Have You Played... Starcraft 2?

Spacebar: hammer out five drones. Page Up: slap down a refinery, place a bunker for protection. 2: Scout. Have a quick poke, pull back. Home: marines queued, rallied to the bunker. Spacebar: hammer out more drones. Never stop building drones. Lament your lack of pylons.

I wonder why I stopped playing Starcraft 2.

It’s the last multiplayer game I remember getting serious about. This was after my Dota days, but not by long. I still had a hankering for something to fill the void left by Dota’s depth. Another ladder I could pretend I’d want to climb forever, perhaps using some of the same skills, but where every loss and victory would be mine and mine alone. I wanted to escape the frustrating failures of random teammates, but I also wanted a space to fail without anyone else to frustrate.

I didn’t last long. I learnt my hotkeys, my build orders, my counters and good habits. I reached Gold rank, then gave up. I'd reached the point where I realised I was playing to get better rather than for pleasure, while convincing myself those goals were the same.