We are witnessing sad things indeed...
No but seriously, the day that I never thought would come has arrived. There were multiple times that many doucheclits declared SCBW would die the next year because of a momentary decline, the first memory occuring around 2003. To the relief of many of us, the contrary happened and the populace doubled over the next couple of years, most probably due to the rather grotesquely shitty alternatives, like WoW or Halo that can be cool for one hour before it loses its novelty and the persistent nerdraging of several sexually-frustrated dorks repels you back to the free world of SCBW.
Then in 2006 and 2007 lots of warnings occur again about the possibility of SCBW dying because of the upcoming SC2 but this too proved to be false up until now when shit really hit the fan.
This time it is for real.
Now, improved graphics and more dynamic gameplay never worried me, but what I didn't want to a sequel of SC was refined concepts... Where are the spider mines? Where is that highly-customizable UMS atmosphere that SCBW popularized, which might just be the best fucking invention ever wrought by man?
Clearly, Blizzard never intended nor foresaw the advanced customizations and numerous hacks its users would discover to broaden the capabilities of their originally dull Map editor to something way beyond they ever imagined. All the triggers and features of StarEdit were intended to be capable only of creating the kind of maps you see when you play the Campaign episodes of SC and BW. Relatively weak special effects when compared to modern maps. It's almost as if they gave up their game to its users for this exact reason; we could manage it into something way better than they ever could.
Then they neglect us, release patches that fucked the game up rather than fix it. Then they ban 350,000 people for shit as minor as a namespoofing. What portion of that is the entire SC1 community? I don't even know...
SCBW is without a doubt the most revolutionary PC game ever created, and IGN agrees. But more importantly, it was the most unique because it couldn't just be labelled a game unto itself. SCBW itself was a platform, where many derived scenarios could be hosted and played as separate games, that you could join and leave anytime without consequences. It was massively popular, had many addicted players and yet it managed to avoid all those controversies other games like EverQuest and WoW endured because of some fat fuckspigot that blows his own brains out because his virtual girlfriend dumps him.
Oh wait, didn't some Korean die from playing 50 hours of SCBW straight 5 years back? Shit man, that was one short-lived story. I wonder why all those whiney, borderline-simpleton retards never talk about that one. I thought they loved odious drama?
Anyway, SCBW still retains a moderate popularity but it won't be long before the gamelist is eventually deserted. I'll honor my obligation to finish all the campaigns of SC2 before I proceed to shit on it.
In the meantime, LONG LIVE SCBW.
None.