ABSTRACT
Even academics and theorists working on computer games rarely speak of pleasure in their research, perhaps out of a historically ingrained inclination to objectivism. After a decade of having various iterations of the US-made game StarCraft and its expansion StarCraft: Brood War (hereafter collectively referred to as simply StarCraft) installed on every computer I have owned, a pretense of such objective distance is impossible. The visual and sonic texture of play has stained my subconscious far beyond that attributable to obsession. To a lesser or greater extent, all of my computer and video game play-and likely my theorization of it-now retains a memory of StarCraft. I do not read the associated novels or know the game lore in depth, nor could it be said that I care for science-fi ction or real-time strategy games beyond StarCraft. I am not particularly skilled at its play, and often cheat in matches against the computer despite having played scenarios hundreds of times.
