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What is a far from obvious, to me, is that this specific training in a specific context improves response outside of this context and for other tasks. Really ho

What is a far from obvious, to me, is that this specific training in a specific context improves response outside of this context and for other tasks. Really how knowing that you have to build immortals when you see roaches - or vikings when you see colossi, could possibly useful in everyday life?

chc 13y ago
I think it's not those specific pieces of information that are useful, but the mental training to develop those associations and to access and put into practice that sort of tactical information on demand. It's like how lifting weights makes you better at lifting other things too.
luanfernandes 13y ago
It's not the information that useful but how you use them. I have no study to back me up but imo if you keep playing strategy games that tell you which thing is best than another and how one thing can be beaten, it can apply to anything in life when it comes to decisions, that's the lesson learned.
- arh68 13y ago
  I think you've got the right idea. The 'facts' of what-counters-what don't matter too much; it's the feedback mechanism that matters. When you see Player 2 do X, you use that info to play the best Y. Good scouting decreases this feedback timing, and the player that iterates better will, given enough time, come out on top. In SC2, there's a spectrum of usefulness to information. Finding a proxy pylon is hard, but screams intention. Scouting early double gas is easy, perhaps, but is more clouded. In chess, all the positions of the pieces are obvious (no concept of scouting), but all the information is clouded beneath layers of moves-after-moves. A very powerful attack can be hidden in plain sight. In this more general context of iterative gathering & analyzing of information in pursuit of a victory condition, I can see how it applies. The fact that the general mechanism (however it works, exactly) can be exercised through a specific game is still intriguing.
ajuc 13y ago
Unit counters are just heuristic, and not very good one (you can easily lose game building just perfect counters to enemy army composition). I think the part that helps in other contexts is keeping complex structure and rules to modify it in memory, trying to predict how it will change with time and to direct that change to your benefit. Just like chess or math, but more fuzzy and in real-time.

chc 13y ago

I think it's not those specific pieces of information that are useful, but the mental training to develop those associations and to access and put into practice that sort of tactical information on demand. It's like how lifting weights makes you better at lifting other things too.

luanfernandes 13y ago

It's not the information that useful but how you use them. I have no study to back me up but imo if you keep playing strategy games that tell you which thing is best than another and how one thing can be beaten, it can apply to anything in life when it comes to decisions, that's the lesson learned.

arh68 13y ago
I think you've got the right idea. The 'facts' of what-counters-what don't matter too much; it's the feedback mechanism that matters. When you see Player 2 do X, you use that info to play the best Y. Good scouting decreases this feedback timing, and the player that iterates better will, given enough time, come out on top. In SC2, there's a spectrum of usefulness to information. Finding a proxy pylon is hard, but screams intention. Scouting early double gas is easy, perhaps, but is more clouded. In chess, all the positions of the pieces are obvious (no concept of scouting), but all the information is clouded beneath layers of moves-after-moves. A very powerful attack can be hidden in plain sight. In this more general context of iterative gathering & analyzing of information in pursuit of a victory condition, I can see how it applies. The fact that the general mechanism (however it works, exactly) can be exercised through a specific game is still intriguing.

ajuc 13y ago

Unit counters are just heuristic, and not very good one (you can easily lose game building just perfect counters to enemy army composition). I think the part that helps in other contexts is keeping complex structure and rules to modify it in memory, trying to predict how it will change with time and to direct that change to your benefit. Just like chess or math, but more fuzzy and in real-time.