe I ever thought to introspect or reflect. Back then, I didn’t adapt, or review my protocols. It wasn’t until the stresses of college and the real world, non-digital interactions began to take precedence that I dropped out of the Starcraft universe.

I doubt that I was the only one. Maybe some folks are still trapped in the channels instead of playing the game.

Cheers, –Justin