Regarding the first link, I have to admit I got worried when he spoke of the 5 map/mod limitations and the map size. He also said that, correct me if I misunderstood it, textures as high in quality as those currently seen in the game take up so much that they're too big to import, and that reducing their quality makes them look bad compared to the original units. On top of this, I'm still wondering whether neutral hostile units are a concept to keep on Starcraft II, so we never know if we'll have more models to work with thanks to them, like we had in Warcraft III.Like he said, and I agree with him on it, projects like Wanderers of Sorceria were successful, among other things, thanks to the custom content.These size limitations, like not only he but also a lot of people here in the forums have been reporting, are stunning.
The word filtrations on Battle.Net 2.0 are a little weird, indeed. «Blow» and «God»? It's not like people don't need to use these words depending on the type of map they're making. The terms might not even be related to the concepts we associate them to.Yesterday or the day before, I can't remember and it doesn't matter, I found that you can write the word «idiot» without it being filtered. =\
About the impossibility to name games, I'm not sure of this, but I could swear all the maps have a «mode» that can be changed? I'm not sure to what extent you can modify this in the Editor, but I do know that the same map with distinct modes or speeds appear in the game list as if they were a different map, so, supposedly, hosts shouldn't have to name their games but, instead, people who want to play will have to search the map with their preferred mode. I could have grasped this wrong, in which case I'd appreciate being corrected.
Other than this, I have to agree that he was a little contradictory on what he said, for example, in the part excellently pointed out by mrzwach in
this post. I also don't agree with him when he says things such as the game name are «CRITICAL» (I'm citing here) to the growth of a community; in truth, I failed to understand how they were related (at least to an extent as large as he seems to think).I think mentioning his «mental issues» is not a good rhetorical strategy, specially not if he was trying to «get through to Blizzard».My cousin once told me that he had played games where, to create a new map, you nearly had to create the game anew (I think he was referring to unit data). I might be one of the few to think that Blizzard didn't screw up so badly with the World Editor. It has annoying limitations and a few bugs, sure, but if we consider an example such as that my cousin told me, it might not be as bad as the majority of the people picture it, which is why I don't agree with the author on this point. As for Starcraft II's Editor, I'm relieved to verify that I'm not the only one who finds the object data messy. ;P
I never played Starcraft 1 and I was quite wrong to expect something like Warcraft III on this game, which is, after all, Starcraft (II). I was disappointed that they made so high game speeds. It's impossible to micro with Zerg. Protoss allows you to micro somewhat, but it's still hard. Plus, the game always plays like this: either you turtle and tech or you rush. But in Warcraft III, with the heroes, there is so much you can do. You may have your based destroyed, but if you conserve your hero(es), you can be a decisive help in the final battle. The different combinations of abilities and the number of applications you can give them makes every game unique in one aspect or another. Plus there's always the chance to demonstrate intelligence and skill by microing and macroing, where in Starcraft II it's pretty much send in your units and watch how it plays out (and retreat if you're being beaten, which is not always possible depending on the units in question). Then again, like I said, I'm the one to blame for expecting a Warcraft IV out of Starcraft II.
With all this, I still haven't solved my dilemma of buying or not buying Starcraft II.