RE RTS discussions from my favs @Ghostcrawler and @MonteCristo:

A huge problem with the RTS genre is often the lack of “strategy”. SC and SC2 (the best known RTS games) were not really strategy games... They were almost entirely determined by mechanics: macro and micro. https://twitter.com/ghostcrawler/status/1278019664195383296

Only at equal mechanics would strategy start to matter:

You could have the most big-brained 200iq strategy masters get absolutely obliterated by some young Korean kid who could micro marines. Build unit X? marines. Build defense Y? marines. Do ANYTHING? marines.

At the highest level, strategy mattered. When you reached a threshold of mechanics, being a mechanical God wasn’t enough to beat a LITERAL God. but for any player trying to get better at StarCraft, they shouldn’t practice “strategy” — they should pracice macro/micro

I think that’s one of the huge reason there was such a disconnect between amateur and pro play in StarCraft. To even get a shred of “strategy” in your games you often had to master builds, perfect timings, macro/hotkey groupings, or just play Protoss

the mechanical requirements to get proficient at SC1 and SC2 were arguably the most of ANY game. PERFECT macro/micro were the equivalent of playing La Campanella on piano with an improv Jazz solo in the middle.

and if you had the mechanics, strategy mattered less and less

And here’s the bigger problem: mechanical outplay isn’t as cool in StarCraft as it is in other games. MOBAS (where the focus is on one champion or a group in a teamfight) or FPS games (seeing Shroud hit nasty flicks) has much more salient and understandable moments of outplay

In terms or strategy (preparation, building, meta breaking), tactics (in game decisions, reacting to opponent, etc), and mechanics (execution on the above), the latter is almost always the most important in StarCraft (and many “RTS” games).

the genre needs to define if it’s mastery comes from Strategy & Tactics versus playing a sonata on the keyboard + having more resources and better army piloting than your opponent.

StarCraft’s mix of those made for the greatest pro esport, but an inaccessible amateur game.