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A comment on DeepMind and Blizzard to release StarCraft II as an AI research environment. Parent comment

Re:DeepMind and Blizzard to release StarCraft II as an AI re... by sillysaurus3 on Friday November 04, 2016 @05:11PM (#12876152)
It's like saying that a Go AI would have a huge advantage because it can move instantly, giving the opponent no time to think. Perhaps it contributes, but strategy is far more important.

See "The Marginal Advantage," an essay from the famous Starcraft player Day9: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/brood-war/64514-competitive-...

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Re:DeepMind and Blizzard to release StarCraft II as an AI re... by taneq on Sunday November 06, 2016 @06:34AM (#12884639)
This essay reminds me very much of the "Playing to Win" series by David Sirlin: http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/

It's also worth noting that AlphaGo optimizes its perceived chance of winning the game, rather than its score. It "gets complacent" and mostly plays very conservatively the moment it's ahead on points, because it doesn't care about margins, only about win/loss.

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Re:DeepMind and Blizzard to release StarCraft II as an AI re... by cosarara97 on Friday November 04, 2016 @05:21PM (#12876223)
Even if you add time control, Go is a turn based game. You have your own turn to think, unlike in a RTS game.
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Re:DeepMind and Blizzard to release StarCraft II as an AI re... by sillysaurus3 on Friday November 04, 2016 @05:22PM (#12876239)
Sort of. Go players are limited to around ~2 hours per game and around ~1 minute per move: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-standard-time-limits-in-G...

I meant to say that strategy trumps mechanics. Mechanical proficiency is necessary but not sufficient.

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