To throw a wrinkle into that, the joke was lost on me, despite being someone who logged several hundred (if not thousand) hours into the original Starcraft between 1998-2003 or so.
However, the distinction is my idea of "online play" back in the day was either playing with friends whom I knew personally, or playing an "All vs Comp" match where several human players would play against a single computer component. And we'd still lose about half the time.
But point being, I never really played PvP, and I don't think that term "counter" came from the original Starcraft manual or strategy guides. It was a term that evolved into the meta community. And if you weren't sufficiently plugged into that community, you wouldn't encounter the term.
There's probably tons of other examples of this, e.g. in the fighting game community.
Yeah, it's definitely in the sliver of the venn diagram where Starcraft and competitive gaming overlaps.
Here is another Starcraft joke you may appreciate:
> A dragoon walks into a bar. No, not around to the bar. A dragoon walks next to the entrance of a bar. A dragoon takes a step toward the bar. A dragoon walks into a bar. Nooo! Not that way!
I suppose the assumption is that the path is calculated based on a constant (I assume either average or current) speed, when in reality the speed varies?
I have a similar experience with Age of Empires 2. I played it a lot as a kid and only recently realised there's a pretty active multiplayer community with a few popular streamers like T90 on YouTube commentating on matches. They have a lot of custom lingo, so you'll hear something like "looks like he's going for fast imp" (meaning the commentator thinks a player is following a strategy whereby they prioritise advancing their civilization to the Imperial Age).
Wait, that game is still around!? I played it so much as a kid. I actually logged a lot in the original AOE. That is fantastic and a testament to what is lost with modern games requiring a server to be continually provided.
I find the "nothing" maps like that to be quite entertaining, but there are a number of good ones out there, and there's plenty of creative strategies and personalities. My favourite was a player called "WALL" who ... well maybe easier if I show you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5ecZEs2Y0o
However, the distinction is my idea of "online play" back in the day was either playing with friends whom I knew personally, or playing an "All vs Comp" match where several human players would play against a single computer component. And we'd still lose about half the time.
But point being, I never really played PvP, and I don't think that term "counter" came from the original Starcraft manual or strategy guides. It was a term that evolved into the meta community. And if you weren't sufficiently plugged into that community, you wouldn't encounter the term.
There's probably tons of other examples of this, e.g. in the fighting game community.