[lamchopz]

Actually. I'm sorry, but that's just Mathematics people being very... well you know what they're like, inventing situations to play with. Mathematicians can create a problem out of basically anything. They have chosen to dissect the game mechanism and theorize it. In reality however, if one gloats about their professional macro and micro skills, and was then asked about how long they can exercise it for in a management job interview - "3 flat hours in an arduous game!". Good luck with employment.

Well, I don't think the course is there to encourage people to game and there's really no sensible reason for graduates from that course to gloat about StarCraft strategy planning in their job interviews (of course, there are always exceptions to the sensible rule). The purpose of all teaching by example, like this one, is to give a hands-on experience with a model which can then be further studied and applied to other related forms. It all comes down to principles, which are essentially the take-home message for anyone undertaking such a course. If they bring the idea of "play this game to practise what I just learnt" home and do nothing else, they got the wrong idea.

Not all mathematicians invent situations to play with. The applied mathematicians rely on practical problems and the time when they 'invent' something is when the solution to an immediate scenario presents a scope for further investigation. The pure mathematicians are the ones who like to make problems out of thin air.