Not too long ago, I was sitting with a group of friends, schmoozing about computer games and our experiences with Starcraft II. 

There’s a decision point in the single-player game where you have to choose whether to go with Tosh or abandon him and go with Nova. That’s the place where I got stuck and stopped playing. Why? Because I’ve been writing the script for the next Starcraft Ghost Academy manga, which deals with the backstory of both these characters. (No spoilers here, but I know why they hate each other so much. Neither of them are villains, it’s deeper than that.) But having written about their training at the Ghost Academy, I’ve fallen so in love with these characters that I cannot choose one over the other. Eventually, I will, but not without considerable regret about the path not taken. 

In the meantime, I’ve been playing the custom maps on battle.net. Some are from Blizzard, some have been written by talented enthusiasts. One of my favorite 4v4 maps is a seductive little exercise called Nexus Wars. Imagine two parallel lanes accessing a base at each end. You play on a team of four, defending one of the bases. Your goal is to destroy the opposing base by sending warriors down your lane. You and a teammate play one lane, your other two teammates play the other lane—but you can all help each other, of course. This is a game where teamwork is essential. 

You control an SCV and place buildings strategically to defend your base and access your lane of attack. You get income at timed intervals. The more structures you place, the more income you get. The installations automatically generate units at timed intervals, marines, roaches, zealots, mauraders, stalkers, queens, thors, hydralisks, colossi—depending on the structures, whatever you can afford to build. As the various units are generated they proceed across the lane toward the other base, attacking whatever opposing units they come in contact with. Your team wins by generating an overwhelming army of units to counter the army of units headed your way. There’s a lot of back and forth pushing, because every unit has a strength as well as a weakness. You need to counter ground and air units appropriately. In addition, every player has one nuke to use if the other side threatens to overrun your buildings. 

Nexus Wars is fairly easy to learn. And while it looks like it’s a game of strategy, it’s actually a game of logistics. The team that better understands the strengths and weaknesses of the various units will always have the advantage. While most games are over in thirty minutes or less, if you get well-matched players who know what they’re doing, a game can go a lot longer. At the forty minute mark, all units increase to 300% damage to prevent stalemates, but even with that deadline in play, I was once in a game that lasted longer than an hour. 

Eventually our discussion went from strategy and tactics to specific experiences. And that’s when it got especially interesting. Nexus Wars—like all of the team-player maps—is at its most fun when the members of each team actually behave like a team. It stops being fun when one or more players start acting like bullies, whether they’re on your side or the other. All of the multi-player games on battle.net have a chat mode for players to interact, plan strategies, give advice, bemoan the occasional lag—and sometimes behave very badly. 

Bullying has been in the news a lot lately—particularly cyber-bullying. In some of the most horrific situations, cyber-bullying has even pushed teens to suicide. 

Hit the jump for more of this week's Future Tense!