EPTWell, today started as a quite ordinary day of Starcraft action. I watched a couple of the AHGL series which - as always - is my motivation to start playing myself. So I grabbed my morning coffee and hit the Find Match button. I played like I was in bronze and got really pissed, macro slipped, I constantly mismicroed, kept scouting close position on Shakuras and so on. I didn't even get cheesed a single game and still raged because I played so incredibly badly. Time passed and after some more games I began to stabilize. Then there was this PvP on Shakuras. I 3gate expo'ed, scouted well, macroed really good (for my league) managed to get a 30 worker lead, got a bigger army, reasonably quick third, was about to drop my fourth, scouted his army and decided to attack. Just about five seconds afterwards I realized that this might have been the worst decision ever. I had a great concave but my army was cut in half (FF op :>) and he crushed it. It wasn't even close. That was the point when I lost 4 v 2 bases. On watching the replay I couldn't believe it. 40 supply ahead, 20 workers ahead, tech ahead and I somehow lost the game due to one stupid decision. But honestly: Loosing a ladder game is really not that big of a deal.
I bet everyone has had such a moment in his life of Starcraft. But the crucial point is: Even though the decision was really stupid, it normally helps you a lot. Not just in Starcraft, but in your every-day life. I think it's one of the coolest things which people who are not playing RTS games do not understand. Gaming really helps you out in life. Just take a look my example: Starcraft is a game where you have to make tons of decisions really really fast. By that you lose the fear of making decisions outside of Starcraft as well. "Wtf? Fear of decisions?" Yes Sir, everyone has it. We humans tend to avoid decisions whereever possible, we try to leave as many options open for as long as possible. Through Starcraft you learn making quick decisions carries a slight risk but also offers a high reward.
The most simple real life example: Buying festival/concert tickets. In Germany they are cheapest if you buy them very early, like 6-7 months before. Of course you cannot be sure whether you have time for a concert in half a year, thus you stay in "Don't-know-whether-to-buy"-mode for as long as possible. Though what you should do is first ask yourself the question "What's the worst that could happen?" In my example that would be "losing 100 USD cause I cannot go". BUT with stating that you again try to avoid decisions in the future, i.e. when to sell the ticket because you probably cannot go. So the second question should always be: "Is it very probable that the worst thing might happen if I make that decision?"
And yes I think Starcraft (as an example for a very strategic RTS game) helps to answer those questions correctly taking away the decison-fear. I know my point is not very original but I am so excited about real life applications of learning through RTS games that I'd like to point it out again. Feel free to comment. Please consider that this is my first entry in the english language, though. Thanks
Cyberonic
