[methodover]

This is a great point, and something that seems a bit lost in the discussion:

In StarCraft 2, the game IS the interface. That is to say, the developers have constructed the game in such a way as to be difficult to control; and human mastery of the interface is a large percentage of the game. Strategy in the game is important, of course -- but this is not chess, where human beings are not limited by the interface of the game. In StarCraft, you are intentionally given a limited interface to monitor and control a gigantic game while under incredibly tight time controls.

And I should also note that Blizzard is extremely reluctant to add features that make it easier to control the game. I have a friend who works on the StarCraft 2 team. We talked at length about this one feature that he designed and proposed for the team to make a specific aspect of the game friendlier towards players. It was turned down for exactly the reasoning above -- the game is the interface. By making the game easier to control, it disrupts the entire experience; an StarCraft 2 that is easier to control is no longer StarCraft 2.

[olliej]

That would actually be an interesting thing for someone from blizzard to do, get two similarly skilled high level players, and compare the win/loss rate by doing two 7 games matches with each player having a match with a 10% increased view size, and see what the impact is.

Essentially try to quantify the advantage of increased view area.

[TulliusCicero]

Yup, exactly. To add onto this, for people less familiar, there's a non-stupid reason for this: economy of attention.

Attention/APM is often called the "third resource" (after minerals and gas), spending it wisely when you have several areas at any given time that could use attention is part of the strategic and tactical decisionmaking. For example, usually in a battle you wanna be paying most attention to the fight rather than your base, but sometimes it's actually better to jump out back to your base to increase production or economy, and knowing which situation is which can be challenging.

Obviously, if you make the game mechanics too easy to control (letting the computer do more of the work), then this part of the game becomes less interesting, because you don't have to weigh trade-offs as much anymore.

[foobiekr]

Are there any bolt-on augmentation interfaces that utilize the same API the bots use to allow players to more effectively enter their intent?