Resistance to change

Starcraft II - This game offers a quickmatch feature. Using proprietary algorithms, the game assesses your rank by assigning a hidden score to your profile. As your score increases, you face other people with similar score. This ensures that you're always playing someone at around the same strategic level as the opponent which always leads to more challenging games.

In LoL, it operates in a similar way in that your profile is assigned a ranking score for all the individual modes, so that the matchmaking system can pair you up with similarly skilled people. However, there's normal "casual" game modes, which does not concern itself with "who's the best" (until you start seeing famous top-tier players), while the ranked modes actually place you in a ladder that's visible for everyone to see. Does SC2 have this "casual" mode where you can still play against random people, but not have to deal with the visible ranking system?

If not, then SC2's online features may not be for Joe Gamer. For one thing, people like to win, not lose. And if it shows that they are losing in the big picture, they may be discouraged from playing. For clarity, I'm assuming that Joe Gamer is much better than the average well-off person (who may or may not play games).

Also, SC2 suffers from the time tax problem on a light-medium scale. Then again, many other RTSes suffer from it more heavily. But the time tax exists nontheless.

Still a question to those who I've seen griping, why? I would like to hear answers from the people doing it; why it matters so much to them that someone else achieves the same result as them later with more ease, even though an accomplishment should be completely personal.

I won't lie, I feel proud of what I was able to accomplish in MapleStory, but I also feel the anguish as the patches downplayed my achievements. The anguish has two components to it.

First, the accomplishments were achieved in a virtual world that can and will be modified at any time, potentially voiding any effort, but also making you look like an idiot for spending 24 hours leveling up, when you could have done it in 1 hour. (Me not spending money for NX advantages has nothing to do with it.) To put it in the words of Penny Arcade (not an exact quote): why should I spend countless hours playing this game now, when it will become easier a few months later!? On the other hand, being able to do something extraordinary in a setting that is not very mutable and thus much more provable will allow you to rest easy in knowing that your accomplishments can be a milestone.

Second, is exclusivity. Not quite in the same light as you put it Sarah, but rather it has to do with what exists now, rather than what may be. Even though I initially chose to be a Paladin out of ignorance, I liked my 4th job when Leafre finally came out, partly because it was unique. It felt like I was an actual person at the time worthy of recognition. People talked to me because they were like "oh wow a Paladin", then we became friends. While that's not how all friendships are formed, it was a catalyst, and a fairly good one at that. Now, there's just too much crap going on, and some time before I quit MS, it felt like the older generation of Maplers were getting washed away and disintegrated by the influx of new players that were of the same level and status or even better.

I kinda spewed it out as I typed. Sorry if it gets incoherent at places :x