EPTThis study was done in SC2 specifically.
To better understand the relationship between age and reaction time, the Simon Fraser team based their research on Starcraft 2 players of different age groups and analyzed their “looking-doing latencies” – the time between seeing and responding.
The reason Starcraft 2 was used for the case study is simple; it’s hard and very complex.
To excel at this particular game, you need lightning-fast reflexes, a memory like a steel trap, and to be capable of comfortably managing and predicting several strategies at once.
Put simply, it’s a hyperactive, laser-focused form of future chess.
And well… you guessed it: the older the player, the slower the player – a fact which only gets more true with age.
They found that a 39-year-old elite player (GM?) was about 150 milliseconds slower per action than a 24-year-old counterpart, giving the younger player roughly a 30-second advantage over 15 minutes of gameplay.
Now you’re probably thinking: Thirty seconds over 15 minutes? That’s nothing, right?
Well… some elite players are capable of a staggering 10 actions per second, meaning that half a minute in real-time gameplay is… how to put this… yuuuuge!
