Micromanagement can divert the player's attention from grand strategy by overloading the player with repetitive and mechanical work.[4] Some commentators think that "Strategy is irrelevant in today’s real-time strategy games when you’re playing against a fourteen-year-old who can click twice as fast as you."[3] Games in which constant micromanagement is needed are often described as "micromanagement hell".
In turn-based games the need for economic micromanagement is generally regarded as a defect in the design,[3] and more recent TBS game have tried to minimize it.[5][8][9] But hands-on tactical combat is a feature of many turn-based games (e.g. Master of Orion II, Space Empires III, Heroes of Might and Magic III), and reviewers complained about the difficulty of controlling combat in Master of Orion 3.
There is controversy between fans of different RTS games about whether micromanagement is: (a) a skill which involves making decisions quickly while under pressure; or (b) a chore which degenerates into a "clickfest" where a player who is faster with the mouse usually beats a player who is better at grand strategy.[11][12] As a result RTS games vary widely from e.g. Total Annihilation, which eliminates most economic micromanagement and reduces tactical micromanagement, to StarCraft, in which both economic and tactical micromanagement are considered important skills. Software has been developed to analyze players' Actions Per Minute (commonly known as APM).[13][14] Other games aim for differing levels of micromanagement of different types: for instance, the Relic Entertainment title Dawn of War 2 minimises economic micromanagement as much as possible, such that there is no base construction, all units are produced from a single source, and resources are accumulated automatically over time by controlling strategic battlefield locations, while on the other hand the game emphasises tactical micromanagement as its primary skill, with combat taking place principally between relatively small squads of highly effective and highly vulnerable units, with victory a function of the rapid deployment of special weapons and tactics in order to counter enemy manoeuvres and inflict maximum damage quickly while avoiding sustaining damage.
Many role-playing games and first-person shooters are developing more advanced hotkey layouts, allowing these genres to develop their own micromanagement skills.
In turn-based games the need for economic micromanagement is generally regarded as a defect in the design,[3] and more recent TBS game have tried to minimize it.[5][8][9] But hands-on tactical combat is a feature of many turn-based games (e.g. Master of Orion II, Space Empires III, Heroes of Might and Magic III), and reviewers complained about the difficulty of controlling combat in Master of Orion 3.
There is controversy between fans of different RTS games about whether micromanagement is: (a) a skill which involves making decisions quickly while under pressure; or (b) a chore which degenerates into a "clickfest" where a player who is faster with the mouse usually beats a player who is better at grand strategy.[11][12] As a result RTS games vary widely from e.g. Total Annihilation, which eliminates most economic micromanagement and reduces tactical micromanagement, to StarCraft, in which both economic and tactical micromanagement are considered important skills. Software has been developed to analyze players' Actions Per Minute (commonly known as APM).[13][14] Other games aim for differing levels of micromanagement of different types: for instance, the Relic Entertainment title Dawn of War 2 minimises economic micromanagement as much as possible, such that there is no base construction, all units are produced from a single source, and resources are accumulated automatically over time by controlling strategic battlefield locations, while on the other hand the game emphasises tactical micromanagement as its primary skill, with combat taking place principally between relatively small squads of highly effective and highly vulnerable units, with victory a function of the rapid deployment of special weapons and tactics in order to counter enemy manoeuvres and inflict maximum damage quickly while avoiding sustaining damage.
Many role-playing games and first-person shooters are developing more advanced hotkey layouts, allowing these genres to develop their own micromanagement skills.
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