Why Startups Should Only Hire Good Starcraft Players

J

John_Keck

Limp Gawd
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May 3, 2010
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Good StarCraft players have many admirable traits. They are dedicated to improving, learn quickly, and are able to cope/adjust on the fly. They make the perfect employee for your new startup, assuming you don’t mind the smell. :p
Good StarCraft players watch replays to see what they did wrong and, more importantly, what the other guy did right. Then, they hone their craft and do better the next time.
In a startup, that’s gotta be one of the best traits an employee can have. If all your employees are as obsessed with improvement as “good” Starcraft players are, then you’re going to be in good shape.
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na, they just follow certain patterns. and be fast at it. they will prob be good for assembly line work.
 
TheBuzzer said:
na, they just follow certain patterns. and be fast at it. they will prob be good for assembly line work.
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Yeah, most players don't change their tactics. Plus they spend to many hours playing the damn game, and show up to work tired. Taking time off when a new expansion launches...
 
Go ahead and talk about your mad gaming skillz at an interview, I'm sure that would go over real well :rolleyes: I'm not even sure that mentioning gaming as an hobby is the best idea, even in the IT field.

I've been playing many different types of games for over 20 years (and don't totally suck at a few of them) and I honestly fail to see how that helps me be a better programmer. It's funny because I can see how my programming/math background affects my gameplay, but not the other way around.

I know that person isn't being totally serious but I've seen people try to use WoW guild leader experience as proof of management skills so you never know.
 
This is like saying good Counter-Strike players should be fighter pilots.
 
Wow that is stupid. Back in the day when I played SC1 with my roommate we found that the key to victory 99.99% of the time was speed. We had our build cycles down to a science so we got shit up fast. We worked to make sure the other players noticed my base first. Why? Because rush was how you won. So they saw me, I got hit with a heavy 2 person rush, however I had the defenses to survive. While they were doing that, he'd go and blow up one of them. We'd then toy with the other one for as long as we felt like.

All the "good" players were all about a fast build and then a rush, or in our case a fast build, wait for a rush then counter attack. That is not an admirable skill.
 
Starcraft, boiled down, is simply knowing what the other guy is doing, and then using the appropriate strategy to counter. Then it's all about your APM to see who can most efficiently micro to win.

As someone above said, good for assembly line work, not much else.

Plus you know, the fact that no one wants to actually be around a competitive RTS player because they are all epic piles of asshole.
 
Just sounds to me like you guys aren't good starcraft players :p

But hey, I'm a sc2 player working for a startup, so...
 
Anyone "really good" at SC is also probably somewhat addicted, not good for any type of reliable ee. What a person can do in a video game is not the same as in real life, I dont agree with the article.

Having said that, when Im in a good groove with SC, my multitasking skills on a PC go thu the roof. People poke fun at my 100 desktop icons, 10 open FF's (with 10+ tabs each) 20 open emails, 10 open word documents, 10 open excel documents, 10 open folders, pidgin, PS + Dreamweaver, etc etc... but Im able to go thu each of them all while on the phone with a client. A co-worker was making fun of it the other day, but what I dont have the heart to tell him is that I can get more done in a day than he can in a month.

I wonder if there is an APM client for windows ;)
 
"uh, yeah, the starcraft icon, I only installed it here to show someone how it works, I don't actually play it...."
 
I don't know about starcraft specifically, but there's a certain quality of person that puts a lot of passion into their work that I just don't know how to look for in an interview.

I work with this guy as a programmer and he just doesn't put quality into his work. He'll google stuff and just cut-paste the code and check it in. He doesn't care to understand how it works or why it works.
He'll be debugging something and as soon as it works, he'll check it in, including all the debug code and print statements.

He's technically smart, because you can ask him knowledge questions and he'll know them, but when it comes to day-to-day work, he's sloppy and has no respect/passion for what he produces.
 
Then again, the same could be said about anyone who does anyting with such passion and dedication, whether it is drumming, poker playing, D&D, CoD, Magic...

... or not.

Though, in all seriousness, I do have noticed that certain games do revolve around certain mechanics that help the player develop some kind of critical thinking.

I was playing Burn Zombie Burn! the other day and I noticed the game revolves around quick risk analysis: how many zombies can I handle on fire? Can I risk having more in order to rack up more points? Do I play it safe and take 10x the time to reach the objective?

StarCraft IS too mechanic, but there are other games that do help develop certain skills.

Like Dinner Dash!
 
GishForever said:
Go ahead and talk about your mad gaming skillz at an interview, I'm sure that would go over real well :rolleyes: I'm not even sure that mentioning gaming as an hobby is the best idea, even in the IT field.

I've been playing many different types of games for over 20 years (and don't totally suck at a few of them) and I honestly fail to see how that helps me be a better programmer. It's funny because I can see how my programming/math background affects my gameplay, but not the other way around.

I know that person isn't being totally serious but I've seen people try to use WoW guild leader experience as proof of management skills so you never know.
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Seems most I've met thus far in IT are gamers of some sort or another. That or musicians(or both, like yours truly). I don't think it makes a lick of difference one way or the other.

I got a good giggle out of the article, though.
 
Wouldn't want someone from BC2 either...Team mates never help each other. Lack of communication in that game so two strikes...
 
keep it simple and just say you learn to adapt to changes and on coming surprises very fast!
 
The article sort of makes a point. There are quite a number of pro-starcraft players who have found success in poker, as pro-starcraft players have skills such as good resource management, knowledge of when to be defensive/aggressive, ability to read opponents (scouting) and assess a plan to handle it, quick thinking, and multitasking.

Sure SC won't make you a better employee, but it does help in situations that would require the skillset that good starcraft players possess.
 
I found watching replays to be incredibly important of Company of Heroes, you can very easily tell when game changing mistakes happen.
 
I used to play CS:S competitively. Before I used to just game on pubs and play what most people would call noob games. I later joined the CAL community and forums. I spent hours reading up on strategy and how people improved their aim. I watched demos after demos analyzing strategies and so on.

I had the same sort of mental attitude when bodybuilding, just reading non-stop.

While learning to play Starcraft 1, I spent countless hours watching videos on youtube by klazartsc, husky, HD and violetak (which were mostly uploaded in korean). I watched first person videos of them playing and tried to mimic their play. I read the liquipedia to see what kind of strategies there are, common builds and how to use them. I joined in on discussions and played endlessly by myself and restarting the game every few seconds on a build until I got it just right.

Now I play SC2 and the skills have transferred over. I know the how and why to make scvs constantly. I know strategies and I can execute build orders easily and I know how to time my attacks based on my build and what happened to my opponent and his build. I can now focus on smaller things like micro, creating my own builds and variations (it's a new game after all). I will perfect my building placement and work on microing units effectively and finally, improving my apm. At the same time I check up on TL to check for new builds, new strategies and discuss things that we can all improve on. I watch starcraft replays and pro matches while I eat.

You guys can't tell me that (long) list of things I do to improve my game is not an admirable trait.

Note: Most of the SC2 gaming will come to an end next week :( School's starting up again.
 
I guess it's admirable, time will tell if that sort of behavior transfers over to something a little more productive though (bodybuilding is productive but not something you usually use to get a job). Honestly, if I were an employer and you told me all that jazz I would not be impressed one bit. You are a student, instead of wasting your time with SC or SC2 or CS:S you could have been....studying perhaps? Learning a marketable skill? Learning a new language? Doing some volunteer work (resume filler)? Intern somewhere? Snag a cert or two?

It really comes across as if you just take wasting time very seriously. This is good a good trait in a potential employee? I don't know.

Not that there is anything wrong with wasting time, don't get me wrong. I have dumped more time and energy into some games and other pointless pursuits than I care to mention, but I certainly would not bring the topic up with an employer even if the interviewer is a geek/gamer.
 
The Doctor said:
I used to play CS:S competitively. Before I used to just game on pubs and play what most people would call noob games. I later joined the CAL community and forums. I spent hours reading up on strategy and how people improved their aim. I watched demos after demos analyzing strategies and so on.

I had the same sort of mental attitude when bodybuilding, just reading non-stop.

While learning to play Starcraft 1, I spent countless hours watching videos on youtube by klazartsc, husky, HD and violetak (which were mostly uploaded in korean). I watched first person videos of them playing and tried to mimic their play. I read the liquipedia to see what kind of strategies there are, common builds and how to use them. I joined in on discussions and played endlessly by myself and restarting the game every few seconds on a build until I got it just right.

Now I play SC2 and the skills have transferred over. I know the how and why to make scvs constantly. I know strategies and I can execute build orders easily and I know how to time my attacks based on my build and what happened to my opponent and his build. I can now focus on smaller things like micro, creating my own builds and variations (it's a new game after all). I will perfect my building placement and work on microing units effectively and finally, improving my apm. At the same time I check up on TL to check for new builds, new strategies and discuss things that we can all improve on. I watch starcraft replays and pro matches while I eat.

You guys can't tell me that (long) list of things I do to improve my game is not an admirable trait.

Note: Most of the SC2 gaming will come to an end next week :( School's starting up again.
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Sure if your job is playing SC2, 90% of people do not like their job or at least deal with it being mundane. If you have a job that you absolutely love then that's different, It's the "passion" of the job/game/task, not that you do it on something else whatever the hobby.

For instance I could see how a guitar player would love to work in his own band making that his living. Completely different than being a guitar player working at a guitar store.
 
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