Entertainment - Written Tuesday, August 3, 2010 by Jeff DeChambeau - 2 Comments

Want to see the future? Look to the games

There was something of a “big deal” event in geek circles last week: StarCraft 2 was released, about 12 years after the release of the original. It’s a “real time strategy” game, which pits factions of aliens against each other in what is essentially a military situation where the goal is to crush your opponents. In gaming terms, it’s a AAA (top of the line, very high production values) title, but it had to be: the original StarCraft grew to be far more popular than anyone ever could have imagined, even becoming some sort of combination of chess and football in Korea, where being an all-star meant you were on the Wheaties box, and had your matches broadcasted on the video-game equivalent of ESPN–while playing in front of a live audience. It took the developers of the original StarCraft many years and iterations to finely balance the different gameplay dynamics, but once they did so, it set very high expectations for the sequel. So, how do you release a game after a 12 year wait to people with sky-high expectations, and deliver on all the hype? Start by giving your product away for free. Continue…