(Part 3) Top products from r/starcraft

Here is a scientific explanation of the Artosis curse: Regression toward the mean.

Basically, Artosis makes his predictions based on observations of high above (their own usual) average achievements of players. The problem is that there is actually quite a bit of randomness involved. At the high level SC II is being played at no single player is skilled enough to dominate everyone else (consistently, but likely not even at any one point in time if everyone would play against everybody else instead of just a random(ha!) selection). Randomness means, that when you observe someone being above average the chance that next time you observe them they will be WORSE, closer to the mean (back to normal!), is much higher compared to observing them doing something outstanding again.

I would like to point out that this is ONE of the forces at work. It does explain the Artosis curse. It does not (need to!) explain everything that goes on in the world or even just in the world of SC II. And it doesn't claim that this happens every single time, only on average.

Here is what Kahneman used as an example:

> The psychologist Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel prize in economics, pointed out that regression to the mean might explain why rebukes can seem to improve performance, while praise seems to backfire.[8]

> “I had the most satisfying Eureka experience of my career while attempting to teach flight instructors that praise is more effective than punishment for promoting skill-learning. When I had finished my enthusiastic speech, one of the most seasoned instructors in the audience raised his hand and made his own short speech, which began by conceding that positive reinforcement might be good for the birds, but went on to deny that it was optimal for flight cadets. He said, “On many occasions I have praised flight cadets for clean execution of some aerobatic maneuver, and in general when they try it again, they do worse. On the other hand, I have often screamed at cadets for bad execution, and in general they do better the next time. So please don’t tell us that reinforcement works and punishment does not, because the opposite is the case.” This was a joyous moment, in which I understood an important truth about the world: because we tend to reward others when they do well and punish them when they do badly, and because there is regression to the mean, it is part of the human condition that we are statistically punished for rewarding others and rewarded for punishing them. I immediately arranged a demonstration in which each participant tossed two coins at a target behind his back, without any feedback. We measured the distances from the target and could see that those who had done best the first time had mostly deteriorated on their second try, and vice versa. But I knew that this demonstration would not undo the effects of lifelong exposure to a perverse contingency.

If you only read one book this year, let it be Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow.

As far as books, the Dark Templar trilogy was the only ones I read that I felt were historically important at all (or good, for that matter). I'm a lore nerd but I'm at work so can't really get to too many good resources (stupid web filter).

Most of what you need to know comes from the games though. The Zeratul missions are particularly revealing, and tie in with the following books perfectly.

Firstborn - Book 1

Shadow Hunters - Book 2

Twilight - Book 3

edit: When i said historical significance, I meant lore that you might not find in the game, predominantly event that reveal the origin of the Xel'Naga, The Dark Voice, the Void, the Hybrids, etc..

Metzen has said he'd like the entire StarCraft series to be told in novel form. There are a number of books (some pretty good) that are basically the campaign of SC1, BW, and SC2 written in a novel.

The Dark Templar series above is the only set of books worth reading that 1) are good and 2) are faithful to, and add to, the lore, and aren't just the campaign retold.

StarCraft is an amazing game because it's so incredibly well balanced, it's able to be played at the highest competitive level. Most of the tournament action is in South Korea, where it's regularly televised with big name sponsors, just like any other sport. However, it's starting to catch on in Europe and the US.

More importantly, the StarCraft community is comprised of some of the nicest gamers you'll ever meet. It's very disimilar from XBOX Live gaming (Halo, mostly), if you're familiar with that. Rather, everyone is very well mannered (even the exceptions to this aren't all that bad by comparison).

If you need to get a StarCraft gamer a gift, there's enough of a culture around it that you can find t-shirts, posters, calendars, toys, novelty items, etc. - You might be able to find action figures if you look hard enough, but they're difficult to find these days as they're not made anymore (as far as I know).

Here are some links to get you started:

• http://thehandsomenerd.com/ (the Micro/Macro one + the "Born to Fast Expand" are probably the best options here)
  
• http://search.hottopic.com/search?p=Q&w=starcraft
  
• http://www.zazzle.com/starcraft+tshirts
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Starcraft-Video-Raynors-Raiders-Poster/dp/B0041STB02
  
• http://www.amazon.com/StarCraft-II-2011-Wall-Calendar/dp/1416285008/
  
  If you're looking to blow minds and spend some serious cash, a gaming mouse might be another option. Here's one people seem to like:
  http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_US/pd/productID.169418100/parentCategoryID.35208800/categoryId.35210600
  
  Oh and uh... To my secret santa stalker, if you're going this route, I wear a medium. :)
  
  TLDR; StarCraft merchandise is probably your best bet.

It would be a fair trade if I were messing up with logic. I'm not. As I mentioned in my previous post, I have the one example - Google. You have zero examples. It is your intuition that Google is unusual amongst companies, fair enough. It is my intuition that a lot of tech companies try to copy Google. Neither of these claims have any supporting evidence. Since we can just dismiss the claims that are made without evidence what we are left with is a single example of a company who would look favorably on world class skill at a game and no conflicting evidence.

> while I don't particularly put much faith in what someone who hasn't worked at Google

The author of the book I cited is a journalist who interviewed a ton of people at many different levels in Google and was invited to visit the company (by himself, not at a press event) a fair number of times. The book has pretty favorable reviews and no reviews claiming "The guy made everything up!".

Hmm that is an interesting idea. My brother swears by Ryzen as he built his own pc and currently has a Ryzen 7 on it, but he likes to play games like skyrim and stuff like that. I found this computer on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RYWWB4G/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?smid=A2TC87EJKQMY9O&psc=1

is it a bad choice?

iOne Scorpius

Adesso MKB-125B

These are about the lowest that you can get. I'm not sure about the Adesso, but I have a friend who has an iOne mechanical, and it is pretty solid.

Dont get bose, they are a waist of money. If you want closed back headphones I would recommend the Sennheiser 280s Very good set of headphones that dont leak much. Also the Grado Sr-80i that Eziril list below are very good but leak a lot of sound because they are open.
I have owned a pair of the Carcharias since they came out and have yet to have a problem with them. Personally I use the Sennheiser HD 380 pros and a webcam mic. If your using skype make sure you get close back headphones or your friends will never stop bitching about being able to hear everything your doing.

I just finished this book...I HIGHLY recommend it for improving yourself mentally as far as performance

http://www.amazon.com/10-Minute-Toughness-Training-Program-Winning/dp/0071600639

First, even though you have not achieved your big goal you still achieved more than most people reading this. Please don't ignore that!
Second, I want you to take a break and read this book. You will look back and smile :-)

Seriously, this or this.

In my opinion, probably best headset for price. Plus it's on sale!

That isn't a mech keyboard. It's one of these. They offer two white and black so he just swapped the keys on the two probably.

Source: I own one. It's pretty loud for a non mechanical.

Scorpius m10

Domestic option

Noppoo Choc Mini Mechanical Keyboard Cherry MX Brown.

Foreign option with black/blue switch options.



Its a good price on overpriced hardware. This is the price it should always be.

I would recommend the The Art of Game Design lense series.

sounds like just a rubber dome keyboard. I know that before mechanical keyboards became a trend around 2010, that a lot of Korean pro's used the Qsenn DT35

https://www.amazon.com/QSENN-SEM-DT35-Gaming-Keyboard-version/dp/B00BF7SHMU

That would be my guess with what he is using

Link

Yeah, and I'm not really into the whole manga thing until I realized "shit this is just a graphic novel with like 200 pages"

I can dig that. And this SC lore has kinda been my gateway into this format of storytelling. I might venture out and see other stuff.

Not sure what source you're looking for, but here's the Amazon page where they sell the manga and the wiki page for the series

Sennheiser HD-280. Do it. And you can get them a lot cheaper if you look!

I didnt have that one. But i did have the prima strategy guid that came with a CD with multiplayer maps on it.

http://www.amazon.com/Starcraft-Primas-Official-Strategy-Guide/dp/0761504966

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-7-1-Channel-Surround-Sound-Headset/dp/B001O5CCQK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335729710&sr=8-1

Looks to be this

​

https://www.amazon.com/Puzzle-Protoss-Immortal-YM-N029-Assemble/dp/B0716XG1HH

Immortal

MBTI lacks scientific validity. Go read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Personality-Brokers-Strange-History-Myers-Briggs/dp/0385541902

False.

For the lazy: http://imgur.com/xbq0c

http://www.amazon.com/Sci-Fi-Movie-Freak-Robert-Ring/product-reviews/1440228620/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending