[tman]

The importance of APM always struck me as evidence of misguided design in Starcraft/Starcraft II. It takes emphasis off the parts I find fun (the strategy), and puts it on the parts of the game that aren't interesting at all: micromanagement of units is just drudgery.

To increase the strategy and reduce the drudgery, you could either implement APM restrictions directly on the player (drop clicks, etc. -- very annoying) or you could design units to be maximally effective by default, without micromanagement.

[jasonlotito]

Actually, that's the nice thing with SC2. First, APM apparently has gone down with SC2 because a lot of the drudgery is being taken care of. Most of the APM is spent on macro and micro that makes a real difference. Micro is an important element of the game. Watch some good games on YouTube, and you can see how players will micro certain units in a controlled movement (Move/Shoot/Move/Shoot), or splitting different units up rather than just blindly moving them forward in a single mass.

That being said, the second part is really where the new Battle.Net and SC2 design shines. I'm not a pro-player by any stretch of the imagination. However, SC2 makes playing online fun. The majority of the games I play are intense, even though I'm hitting only about 40 APM. The match making system is excellent, and so each game I'm playing against people who are usually at my skill level.

So rather than change the game, they worked hard at good match making, and they succeeded.

[shasta]

Well, the frantic pace of starcraft is a big part of the fun. A high level strategy game can be alot of fun too, but it's a completely different game.

[ShardPhoenix]

I wouldn't say a game that sold 10 million units and has a thriving professional competitive scene 10 years after release is "misguided" just because you don't like it.

[JeremyBanks]

The required APM has dropped pretty significantly in SC2, and you see a wider range within competitive play. There's still a lot of non-strategic crap to deal with, but it's improved and at least your units will usually go in the direction you ask them to.