Starcraft: A truly interesting Sci-fi universe
I was thinking today about how much people love the Starcraft universe. For those who don't know, Starcraft is a Real Time Strategy game set in the distant future in a far off sector. The storyline, while strong, has a few cliche's and a villian or two whose motivations are never discovered, but on the whole its a very good storyline, especially for a game.
But what struck me about it is the fact that the Humans, on the surface, are pretty screwed. Or should be.
You see, they've got two enemies in that universe. There's the Protoss, a highly advanced race with technology we could only dream about. The Minbari of the Starcraft universe, so to speak. They've got the high tech, they've got psionic powers, and they're more powerful in every cataloguable way.
On the other side is the Zerg, the big evil collection of species. They've got near limitless numbers, an extremely impressive biology that matched the Protoss's tech stride for stride, and a ruthless cunning that doesn't care about their casualties so long as the enemy is defeated.
So high tech on one side, the pinnacle of evolution on the other, and these poor Terrans in the middle.
Who somehow manage to kick ass and take names.
If you've ever played Starcraft, you know the feeling. The zerg are more numerous by far, the protoss are more powerful, and yet the Terrans always have a chance, despite being only human and not having the elegant technology.
The thing is, they've got the war tech down cold.
Blizzard released a damn good book, entitled Liberty's Crusade, which chronicles the Terran Campaign of Starcraft through the eyes of a reporter. This is an exerpt that shows why the Terrans could survive:
----
Let's not kid ourselves, we got our heads handed to us by the Zerg and the Protoss. Yes, tehy were like nothing we had ever seen before. Yes, their biology was different. Yes, their technology, or what we would call their technology was more advanced than ours in dozens of areas. And of course, they were billigerent and aggressive to the extreme, they knew where we were, and they had the advantage of surprise.
But (and this is a rather large but) we humans are about the most ornery cusses in the galaxy. We had been fighting among ourselves for as long as we've been in the sector, and we had honed our own battle technologies to the point where we were their equal in many ways. We had the advantages of interior lines of supply (that's military for "surrounded") and native terrain (that's military for "we're fighting them in our living rooms"). We could have taken them if we had gotten our act together.
So what happened? The very thing that made us good warriors - the fact that we had fought among ourselves - also made us horrible at banding together in our hour of crisis. We could not unite under one banner or even form a coallition. In fact, every time there was a chance for that, one faction or another did something to enhance the advantage of their own political agenda over the other factions. Often at the expense of humanity. I can't imagine the hive-minded Zerg or the glowing Protoss falling prey to such basic human drives as greed and power and raw pigheadedness.
Of course. those are all basic human drives, and that's why nonhumans were cleaning our clocks.
----
Humanity survived, of course. After all, what kind of sci-fi game would it be if the humans are all dead!
Looking at the unit rosters for the three factions, you can see what the narrator was aiming at. Of the 15 or so Terran units, only two of them have no special ability. Fully half, if not more so, of the Zerg and Protoss troops have nothing special for them. It's a uniqueness that allows the Terrans to have a chance even when outnumbered or outgunned.
Besides being a good game balancing concept, it makes for good sci-fi lore. The low-tech race manages to hold its own despite going up against a theoretically superior force becasue they're just so damn good at war.
Its like Starship Troopers, where the Humans are on the wrong end of the numberical and biological fronts, but manage to succeed because of a few millenia of practice.
Just a random rant :).
But what struck me about it is the fact that the Humans, on the surface, are pretty screwed. Or should be.
You see, they've got two enemies in that universe. There's the Protoss, a highly advanced race with technology we could only dream about. The Minbari of the Starcraft universe, so to speak. They've got the high tech, they've got psionic powers, and they're more powerful in every cataloguable way.
On the other side is the Zerg, the big evil collection of species. They've got near limitless numbers, an extremely impressive biology that matched the Protoss's tech stride for stride, and a ruthless cunning that doesn't care about their casualties so long as the enemy is defeated.
So high tech on one side, the pinnacle of evolution on the other, and these poor Terrans in the middle.
Who somehow manage to kick ass and take names.
If you've ever played Starcraft, you know the feeling. The zerg are more numerous by far, the protoss are more powerful, and yet the Terrans always have a chance, despite being only human and not having the elegant technology.
The thing is, they've got the war tech down cold.
Blizzard released a damn good book, entitled Liberty's Crusade, which chronicles the Terran Campaign of Starcraft through the eyes of a reporter. This is an exerpt that shows why the Terrans could survive:
----
Let's not kid ourselves, we got our heads handed to us by the Zerg and the Protoss. Yes, tehy were like nothing we had ever seen before. Yes, their biology was different. Yes, their technology, or what we would call their technology was more advanced than ours in dozens of areas. And of course, they were billigerent and aggressive to the extreme, they knew where we were, and they had the advantage of surprise.
But (and this is a rather large but) we humans are about the most ornery cusses in the galaxy. We had been fighting among ourselves for as long as we've been in the sector, and we had honed our own battle technologies to the point where we were their equal in many ways. We had the advantages of interior lines of supply (that's military for "surrounded") and native terrain (that's military for "we're fighting them in our living rooms"). We could have taken them if we had gotten our act together.
So what happened? The very thing that made us good warriors - the fact that we had fought among ourselves - also made us horrible at banding together in our hour of crisis. We could not unite under one banner or even form a coallition. In fact, every time there was a chance for that, one faction or another did something to enhance the advantage of their own political agenda over the other factions. Often at the expense of humanity. I can't imagine the hive-minded Zerg or the glowing Protoss falling prey to such basic human drives as greed and power and raw pigheadedness.
Of course. those are all basic human drives, and that's why nonhumans were cleaning our clocks.
----
Humanity survived, of course. After all, what kind of sci-fi game would it be if the humans are all dead!
Looking at the unit rosters for the three factions, you can see what the narrator was aiming at. Of the 15 or so Terran units, only two of them have no special ability. Fully half, if not more so, of the Zerg and Protoss troops have nothing special for them. It's a uniqueness that allows the Terrans to have a chance even when outnumbered or outgunned.
Besides being a good game balancing concept, it makes for good sci-fi lore. The low-tech race manages to hold its own despite going up against a theoretically superior force becasue they're just so damn good at war.
Its like Starship Troopers, where the Humans are on the wrong end of the numberical and biological fronts, but manage to succeed because of a few millenia of practice.
Just a random rant :).
posted by Wraithy at 11/14/2005 08:55:00 AM
1 Comments:
"Humanity survived, of course. After all, what kind of sci-fi game would it be if the humans are all dead!"
The only one that comes to mind at the moment is "Destroy All Humans"
But hey, that appeals to my inner nasty.
Momster
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