An interview with NTT!
by WaNNaBJusTLiKeU 1 year ago   (6.66 based on 6 ratings | 1151 views)

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Hey NTT, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. I'm sure
there are a lot of people interested in hearing the opinions and some
interesting facts about a top EU player.

 

To get things started, let's get to know the person behind the player
a bit. Can you give a brief introduction of yourself? Name, age,
hobbies, or anything that makes you, you:

 

NTT : My name is Jacob, I'm too old for computer games (28) and some of my hobbies include riding my motorcycle, quantum mechanics, marine biology, weight lifting, music, games, psychology, and resisting the urge to go bad manner on some fools. Oh yeah, and I enjoy the occasional game of StarCraft II.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : What are your plans over the coming months? (Focus on SC2 or college/work etc?)

 

NTT : I've never been much of a planner, but playing ridiculous amounts of StarCraft II is certainly part of my loosely scheduled calendar. Aside from StarCraft II, staying alive is always a general goal.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Can you give us a run down in the daily routines or a day in the life of NTT?

 

NTT : I have a perfectly choreographed daily routine which I follow to the letter. This took me literally years to develop, so please give me credit should you choose to adopt it. At some point during the morning or early afternoon I will wake up, followed by breakfast (lunch?) of some kind. To prevent total muscular atrophy I may perform (depending on the day) certain barbell exercises (squats, deadlifts, presses, etc). Games of StarCraft II will be played, and the web will be browsed. Meals will be consumed, books will be read, and televisions shows observed. Some grocery shopping may also be on the menu! As you can tell, following this highly structured routine almost robotically provides me with a certain emotional stability -- serenity if you will.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Can you give us a brief overview of your gaming career? For example what other games have you played and how did you fair? Any other games that you enjoy outside of StarCraft 2?

 

NTT : The only other game I played with serious intent was StarCraft: Brood War. Actually that is not accurate, I briefly tried to achieve a high level of skill in Trackmania but failed miserably. A chapter best left unread. I'm very critical of games and have, perhaps, absurdly high expectations causing endless disappointment. PC games I've played (outside of Brood War and StarCraft II) that pleasantly surprised me with their quality and gameplay are: Plants vs. Zombies, Trackmania, Portal, Desktop Tower Defense, Altitude, World of Goo, Elastomania, and AudioSurf.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : So how did you come up with your nickname? And what does it mean?

 

NTT : A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a friend of mine used the name NRG for his first foray into online gaming. At the time I thought NRG (eNeRGy) was a very clever nickname, and I wanted something even cleverer. After months (ok, days) of racking my brain NTT (eNTiTy) was born. Alternatives considered were MBQS and DVS.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : There has been a lot of talk lately about the features (or lack of) in Battle.Net 2.0. What are your thought on the current system, and what would you look to change or bring in?

 

NTT : Ha! Yes, Battle.Net "2.0". Needless to say it is lacking. Here's the problem with the whole thing -- it sucks. My suggestion is, make it not suck so much. Battle.Net 2.0 is inferior by design, and no amount of whine is going to change Blizzard's stance on certain issues. Not having LAN and cross-realm play is absolutely inexcusable, but Blizzard is cashing in on 15 years of accumulated goodwill and they're seeing dollar signs. They've built up a tremendously loyal customer base by:

1) always providing a quality product,
2) supporting that product for many years after release,
3) having the best, free online multi-player service available,
4) the latest game always being superior in every regard (except gameplay, that is always debatable) than its predecessor,
5) in comparison to other game developers they've always seemed less shitty.

Along comes Battle.Net 2.0 which doesn't adhere to Blizzard's old standards at all.

1) it is not a quality product. It is down currently, achievements don't work, portraits don't work, basic functionality is lacking, it is often laggy, etc,
2) this is conjecture but I believe we won't be seeing the same support for StarCraft II as we did for previous Blizzard titles, I mean they're not even bothering to fix the achievements, lag, and hacking issues. It just doesn't seem to be in line with their new philosophy.
3) you pay full price for access to a 4th of the player base, it is subscription based in certain regions, you're not allowed to change your name or have family members use alternate accounts, you can't play over LAN, etc, etc,
4) compare WarCraft III's Battle.Net to Battle.Net 2.0. 2.0 is missing clan support, automated tournaments, per-race records, infinite accounts, channels, /commands, user hosted maps, etc,
5) they seem as shitty as other developers now, which is just sad.

 

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : And now the inevitable question regarding balance, what are your current thoughts on the balance issues surrounding the game? Can you
give me an example of 3 things that you think need attention?

 

NTT : This is a very tough question. I don't think, for example, that Terran has any trouble getting wins. It's the manner in which they have to get them that I have an issue with. In short, Reapers against Zerg and Marauders against Protoss. The longer the game goes, the more your chances of winning diminish. A Brood War-like balance (not easily achieved, I know) where you're not limited to early game aggression followed by a timing push seems infinitely preferable. The skill ceiling between races is also an issue. Zerg is extremely difficult to play well, whereas Terran and Protoss are considerably easier to manage. Terran and Protoss both have some very effective strategies that require precious little skill to execute with great efficacy. As a whole, the game simply doesn't reward the better player as often as it should. One base play in general is too effective, and the mechanics required to manage your base(s) and army simultaneously pale in comparison to the ridiculous skill that is required in Brood War. Unfortunately these seem like fundamental design issues that aren't going to be corrected any time soon. All we can do now is hope Blizzard manages to tweak the game to provide slightly better balance within a broken framework. Start with the Reaper. :)

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : You are primarily a Terran player, what drew you to play Terran originally?

 

NTT : I've played Terran exclusively in StarCraft II (including the entirety of the beta) because I played Terran exclusively in Brood War. A large part of the appeal of StarCraft II for me is nostalgia, which I largely attribute my choice to play Terran to. What drew me to play Terran in Brood War on the other hand can only be described as masochism. They were the consensus weakest race (pre-1.08 at least) and the challenge in learning to be effective with what was considered by all to be the underdog race seemed like an interesting challenge. Maybe all of this reasoning is simply xenophobia in disguise? Who knows

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Terran players have been on the end of a lot of criticism recently from a lot of people in the community, with people such as IdrA even
losing their cool (No surprise). Is this criticism justified and how
should Blizzard look to react to this? Is it too soon for a balance
patch?

 

NTT : It is justfied in a sense. IdrA's opinion is to be respected because he's a top player, but at the same time he's not playing Zerg because he enjoys losing. He is extremely successful with them, and in long macro games they are almost unbeatable. It's getting to that point that's the hard part. Zerg players in general are getting better and better at dealing with Terran "cheese". Mech almost seems to be a non-issue currently with how effective Mutalisks are against Thors if controlled correctly. The 3~5 barracks Reaper opening is extremely difficult to deal with for Zerg, and often wins games outright, or at the very least provides enough of an advantage for Terran to capitalize on shortly after. Reapers should have never been in the game to begin with, and balancing them will be a nigh impossible undertaking, but I do believe something has to be done, if only to make games more interesting.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : What is your favourite matchup whilst playing as Terran? TvT, TvZ or TvP?

 

NTT : Terran vs. Protoss currently. I simply encounter, very, very few Zerg players at the top of the ladder, and Terran vs. Terran is pure torture.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Who do you feel are currently the best players of each race?

 

NTT : This is not very easily quantified as ladder results don't mean that much, and there haven't been many tournaments of any significance. I'll give you a top 5 per race, but it is simply my preference based on play style and perceptible skill. There won't many US names on the list because I simply don't have access to their server, although I did play a considerable amount of games on the US server during the beta and was ranked highly.

Terran:
MorroW,
DeMusliM,
BratOK,
TLO,
Tarson.

Zerg:
IdrA,
Fruitseller,
Dimaga,
DarkForce,
MadFrog.

Protoss:
Tester,
HasuObs,
TTOne,
HuK,
Socke.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Do you have anyone you look up to? Or draw inspiration from?

 

NTT : In terms of skill there are many players I respect. However, very often I simply don't consider their styles of play to be very interesting. Regardless of win percentage, if you win every TvP by going three barracks MM into MMM drops then that's not very inspired is it? :)

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : What do you personally feel are your strengths and weaknesses as a player?

 

NTT : Stubbornness, to both questions. :) I try to develop my own unique style of play, and not imitate players too much. This allows me to be more effective with unorthodox strategies than players expect and hopefully stumble upon something that's ultimately more effective than your run of the mill, cookie cutter, flavor of the week strategy that everyone seems to be doing. Of course the cookie cutter strategy is often more effective, so I'm knowingly putting myself at a significant disadvantage at times.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : What's the best advice can you give to players who are stuck trying to
get themselves up the ladder?

 

NTT : I think this applies to everything in life (although I'm no expert in that regard), but a general truth seems to be that the more effort you put into something, the more you get out of it. Perhaps it's far-fetched to describe the act of playing a computer game as an athletic pursuit, but bear with me on this. Hand-eye coordination, dexterity, multi-tasking ability, emotional control, deep concentration, etc are tools that players use to gain an edge over their opponent. Certain people are simply genetically better at playing games than others. The way your brain is wired plays a large part in how well you do at (RTS) games. This being said, the best way to get better at something is to do it over and over and over again and force your body to adapt. You can't control your genetic limitations, but you can control how much effort you put in. In weightlifting there's a training philosophy known as the Bulgarian method. The Bulgarian method is brutal. People following this routine would train to their daily maximum several times a day. Their bodies would be in a constant state of shock, injury rates were very high, and many people simply couldn't keep up with the routine. The ones that could however, have broken record after record after record. It based on the application of the S.A.I.D. principle. SAID stands for “Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands” and states that “adaptation to a stressor is specific to that stressor”. It is my opinion that (unknowingly) the Koreans have applied the same principle to computer games, and this is why they are so much better than the rest of us. In my opinion there is no substitute for hard work. Of course we're talking about a game which most people play casually, in which case just play when you feel like and see where it takes you. :)

 

WaNNaJusTLiKeu : Is there one game or particular scenario you can remember that has
made you want to rage quit?

 

NTT : Every single game I've lost, every third TvT in a row, and making mistakes but still managing to win.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Time for some quickfire questions now, the first thing that comes to
your mind please, one word answers please!

 

Favourite Map?

 

NTT : Steppes of War.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Favourite Race?

 

NTT : Terran

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Favourite Unit?

 

NTT : Tank

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Favourite opponent?

 

NTT : Someone ever so slightly more skilled than myself, but not outside the realm of being stompable.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Terran?

 

NTT : Delicious

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Protoss?

 

NTT : Bit bland

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Zerg?

 

NTT : An acquired taste

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Blizzard?

 

NTT : Activision

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : SC1?

 

NTT : Best game ever made, by a mile.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : SC2?

 

NTT : A worthy successor but ultimately unfixably inferior.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Single player?

 

NTT : Surprisingly appealing, but whoever voices Jim Raynor needs to learn how to emote. That guy is vanillllaaaaaaaaaa

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Tattoo's?

 

NTT : Not for me, but i can appreciate a good one.

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Alcohol?

 

NTT : I don't drink

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Music?

 

NTT : Ronald Jenkees yo!

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview, is there anything else you'd like to say?

 

NTT : I've said too much already :)

 

WaNNaBJusTLiKeu : Once again, thank you very much NTT, it is greatly appreciated, best of luck to you in the future and I hope you achieve all your goals!

 

NTT : Thank you and likewise!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to NTT for this interview, hope you all enjoy the read!

Tags: Starcraft / BW| Starcraft 2| pro gaming| replayers|

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