[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.