Ben Affleck lost 3 years to Starcraft, has strong Valorant opinions, and mourns RTSes as a genre, so there’s solid odds he’s one of our regular commenters

Unlike PC Gamer’s UK editorial staff, Ben Affleck knows ball. Metaphorically, I mean. Though he probably also knows what the Miami Heat is. Speaking on the October 12 episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Affleck reflected—with a touch of regret—on the time Starcraft swallowed his entire life.

« There was a game called Starcraft that probably took the most life out of me for a period of time. I had just gotten famous, and all I did was stay home for three years and play Starcraft. »

The celebs, folks—they’re just like us. More so than usual in Affleck’s case, I suppose, since the actor’s videogame career doesn’t only encompass a brief dalliance with Blizzard’s RTS series. « Valorant’s a great game. It’s a great game, » he continued, « The problem with that game is that—the kids that have been raised playing, I just get fuckin’ rocked. I’m like, ‘Are you mother fuckers cheating?’ And I get mad. And they’re like 11, they’re like, ‘Fuck you loser!’ It’s very humiliating, but that’s a great game. »

Which is pretty much my experience playing anything with anyone. But do you think Affleck—one whole Batman and one half of Good Will Hunting—stopped there? More fool you. « I love 2K, I love Madden. The early Doom—which then gave rise to Quake and gave rise to all that—we played that endlessly, » he recalled.

« We were doing Good Will Hunting, we were playing Doom… I remember writing and taking these long breaks to play Doom. I can’t believe it’s been out that long. » Doom, for our younger readers, released in 1993, which was the same year I was released also.

Also on the big Affleck list of videogames: Myst, Donkey Kong, Tetris, and Miss Pac-Man, though I don’t know that those last three count as elite ball-knower knowledge.

Anyway, it sounds like RTSes were Affleck’s big love, and he laments that they’ve « sort of gone out of style. » You and me both, Ben. At least we got those Command and Conquer remasters.