Micromanagement

This article covers the technical term in the context of computer games. For the meaning in a business context, see micromanagement (BWL) .

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As micromanagement (short Micro ) refers to the ability of a computer player to give his individual units specific commands. The term is mostly used in real-time strategy games , where it is in contrast to so-called macro management .

Micromanagement is therefore about dealing with individual units - such as pulling up healthy units or pulling off damaged units, performing individual skills, assigning individual tasks, etc. Good micromanagement is important in real-time strategy games, but usually not that most important element. In many cases, it can be decisive for the game if you have enough units at the end, for example by skillfully “distributing” the damage, to weaken the enemy base or its raw material supply.

You can see the strength and efficiency of your own micromanagement purely quantitatively from your own operating or game speed, its so-called APM (actions per minute). For top players, this value is sometimes over 300, which means five commands to individual units per second. In addition to learning keyboard combinations and familiarity with the user interface, the value depends above all on the automation and training of certain processes.

In general, one can say: the higher the APM value, the better the micromanagement, since control and coordination over the units enable better control than the subsidiary artificial intelligence that otherwise commands the units.

In building games micromanagement is undesirable in the military field, since it precludes overview and game flow. An attempt is therefore made to integrate repetitive commands and artificial intelligence for control support in order to relieve the player of repetitive “detailed work”.

In turn-based strategy games, there are greater opportunities for developing micromanagement, which can therefore also be more complex; the speed of the player is neutralized - the complete utilization of the strategic width by moving individual units becomes important, similar to chess .