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UC Berkeley Starcraft Class
Metal Gear Solid 2 Demo
Registered User
Registered User
So recently a course was set up at UC Berkeley about the game Starcraft, and more specifically analyzing the game and understanding the game theory behind it.
You can watch the first lecture here
and the class has an official site here where future lectures are supposedly going to be posted
I'm about half way through the lecture and it seems pretty interesting. Although it is a student teacher, he does a good job of avoiding going into rampant fanboyism and "omg we're teaching starcraft!" and actually going into detail about micro, macro, etc and comparing it to other activities. The teacher also has a decent sense of humor, but doesn't get drawn into the random meme thrown out by one of the students.
It's also good to see that this isn't just a "this is a marine, he does X amount of damage and is better against etc. etc." but the teacher, and his assistants, are actual pro players who go into the whole meta game like getting into your opponent's head, analyzing facts during the game, timing, and economics.
I think I'll be keeping up with the lectures, just to see how it plays out. Could get some interesting facts about RTS games overall from it.
So thoughts? Think any other games out there could be done like this?
You can watch the first lecture here
and the class has an official site here where future lectures are supposedly going to be posted
I'm about half way through the lecture and it seems pretty interesting. Although it is a student teacher, he does a good job of avoiding going into rampant fanboyism and "omg we're teaching starcraft!" and actually going into detail about micro, macro, etc and comparing it to other activities. The teacher also has a decent sense of humor, but doesn't get drawn into the random meme thrown out by one of the students.
It's also good to see that this isn't just a "this is a marine, he does X amount of damage and is better against etc. etc." but the teacher, and his assistants, are actual pro players who go into the whole meta game like getting into your opponent's head, analyzing facts during the game, timing, and economics.
I think I'll be keeping up with the lectures, just to see how it plays out. Could get some interesting facts about RTS games overall from it.
So thoughts? Think any other games out there could be done like this?
Metal Gear Solid 2 Demo on
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xbl gamertag: sublunary
If you take this class you are a huge nerd and need to rethink things. You could be learning all sorts of awesome stuff but you take a class on starcraft?
I don't think this should actually be a credit worthy class..
I never asked for this!
If they students in that class are studying game design, they could be doing worse.
Welcome to the world on this side.
*posts this*
*sips mountain dew*
*has average of 7 posts per day on a video game message board*
As the prof states, the course goes heavy into math related skills, and the final project sounds rather demanding. I think it's worthy, certainly moreso than some courses I've seen and taken
I'm actually drinking Mountain Dew and have an average of nearly 18 posts per day
so fuck you
Eh, the course is only worth 1 unit.
xbl gamertag: sublunary
You get into UC Berkeley, which I know is an extremely prestigious university, and you take a class on Starcraft. I want to hear that phone conversation with the parents.
I think they call these 'electives.' I'm not sure. It's been a year.
The classes are usually only 1-2 units, and cannot be taken for a grade. Since many majors have enough mandatory requirements to exceed the minimum units to graduate, these are taken more for fun than for credit.
I mean, lol.
Quite a coup if he managed to get a grant to research and teach this shit though. Mad props for getting free money.
Seriously, Starcraft is completely uninteresting from a Game Theory perspective. It's a fucking zero-sum game, solvable via simple Nash Equilibriums. Calling this a "class" and trying to put it forth as anything vaguely educational is pretty goddamn stupid; it's a bunch of people who wanted to spend a bunch of time talking about Starcraft, and that's it.
What was Kramer's character's name on Murphy Brown?
But seriously, I'd like to know how the teacher managed to convince the higher-ups to let him start a class on Starcraft.
That wouldn't be a question.
What was Michael Richards' character's name, you mean.
Xbox: UnbreakableVows | PSN/Wii U: UnbreakableVow | 3DS: 1521-3241-9354
You aren't worthy of taking the exam.
Kramer the character appeared on Murphy Brown the show within Seinfeld the show.
And yeah, I've only seen like the first three seasons, plus the Soup Nazi ep.
Xbox: UnbreakableVows | PSN/Wii U: UnbreakableVow | 3DS: 1521-3241-9354
The second guy says like enough to make a man want to choke a bitch.
Xbox: UnbreakableVows | PSN/Wii U: UnbreakableVow | 3DS: 1521-3241-9354
Don't pass up their courses in Physics as Applied to FPS Teabagging.
Using Starcraft as the only application makes it just seem like a course about Starcraft.
when the indigo children come
Then again, other universities have experimented with cirriculum like this, albeit not directly in saying stuff like "this is STARCRAFT."
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
Well, it stands to reason that different games have different game theories. Wouldn't a game that's comparatively somewhat simplistic be a better choice for study, as it would be easier to break down and identify all components while examining it?
Where the math is a bit more useful is maximizing build orders and maximizing economy since it is a lot less dependent on precise keyboard/mouse actions and is something you can try to plan out and test easily.
Just thought I'd mention that Alan Feng and Yosh (the guest lecturer) are not pro players, despite what a lot of news web sites seem to claim. He didn't claim to be a progamer, it was just a dream of his that never happened. I think a lot of sites just heard him mention "progamer" and started running with it. He talks about it in an interview here. For reference, he says in the interview that he'd probably not even make C rank on the ICCup ladder, which is far far below even top amateur level. My own level of Starcraft is C rank.
Yosh is quite a bit more accomplished and has won some national events (both in Canada and then in the USA when he moved I think). He plays for one of the best non-Korean amateur teams but is more of a seasonal players. He's pretty inactive unless there's some big event around the corner, and then he starts training. Overall he's a very respected member of the amateur Starcraft scene. He's no progamer however.
I'd imagine our friend Alan here focuses on SC because there's an established community and well he likes the game. There are a lot of subtle things about Starcraft. I don't want to be a big SC fanboy here but could you provide a comparison for an RTS game that you'd consider not simple?
I also imagine that focusing on a single game, wheter it be SC or some other RTS, would give the course some focus instead of having to rehash the same number crunchings or whatnot that this course seems to favour every time they take up a new game.
I'd like to see a lecture on how to properly balance said RTS games, and then subject all the developers to them.
Continously.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
"Hello, I'd like a job, I have a Master's Degree in Pizzanomics, and a Bachelor's in Beerosity with a Minor in Playstation studies."
Wow, you're pretty pretentious.
I watched 5 mins of the video, looks like fun if you're into the nitty gritty details of resource management and stuff in RTS games. I'm sure this isn't an important class for any of the people attending, it's just a fun class where they get to take a game they really like a little seriously and dissect it a bit. Or alternatively they're such NERDS LOL! :?
Steven Snell.
College credit please!
The sponsor of the class, in charge of the Game Theory department, thinks it is a good idea for a class. So, rethink that one Than.
That being said... this is kind of a waste of higher education. I could see it maybe being more useful if it covered the RTS-genre. I'm 26 minutes into the video, trying to discern if it has substance.
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