Should Starcraft 2 Support Widescreen?

Yes, No, Why?

I ask because still to today Warcraft, Starcraft ect are one of the many games that do not support widescreen (not world of warcraft just the RTS).

I understand why for those games as they were older and widescreen was a small minority, but now in the future its much more common and I consider it standard. I cant think of any new laptop that is not widescreen, or any prebuilt PC combos like Dell or HP all include widescreen monitors too.

Its pretty aggravating to have that nice big monitor and then have big black bars up and down the sides, its even worse if you stretch it to fit the screen as you get horrible distortion.

Still tho I see this as a debatable topic due to the competitive nature of RTS games and how it could give a "unfair" advantage to the person with a widescreen vs somebody with standard in a ranked match.

This is what EA said about Battlefield 2142 for the longest, they said it was unfair and thats why there is no widescreen, lucky just recently tho the newest patch for the game enables it and its so great!

I can tell you personally that in order to play fake widescreen before this patch you would have to zoom in to fill your screen and cut the top and bottom view off, thus giving the standard screen person an advantage over you. Not once while playing like that did I cry foul or think it handicapped me tho so I always thought that "unfair advantage" thing was crap.

So what do you think? Should Blizzard get with the times and make this a widescreen capable tittle or stay old school for an even playing ground?



Let me go into some detail really fast. When I say widescreen I mean real widescreen where it takes the image from a standard monitor and expands the view on the sides to fill the screen, not the vertical chop like the old BF2142.

If Bliz was not ok with real widescreen support full out, I have 2 compromises that I think are a good idea and better than nothing at all.


1.) Have it as an option when hosting a game to enable widescreen resolutions or not, so those who feel its unfair can host or join games with this blocked. Perhaps ladder games are best suited to lock out widescreen, but atleast the option is there for the rest of us who have the bigger screens or do not care.

2.) A 50/50 mix of vertical chop and real widescreen. If you wont extend the horizontal view 100% to fill the screen, rather than make us chop the vertical view 100% to make it fit the screen, meet right in the middle.

extend the horizontal FOV only half of the screen, then cut down the top the rest of the way, the result would be a widescreen resolution but with no net gain in total FOV and thus no advantage would be gained.

 

I know Starcraft 1 is pretty old, so maybe wide-screens weren't as prevalent as they are now.

I'm pretty sure Starcraft 2 supports wide-screen since the videos I've seen of it are all in wide-screen.

 

I would say that S2 will be in 16x9, because a lot of the former Starcraft players I know are now massive graphics whores.

 

Yeah widescreen shoudlnt matter in an a rts as much. Since essentially you have to view in all directions, unlike fps where left and right are obviously more important and focused thus giving an advantage.

DJ that still cracks me up.

 

It still cracks me up.

 

regardless of whether it "should" or not, it most likely will.

widescreen support (thank goodness) is becoming more and more standard. almost all monitors are shipped in either 16:9 or 16:10 widescreen now.

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its pretty ridiculous to say that a widescreen monitor gives someone an unfair advantage. i know that this wasn't your personal argument, but i still dislike it so much that i'll argue it

what about different types of mice? some mice are super glidy and responsive and accurate. some are cheap!

what about different resolutions and settings? 1600x1200 has an advantage over 800x600 - more detail, greater ability to aim! if shadows are enabled, you could know someone is coming around a corner... if shadows are disabled for the other person, they might not even know that they are exposed!

higher framerates = more control... etc...

widescreen increases FOV and gives you a tool to increase your spatial awareness. not a big deal.
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so yes, SC2 will most likely support widescreen.

 

"Widescreen players have an advantage over standard screen players"?! EA needed to get a life and worry about more important things! I still haven't regained faith in them since Lord of the Rings Return of the King for PC. That game was crap! The Gameboy Advance version was so much better, which is pretty shameful.

Oh and thats a Yes for widescreen support.

Grand Admiral

 

Just a comment on what you said about the distortion issue with stretching, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay had a rather interesting system which allowed you to pick a pixel aspect ratio. Eg It would be a 1024x768 output but if you set the aspect for 5:4->4:3 the game would compress the horizontal output so everything was in proportion when it got stretched out onto a widescreen display. Dunno how it works but it was really effective.

Grand Admiral

 

Yes. I think all new games should have widescreen support

 

We have no idea if Blizzard is actually refusing to implement widescreen support for the upcoming SC2, so why don't we all wait and then complain/whine/whinge if it doesn't happen.

 

Well nobody is complaining, whining ect that I can see. But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

They see this now if there were on the border of going one way or the next and decide to go for it, or we wait like you say and find that its not there and then we have to fight to get it changed, which is harder to do.

 

It would be lame if they didn't support widescreen. Modern graphics technologies allow much more flexability than old ones. As to the whole thing if widescreen gives unfair advantage... well, even if it does, I don't care. Go buy a widescreen. Higher res could give an unfair advantage too, as it could allow more on the screen and/or reduce the size of the UI, thus revealing more of the play field. If they limit the game to 800X600 4:3, I will not buy it for 50 bucks.

 

I doubt a petition from a small number of notebookreview forum users is going to change Blizzard's stance on widescreen support. I still think all we can do is wait and see and maybe petition if widescreen receives no love from Blizzard.

 

I know! Lets stop supporting higher resolutions too! And advanced graphics options! Those give an unfair advantage!

The fact of the matter is, even for a shooter, a few extra degrees of peripheral vision is not a big enough deal to purposely gimp the game for some players.

 

Of course yes.. Why not ?

 

The word 'graphics' could easily be omitted from that statement.

 

I would like it to support widescreen, but I don't really care, but the thing about widescreen players having an advantage is true. Starcraft is big in the competitive gaming world so I can see them not adding it for that reason, as it works just fine without widescreen, and many people still do not use widescreen.

I see what you did there. lol

 

Yes SC2 supports widescreen, don't worry everyone

To me the unfair advantage argument only comes into effect in tournament play, where rules can easily be enforced and 4:3 vs 16:9/10 can be chosen and stuck to. In everyone else's case (so most of us), a bit more space on either side vs some up top won't make or break a game.

 

Widescreen support is a must, they must even take in consideration of the 16:9 ration widescreen as well. The game must be perfect on any machines.

 

what about mice? mice users have a big advantage over people who use... say... trackpads.

the mice are much more responsive, and laser accurate.

i think blizzard should remove mouse support from their game to keep the playing field level. that way trackpad players can fairly play against the rest. everyone should be restricted to keyboard only. because not everyone has access to a mouse.

and the framerate should be capped at 20 fps, because not everyone will be able to hit 30 fps - a massive disadvantage to those playing with weaker hardware. so to level the playing field, they should cap the thing at 20fps.

plus, some people will be more experienced than others. they might know the keyboard shortcuts... thats a huge (and unfair) advantage. therefore, they should remove all the keyboard shortcuts - not everyone can learn them all - to keep everything fair. all the inputs will have to be strictly the arrow keys and a single mouse button.

in fact, just plain skill level is going to vary amongst players. that is a MASSIVE disadvantage to weaker players. therefore, as you play, if you are dominating, they should cripple you... and if you aren't doing well, you should get bonuses. thats the only real way to keep everything fair. every game could be a tie. it would be the most perfectly balanced game ever.

in all seriousness - because everyone has the option to run in 16:9 (or 16:10) if you want, (black bars) its not a disadvantage to anyone. period. done.

 

All game developers should support widescreen.

And honestly, if you're a hardcore gamer that cares about some people seeing more than you, GET A WIDESCREEN MONITOR. If you're willing enough to spend on a powerful desktop, games, and other accessories, you can get yourself a widescreen monitor.

 

Here's a link to the Starcraft 2 panel at BWWI: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9dqRrc1UE8

 

It will be wide screen. No doubt. Future screens will be even MORE wide screen. Right now most of our screens are 16:10, the next generation of screens will have 16:9 aspect ratio.

This isn't an appreciable disadvantage to a gamer. If it were an FPS, then you could just modify the FOV of the different aspect ratios by a degree or two to fix the problem. For an RTS this issue is beyond irrelevant, though I am sure a few hypercompetitive South Korean StarCraft superstars would disagree.

 

Then they should get widescreen computers Stop hugging on your Starcraft machines (mobile single core, and IGP??).