[hueyp]

One thing those analogies miss is that starcraft is an imperfect knowledge game. You don't know everything about your opponent as you would in chess and fencing. It is similar to poker in that regard.

This is probably my favorite part of the game -- watching pro level players react perfectly to even the slightest tell.

[Finster]

That's not true. Starcraft is a game of perfect knowledge. For instance, good scouting and/or good observer placement can reveal what units are built, what is being produced, and what technology has been researched. There is nothing that a player can hide from well-executed scouting. Unlike poker, where you can never see the opponents hand, in Starcraft you can see everything your opponent is doing if you scout well.

[yannyu]

There's no such thing as perfect scouting: at all levels of the game there are points where you have no idea what's coming except by reading your opponent and the metagame. For example, expecting a 6 pool or early all-in after your opponent has just taken a game in a 5 game series. Or, figuring out it's a banshee rush based on nothing but a blocked ramp.

So no, Starcraft is not perfect knowledge; much like poker you do a lot of reasoning and what amount to Expected Value (EV) calculations to figure out what your opponent is most likely to do. To gain information about what your opponent is doing in the game requires expending in-game resources, which is pretty much the exact opposite of perfect knowledge.

[sandyarmstrong]

I think you misunderstand what is meant by a perfect knowledge game. Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_information . Basically, it would be perfect knowledge if there was no fog of war, if you could see what was in your opponents medivacs, what their buildings were producing, what tech they were researching...basically, if both you and your opponent had ready access to all the same knowledge.

Starcraft does not have this, even with impossibly perfect scouting, so it is not a perfect knowledge game.

[phaus]

To obtain that information, you have to invest resources first. Therefore, it is a game that requires you to make decisions with imperfect knowledge.

[rubiquity]

This is 100% incorrect, sorry.

[cron]

I'd say levelling (getting inside a players head, understanding how they'll react to a situation and staying one step ahead) is important for higher level play in both games.