EPTThis is why I'm here.
Yet, many people ask me why I love it since the game is over a decade old now and the graphics are really terrible.
The fact is I've always loved Strategy games. I've played chess and Go for many years and I still watch some tournaments of these (and since I'm in Tokyo right now, I've also played some).
But if I want to write about it today, is because I think a good understanding of Starcraft can help people to actually understand how management is about.
I'm definitely not a Economics phD (yet) and even if I'm too young to really talk about how to manage a real company, since I study Business, I can see some very obvious links between the game and the theory we learn at school. And I believe, people are much more willing to play a game than reading a boring book (yeah, let's admit it's boring for me).
Remember, this article is not a Starcraft tutorial and definitely not a Economics lesson. It is just a way for me to make you guys understand globally why Starcraft is so fun to play, so hard to master and why players have never stopped improving for a decade.
If this article can help some of you to understand better both economics and the game, well, it's all good for me.
And if you have fun reading it, well, it's perfect.
So, guys, here we are !
(Because I'm not here to write about how to play Starcraft, I'm going to give very basic example with the race Terran -there are 3 different races-, which is very similar to Human so it's easier for you guys to understand)
The first thing to understand is that Starcraft is a RTS. Which means real time strategy game. And the key words here are : strategy and real time. I really want you to get this right now because everything I'm gonna tell won't be true without these two notions.
Today, let's focus on Strategy.
Strategy means that Starcraft is about purpose/objective, information/understanding, preparation/plan. In brief, it means that when you play Starcraft, you always know what you wanna do, you understand the rules and the environment and knowing this, you prepare a plan to do it.
Strategy is also divided in in many parts. In Starcraft, there are basically two parts : micro management and macro management.
Micro is everything related to the management of the units and macro is about the use of the resources.
In comparison, it can be said that chess is more micro-oriented since every units the player has have different functions and the winning is about how to combine these different characteristics. But another example is Go, which is more macro-oriented since every stones the player has are the same and the winning is about how to use these stones in order to build defensive or offensive areas.
In this article, I'm only going to focus in the Macro since Starcraft is more macro-oriented (and it doesn't mean that micro is useless).
Resources, Costs and production.
There are 2 different kinds of resource in Starcraft : Mineral and Gaz. Mineral is limited.
If we want to make an analogy, we can basically consider mineral as money and gaz as oil.
Minerals are essential to build buildings and produce units. Whatever the player wants to make, it requires mineral.
But, some buildings and units also require gaz.
Another resource is the Supply, which can basically be considered as food.
The player have to build Supply Depots to have Supply. Each unit costs a certain amount of supply and if there is not enough Supply available, the unit can't be made.
Now, let's see a basic example of how production works in Starcraft and why it requires management skills.
In this game, every players start with a command center, 4 SCV and 50 minerals. Basically the command center produces SCV, gives 10 Supply and is also the place where resources are stocked. SCV is the unit that gathers the minerals and gaz. It is also the unit that builds the buildings such as the Supply Depots.
Now, let's focus on the mineral only :
*each commander center requires 400 minerals to be built.
*each command center also gives 10 supply.
*each Supply Depot requires 100 minerals
*each Supply Depot gives 8 supply.
*each time the SCV go to the mineral it collects 8 minerals.
*each SCV requires 50 minerals and 1 supply to be produced.
So basically : more SCV implies more minerals and more supply. More minerals lead to more supply and more SCV etc. you got it ?
This very basic example already shows a very key notion both in economy and in Starcraft : the costs VS the production. And when I say costs, I'm really talking about every costs such as fix, marginal, average, opportunity, transaction, total costs.
Let me give you some example of these costs :
1- Fix, Marginal, average costs :
Let's assume that I want to collect more minerals.
I need to build a depot (100 minerals) and produce units (50 minerals). If i've produced 7 SCV, it means that :
-I have a total cost of 100+50x7 = 450 minerals
-I have a 100 minerals fix cost for the depot because without the depot, I can't have more SCV
-The average cost of the SCV is 450/7 = 64,286 minerals
Now, I produce another SCV :
-My total cost is : 500 minerals
-My marginal cost is : 500-450 = 50 minerals
-My average cost is : 500/8 = 62,5 minerals
Now I produce another SCV : because one Supply Depot only gives 8 supply, I need to build another one :
-total cost : 500+100+50 = 650 minerals
-marginal cost of the 9th SCV : 650-500 = 150 minerals
-average cost of a SCV : 650/9 = 72,2 minerals
So : the average cost declines when the marginal cost is inferior to the average cost.
Now, you understand why it is so important to optimize a production.
2-Opportunity and transaction costs :
Let's assume that I want to produce a Marine to defend my base.
*each marine costs 50 minerals and requires 1 sypply
*marines are produced in Barracks and each barrack costs 150 minerals
If I have 1 marine, it means that I have to build a barrack first. So I have 150 minerals of transaction cost and because I invests in barrack, I don't have enough money to invest in more SCV so I can't collect more minerals.
If we only consider the marine V the SCV, it means that if I go for a marine and not the SCV, I have to pay 50 minerals for the actual production and also the total amount of minerals that a SCV could collect during a game !
So if there is no attack, my marine doesn't cost just 50 minerals but thousands and even more minerals !
If you have understood these examples, congratulations, because you have understood the very core of Starcraft and management in general.
Now you understand why choices are absolutely key.
I also want you to read the paragraph about strategy again and you will maybe notice that every example I've given here follows this basic order :
1-What do I want ?
If I don't clearly know what I want, I can't do anything. And if the first step is bad, it can lead to a very very terrible conclusion. In one of my examples, I wanted a marine to protect my base because if I don't, and someone attack me, it will ruin my economy. And my ultimate goal is to have money to build and produce.
But how do I know someone is going attack me ?
2-What is my environment and what are the rules ?
This is the answer to question 1. I need information. I have to know if it is useful or not to have a marine instead of a SCV. I also have to understand the rules because if I don't know that a marine requires a Barrack first, I won't be able to prepare my plan.
3-What can I do to reach my goal ?
And yeah, finally, I prepare my plan, based on the 2 first lines. I know what I need, I have the information and I prepare a plan : I optimize.
So next time you play Starcraft or manage something, remember that it is all about these 3 lines.
Oh god, that was long. Hope you survived reading this. I still got so many things to write but I guess I have to sleep now (0522 am).
PS : sorry guys for the Typo but it's pretty hard for a french to write english with a Japanese keyboad :D
PPS : do not hesitate to tell me if I made mistakes writing this. (and yeah, SC fans are not ALL computer-science geeks :D)
edit :
better :
supply = labor
minerals = capital
gas = output from fixed assets
(thx caller for this input)
And sorry about the mistake on SCVs
