Warcraft III Nostalgia
While browsing through backup directories, I came across some old Warcraft III replay files. This triggered a fit of nostalgia, since I probably spent at least as much time watching replays as I did actually playing that game. You know all those people who go ape for watching professional sports on TV? Well, game replays are basically the same thing: vicarious experience. However, unlike many sports watchers, gamers directly benefit from watching replays, since they can learn valuable strategies. Saving a replay of a game you lost can provide insight into what exactly went wrong. In addition, it's always fun to watch replays of elite gamers taking your favorite game to a level that you may never reach, but can enjoy and appreciate.
So I spent about an hour watching some replays of myself that I had saved early in my Warcraft III career. Apparently I didn't play much past patch 1.05, which was actually really early in the lifespan of the game. Even so, I could see how strategy evolved so quickly in the War3 community... watching my replays was somewhat tortuous. Although I discovered the importance of Heros early on, the idea of "creeping" was practically unknown to me. Through each replay, I could see bad Hero choices, bad skill choices, and bad micromanagement. Somehow, though, I was able to win a lot of these games (or at least most of the games I had saved).
Warcraft III was really a very worthy addition to the Warcraft franchise; watching these videos almost makes me want to bust it out on Battle.net. Almost.
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