In my line of work (web development) every now and then you get the chance to work on a project that stands above and beyond other endeavors. Recently, I’ve had the chance to help develop academicearth.org.

Academic Earth is kind of a “hulu” for academia. They’ve been gathering OCW (Open Course Ware) videos from all over the web from such places as Yale, Stanford, MIT, etc. One of the institutions that they’ve gleaned some content from is the new Starcraft Studies course at UC Berkeley.

Having watched this first lecture, it’s obvious that the game of Starcraft has continued to evolve past the doldrums of the dismal “Big Game Hunters” matches that drove me from the game years ago. I was most intrigued by the descriptions of some of the South Korean pros who have been playing a more defensive game, again something that was unheard of in serious play here in the states, many years ago.

I look forward to seeing more of these lectures and perhaps gaining a deeper understanding of the RTS genre as a whole.

I’m sure Academic Earth will be updating as the course continues, but while you’re over there check out some of the other lectures.