There's another not so hypothetical and already quite real problem with replaying old games. Data Storages decay over time. Technology moves on as well. Case in point, I've wasted an entire afternoon trying to get an old game to run today.
It started off with a severe lack of a 3,5" Floppydrive. Once I found one in an old derelict PC, it continued with data corrupted floppydisks. I then proceeded with different games and out of my collection of maybe 50 pre CD-Rom Games, 6 couldn't be read anymore.

So what are my options here? Call support and ask for a replacement? Those companies don't even exist anymore! Get into shady business and download it? Nope, not worth it. My only legal option is to re-buy the game if I want to play it. Worse still, find a service that still ships those ancient games (GoG did). If they were popular ones, great. If they weren't you're out of luck.
What could I have done here? Made a copy in time and transcend the game over different storages? True. It's legal to make copies for private purposes. However it's illegal to bypass any copy protection measures. Now fast forward a couple years into the present, back into hypothetical "the service might shut down" country. CD-Roms decay as well. Not to forget about them getting easily scratched. Plus copy protections have long been a staple. And aren't CD-Rom Drives kinda fading out currently?
These are a couple of phenomas which not quite hypothetically will result in having to rebuy the game should I wish to replay it in the near future.

Add in that new games come with online activations and rules that require you to stay online to play (naturally to shoo pirates and accidently to load new advertisements into the games). Same deal, fast forward a couple of years - gameservers have been deactivated - and you can be sure a certain Bobby will be laughing his ass off when he waves that EULA around that stated in somewhat obscure and slightly nicer words "you don't own the game at all, sucka". Option? Re-buy the game. So yeah, how's online distribution the black sheep again? It's all kinds of distribution causing problems.

Well, I thought it was pretty confusing that the crafting results differ based on their position. For this reason alone, I was somewhat lost, not being able to do much and thus finding a quick and gibbed end as soon as night fell. I didn't particularly enjoy those early hours in the game.
However once I looked things up, the whole world and all the options unfolded. From this point on the game turned out to be a great experience. At the moment, the crafting options don't make a lot of sense to me. I think the main issue is the dependancy on the position of crafting ingredients. In the beginning, I found myself trying different combinations. Whenever one didn't work, I'd move on to the next one. How should I have known (strictly in game knowledge) that if only I had placed the ingredients one tile to the right, I'd have been successful? Google can cure that lack of knowledge but also takes out a lot of fun in figuring out these things on your own.

Are you sure people don't already know that Online all Game Distribution will bite them in the ass? However, it's often the lesser of two evils. PC Retail Market has turned into even more of a mess.
GoG being dead would be a sad thing, I've appreciated it quite a bit although I've lost more money on them than I should have. On the flipside, should that announcement turn out to be a marketing stunt, I'll be pissed. Not sure if I should continue supporting them after such a massive troll.

I've tried it and its quite interesting to far. Graphics are great, although I mistook the jumping things for dead guys in biohazard suits before they started jumping. I'm having some minor issues on my computer though.

The computer:
AMD Phenom II X4 925 Processor
4 GB Ram
Firefox 4.0b5
Windows 7
Not sure if any other infos are needed. Feel free to ask.

Anyways, here are the small issues I'm having.
1) There's the mentioned quick search issue. It's easy to fix on the clientside by just deactivating it (and that I did) but not everyone might know about it. I'm not sure whether up arrow and space would work. Space usually scrolls the website down and up arrow scrolls up. It's easily fixed on the client's side and I reckon every html5 game suffers a bit from that.
2) I'm having slowdowns whenever I kill an enemy. It takes about 1 or 2 seconds before things speed up again. It's generally running a tad slow in comparison to your making-of video but not to the point of being unplayable.
3) It's too much fun. =(

So far, great work.

Holerö, motherfucker.

Thank you for the kind greeting, dear Pogopuschel. Now I'll have to go and watch some more Lindenstraße with my Schmusekater.

Secret of Evermore...
Great. You did it. You mentioned it. The agony. Now I'll have to gouge the memories of Claude Moyse's german translations back out of my mind again. The horrors. A single man destroying an entire generation of story driven games with his awful puns, so called 'jokes' and story 'improvements'. The pain. And he was having a ball doing it too. Even years later he was found squealing with glee and pride when he came to talk about what he did to the games.

I'm not kidding here, that guy created translations bad enough to warrant an unofficial migraine warning. So... at least in the case of the german version, all media hate was justified and probably didn't go far enough. In the case of other versions, I can't tell. The moment I try to play the english version, I blackout. When I wake up again, I look like I had a nervous breakdown and the controller has been smashed to bits. Oh and I didn't get past the starting screen. It's a trauma. Claude Moyse, Thank you.

Advent Rising would be one of those underrated games.
It was under a bad star right from the beginning. It came out during a time where the press was going all crazy about "zomg, Halo, zomg, zomg zomg". It was a rushed release too with a lot of bugs and controls that were frustrating and didn't make ANY sense at all until about 2 or 3 hours into the game when you got your powers. The press universally trashed it as a cheap and bad Halo Clone.
But... *whine* it was an awesome game! Intriguing story, really great soundtrack and once you had the powers, the controls felt natural. There was also some sort of light RPG System in place, frequently using a weapon allowed you to get better at them, unlocking new abilities along the way.




It tanked. The planned trilogy was cancelled. I think about half a year after release, you could already buy it at half price. About a year later, I bought it from the bargain bin.

[the]

It's sort of like re-making Shadow of the Colossus with a chatty bag of self-pity as the main character - it kills the universality and the beauty of the setting.

You know, in a way I think thats what they kinda tried with that Prince of Persia game from 2008. It came with beautiful environments, decent atmosphere and a strong focus on a few single strong enemies over hordes of mobs. Plus the ending...
It easily became one of my all time favorite games, however, it is also one of the most universally hated games ever. And one of the reasons why is the main character. He's one unlikable smartass douchebag bathing in self pity and "oh woe, the world hates me" bullshit. Although his personality slowly changed over the course of the game, most people didn't notice that because they skipped the dialogs with the sidekick and when they got to the ending, it didn't make sense. Naturally, they skipped most of the story.  

____________________

Considering Metroid, I can't bring myself to like any of the 3D Metroids. I've only recently had the chance to try Metroid Prime and while I can admit that it must have been the game of its time, I just didn't like it. I don't exactly know why. It had all the hallmarks of Metroid, but the atmosphere never ticked and the fights felt tedious and cumbersome, especially against the Space Pirates.
Maybe its also because I've lost my interest in exploration games that encourage a lot of backtracking. Anyways, I won't get Metroid Fusion 3D. Although I'll probably buy any potential new 2D Installment. Heh.

No one's denying that (at least I'm not). What I meant to imply was that someone who's naturally gifted at any given game but doesn't actually play it a lot wouldn't stand a chance against someone who knows every minute detail.

My bad, worded it badly in the earlier post. What I meant was: Experience still is important, but it's not the whole deal. I also mean, being good does not naturally mean someone is playing a lot (as in excessively).

Natural ability? I disagree with that entirely. Nurture over nature is what I always say. I think the people with more experience and knowledge win, not the people that are genetically inclined to be good at games.

Only if you pick pure and extreme examples which are just not realistic. The things you can learn about a game are a finite resource. It's a lot. But it's really not infinite. That's how games get old.
Shooters for example. You have memorized the whole map, you know powerup respawntimes, you know the weapons well, you're a pretty good player thanks to experience. But you'll lose to someone with at least a fundamental amount of experience that has better twitch reflexes and whose body is just better at muscle memory.
Real Time Strategy. You know all the units and their counters, you know all the builds and when they will attack. You're a pretty good player thanks to experience. But still you will lose to someone that's simply better at multitasking thanks to natural ability. He'll have better micro and macro for example.
Thing is, there's only so much you can learn. I'm not saying experience doesn't play a factor. Its a pretty big one, but so is natural ability.

I'm fully aware its a cultural thing to tell every kid that everyone is created equal with equal opportunities. Luckily, its an aspiration for everyone to have equal rights. Which is a good thing. But: Not everyone has equal talents and abilities (please note, I'm not driving the racistic road here, it's not attached to race or gender in any fashion).
No amount of training would make me a great painter. I might be able to copy the pure mechanic of painting to a point of being quite good, but I'd still never be as good as Picasso for example.

I basically got attacked by the time I got my first building up. Workers or no workers.

Indeed, that's strange. Really though, a replay would help lots in figuring out what exactly is happening there. A replay is basically a recorded 'Video' of the match. As it uses the game itself to play that recorded 'video', it's a pretty small file. After every match, you're given the option of saving a replay.
It's a really handy tool as it basically saves almost everything, every player has done in the game, including the AI. You can follow the resource income, see their build orders and tactics. You can basically experience the match from the seat of an omnipotent spectator.
It would really help in helping you if you could provide such a replay. Of course only when the strange thing occurs. They're usually saved in your document/starcraft2 folder but that might by different for each installation.

Also concerning:

IMO there's a heavy stigma against playing games well. Particularly competitive games. I was extremely caustic and holier-than-thou in my post, not only because I like being a pretentious ass over then internet, but also (though to a lesser extent) because of all the hate against people who play or try to play at a higher, deeper, level.
[...]Many people assume that you're only good at a game because you practice like 20 hours a day and you are an obsessed butthole.

There's a stigma against playing games in general! Not against playing them well. The whole "no-life" deal that's often brought up stems from MMORPGs in which there is a direct correlation between time invested and character's strength. In MMORPGs, Time invested also for some reason translates into Playerskill as no amount of practice can save you from a character ten times your level.
In Shooters or like in this case, Real Time Strategy, there's only so much you can achieve by practice. The rest of the way is paved by natural ability and skill. Quite frankly, In all my years of gaming I've only ever seen a small handful of people taking jabs at the other persons supposed "no life" outside of MMORPGs. (And please, don't take this out of context. I'm fully aware of all the hate against Halo/Gears of War/xbox players and the assumptions that come with them - but that's a different context).

It's hard to tell what went wrong without seeing the matches. Maybe you can save a replay and upload it. I'm sure folks here would be more than happy to help out.
I'm making a wild guess here though, assuming you had semi decent teammates, did you build enough Harvesters (SCV, Drones, Probes)? Also personally I wouldn't go for barracks first, it'll hurt you in the long run, unless you use it for constant harass and/or an early succesful (cheese) rush. Since you said coop though I somewhat question the successrate of early rushes.
Still, with a replay of a match, much better and more helpful advice could be given. ^^

/edit:
If you shot Bruce Lee with a Gun, that just means he brought a Knive/Fists to a gunfight.

Good thing then that I backed out of it once I saw it getting stuck in the wrong direction. And all that before anyone had the chance to actually get worked up about my opinion too!

So, anyways. Diamond League, huh? Oh well, that's too far out of reach as my enjoyment with the non modded multiplayer is running thin. Not a waste of money or time mind you, but apparently just not for me.
On a somewhat related note, I'm wondering if the thirst for quick wins and matches is a result of our culture. If you pick games like Guildwars, you'll see european and american teams often go for the fastest and hardest kill possible while the asian teams have a tendency for indirect and more subtle builds. But that's a different topic altogether.

Sigh. I do feel that there's no way of clearing up the mess in this case. Doesn't seem to matter what I type. If it pleases you so much, continue purposely misreading my posts, twisting my words and then saddling that high horse to act all high and mighty while huffing "lolz, l2p, n00b!". That's not the bloody point. It never was about skill or being able to defend. It was about fun. But everyones getting locked up in the "skill" side of it. Increasingly hostile too.
I could argue my point but by doing so, I would only further derail the topic. If you're honestly interested in this discussion, feel free to send me a PM. Otherwise, don't bother. It's going nowhere. Real fast.

So to get this topic back on tracks, what are your favorite mods in SC2? I must say, I do like the card game mod. You don't build units the normal way, instead you play cards that spawn units. You've got three types of resources (surprise, surprise). Crystals are used to buy new cards for your hand. Gas is used as the casting cost of the card and food is used to buy temporary buffs for your units.
Games end up a bit chaotic with 4 versus 4 but its a lot of fun with quite a bit of back and forth. Another mod I like is the Nexus Mod. In this mod you essentially construct buildings which then automatically create units and send them on their way. There are lanes and the building placement dictates which lane your units will take. Its fun. Although you do need a strong PC for the lategame as each building will keep pumping units and later on, you'll have a lot. Even worse, its 4 on 4 so... yeh, it's like one big messy battlefield.

Currently Gold... and it is not like I can't resist the cheese, I just find it incredibly dull to do so. I like variety, not automated responses. However since everyone is using the same handful of buildorders to do that early rush, the reactions are very limited as well. I can't fend off every rush but then again, who can. Those that I do defend from continue being dull since the other players often went all-in and has thus been set so far behind that its basically a question of cleaning up the mess.

About the "learn to play" comment. Maybe my post came at a wrong time and made me look like a "raging noob" or something. So I retract my comment about the multiplayer (Although I already kinda did that in the original post). Played with friends that don't rely on builds - its a lot of fun. Mods are fun too. Playing against strangers - it's bad with enough cheese to put all cheese producing nations out of business. Yeh, its only natural that most people want quick and cheap wins. But that doesn't mean I have to like it, does it? Anyways, platinum it is then, I'll keep playing a bit. Maybe Platinum is the land of promise although I have my doubts.

/hmph
Okay look, I didn't say I'm totally and utterly helpless against rushes, getting crushed and what not. They're often easy enough to defend against and I do that quite frequently. However, my argument is: It is boring to play against such. Note: Boring. Not hard. Just boring.
It's like you're playing hide and seek with your kid and it hides in the closet everytime. Every. Single. Time. You know its hiding there. You're hoping for a sudden spark of inspiration "maybe he'll hide under the bed instead. I'll go and look there!" No. Not there. Maybe... aw to hell with this. Closet. You go look, surprise, your kid really was hiding there.

Oh dear, the multiplayer...
I honestly expected more. Maybe I was deluded by watching a few commented replays or by all the hype about how SC is THE multiplayer game. I don't know, I think the Multiplayer is terrible. Well, technically not the Multiplayer itself as it does lend to a variety of strategies and options. But games just never reach the interesting state because everyone feels the irresistible need to rush some cheese build. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again.

I feel myself hard pressed to even bother with scouting at all, it's gonna be cheese anyways. Does it ever get better outside of showcase matches?

Well, I'll be putting up one final straw for the Justin Bieber Arguement and then go and cry in a corner.
Someone slowed down a song from him by quite a bit and suddenly the uber shitty pop trash magically transforms into something you'd expect to hear while watching Bladerunner.




I'm now officially scared as hell. Also notice the comment turnabout on the whole Bieber Trashing Train. Lesson learned for life: Slowing things down, makes bad youtube trolls peaceful. Maybe they're just unconsciously protesting against the quickening of our society?

Worse would be certain offspawns of german gangster rap, also known as: Spineless mommy boys rapping about their tough ghetto life in Berlin and how they almost got shot by a super soaker that one time...

They are not harming anyone, neither are forcing me to hear the music.

Those are two points I'd disagree upon.
There's nothing I can do when a small Pissflitsche strolls through the train and feels the utter need to overload their 5€ iPod Speakers by blaring Justin Bieber and worse all across the bloody compartment.
It's harming to the point where I have to get a handkerchief and collect the blood dripping from my ears. And two, I'm forced to hear it. Last time I had a temper tantrum about it, everyone applauded my intolerance and random bouts of intimidating profanity.

Joke aside, its bad enough that the little pest has to wash across the ocean, but does it REALLY have to be brought up in every single video? Besides, if those guys think Bieber is bad, they obviously never watched a Video by "Sin with Sebastian".

They do seem to have a knack for creating visually interesting scenarios. Let's just hope they don't let a trainee do the character bumpmaps again.