3.4M views · Apr 11, 2013 · 13:23 · 0 HN recommenders · 3 mentions · discussed 2020–2024
An over-the-shoulder view of StarCraft 2 pro player Sound at a WCS qualifier, showing his monitor, keyboard and mouse. It shows his very fast actions per minute in real time.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN commenters cite it as an example of expert human multitasking and heavy keyboard use with sparing mouse use.
“Notice that the mouse is only used to select units, issue commands on specific targets, and ocasionally scroll the map.”HN comment, 2024
“Example of human player playing”
Example of a human player's constant high APM.
Human players tends to maintain high APM even in "idle" situation like the beginning of the match in which you don't have many things to do. They do it because it's easier for an human to have constant APM instead of spiking in critical situation like combats. I think that this pumps the average APM of a human player. Example of human player playing: this video
Example of trained multitasking in StarCraft.
Of course I have; I've become increasingly proficient at managing multiple pots on the stove at the same time with experience. An even better example would be the video game of StarCraft II that I once played frequently that is known for it's high demands of the multitasking ability of the player. If context switching and multitasking could not be trained, players could not become better at that game as they do. this video This is most certainly not something one is born with; this comes after years of dedicated training.
“Notice that the mouse is only used to select units, issue commands on specific targets, and ocasionally scroll the map.”
Keyboard-heavy play with the mouse used sparingly.
> Anyone who says this, has never played StarCraft. Ha, I actually loved StarCraft back in the day, and RTS (or what's left of it) is still one of my favorite genres today. > In practice, some things a much faster with the mouse. You see something, and immediately you can move your cursor there. I get that, and while it may apply for gaming, that's not always the case for editing text or programming. For one, the keyboard is the primary input device you rely on while editing text. Switching away from it to use the mouse (or touchpad, Trackpoint, etc.) requires conscious effort. Whereas in gaming, particularly with RTS games, your hand is on the mouse most of the time, so there's no context switching. Yet even RTS games rely heavily on keyboard shortcuts. In competitive gaming, skill is measured by APM (Actions Per Minute), and using both keyboard and mouse efficiently is a critical part of that. I would say that the keyboard is even more important than the mouse, though. Take a look at this video[1]. Notice that the mouse is only used to select units, issue commands on specific targets, and ocasionally scroll the map. The keyboard instead is used constantly, and even exclusively for short periods of time. Obviously, text editing and programming proficiency is not measured in APM. We spend much more time thinking about the content than how we input and manipulate it. But if we can remove any friction between using our tools and our output, then this is worth pursuing since thi
