The 20th Anniversary of StarCraft is a very big deal, and Blizzard is rightly celebrating with a series of cross-promotional events running from March through April. Get in on the act © Blizzard Entertainment This approach paved the way for future dramatic success in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, World of Warcraft, and StarCraft II. Metzen became lead designer on StarCraft, and together with James Phinney, wrote the elaborate script. Video game writing comes of ageĪside from the precision nuts and bolts that engendered the South Korean esports scene, StarCraft was also among the first Blizzard games to benefit from a fully realized backstory, and expertly written narrative, largely attributed to erstwhile Senior Vice President of Story and Franchise Development, Chris Metzen. The influence of StarCraft in esports is undeniably huge, literally game changing. It is fair to say that without StarCraft, there may never have been League of Legends or Dota, the Overwatch League or any other major competitive gaming platform you care to mention. The original StarCraft, or specifically Brood War, remains more popular in South Korea to this day than StarCraft II. This led to the rise in popularity of StarCraft among professional players in South Korea, gaining notoriety via the World Cyber Games as one of the most profitable esports titles, with televised matches and major consumer brand sponsorship. Brood War contained new campaigns, additional units for each race, and upgrades.īrood War also brought tweaks to the balance of power between the three asymmetrical factions, which are still considered to be the best the series ever saw in terms of fairness. StarCraft: Brood War, co-developed by Saffire Corporation and Blizzard Entertainment, became one of the earliest progenitors of what gamers now casually receive as DLC. In 1998, we were well versed in the idea of sequels but the concept of expansion packs was something unusual. Expanding the StarCraft universe © Blizzard Entertainment PC gamers were treated to the kind of movie-like presentation usually seen on PlayStation from Japanese studios such as Square Soft and Namco, only the StarCraft content was notably more ‘Hollywood’ in style. StarCraft also led to Blizzard passionately investing in its film department, with rendered cinematic sequences telling the story in between missions. “The ‘Blizzard Style’ was inspired by a technical necessity – from trying to make things translate,” said Didier. Art Director Samwise Didier told in 2017 how the colourful comic-book style was a reaction to PC gaming trends at the time trying to be photorealistic, whereas the visuals of Warcraft and StarCraft needed to be chunkier. The distinct Blizzard art style, bringing to life everything from World of Warcraft through Overwatch, owes quite a bit to the decisions made while StarCraft was in development. Blizzard gambled on an asymmetrical playing field split between three warring races, emboldening its multiplayer online gaming service,, with an account system to prevent cheats. StarCraft, with its fashionable late ’90s BiCapitalized moniker, was the game that the serious sci-fi fanatic had secretly craved but didn’t yet know it. It was a stroke of genius by Blizzard to take its best-selling Warcraft series and sup it up with sci-fi, expanding on the gameplay of Warcraft II with more nuanced tactical gameplay and greater narrative depth. Sci-fi stories in videogames before 1998 mainly took place in action-oriented scenarios with the likes of Space Invaders, Galaxian, Star Fox and countless attempts at Star Wars spin-offs. From Elves, Ogres and Trolls to Terrans, Protoss and Zerg © Blizzard Entertainment As we head toward the 20th Anniversary celebrations kicking off March 31, here’s a reminder of how influential StarCraft has been since 1998. In fact, there’s a lot that we take for granted in gaming that StarCraft has helped to pioneer. Without Blizzard Entertainment’s sci-fi RTS, there may never have been esports as we know it today.
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