Warcraft- the history of the best-selling game serie
Created | Updated Nov 27, 2008
Warcraft is the best-selling game serie ever and also the best RTS serie I've ever played. Warcraft III has just beaten the record for the best-selling game with more than 4.4 millon copies sold in only three weeks after release. The Wacraft serie is made by the reknown company Blizzard Entetainment, the same company that also beat the record of best-selling games in 2000 and 2001 with Diablo II and it's Expansion Set.
Warcraft is a fantasy serie in a very Tolkienish-style. It is set in a mysterious world filled with magic and strange creatures. It could be related to other fantasy works like Dungeon and Dragons but it is quite unique in itself and it's story-line.
All the Warcraft games is actually a bunch of really good games. Even the oldest one with simple graphic can provide hours of fun. But of course the Warcraft serie did not own it's fame just because of fancy commercials and high recommendations. It is due to the enthusiam and devotion of the staff of Blizzard that Warcraft has become what is is today. They take pride and publish their own games which is also the reason why they are one of the most famous of game-developing firms.
Here I will explain both the history about how Warcraft came to be and it's story-line that has captured millions of fans.
The true history of Warcraft
Warcraft started out in 1994 with the title Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. At that time the graphic was concidered very good and it was enjoyed by many. The simple form of RTS, build up a base and destroy your enemies, provieded a lot of gameplay. You could use various strategies by building various units and place them in different strategic places on the map.
In the game the key was also to build up economy by harvesting lumber and mining gold. This was used to build other buildings, training more units and research better weapons and spells. These elements made up for a good entertaining game back then. The AI was very difficult since the only thing they did were suicide attacks and did not 'think' much about the consequnces as most AI usually do in today's games.
Blizzard had also supplied the game with a more or less complex story-line but still there was much hidden about the world that Warcraft was set in. About the world, it was only known that the story took place in a nation called 'Azeroth' (which the world Warcraft has been set in is know named) and that the Orcs who was invading the country was from another world called Draenor.
Yet another thing that made Warcraft fun was it's jokes that one could find here and there, mostly in the speeches of the units1. All the units in the particular race would say the same though2. The most memorable line was "Stop poking me!" and is still enjoyed by Warcraft fans3.
A major exciting thing that very likely determined the success of the first Warcraft game was that two different campaigns was available: The Orcish Hord or the Human nation of Azeroth. Each had different story-lines and they all ended with your race winning (if you did, that is). The game would end in a sort of 'to-be-continued' speech which hinted at yet another game.
The story was also filled with ledgendary heroes and historical locations that made a good touch on both the story-line as well as the game itself. It was only in the manual though that this was expanded upon but stil added to the fantasy aspect of the game.
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans has won the following awards:
So as you can see Wacraft was a huge success. The fans wanted more and they got it. In 1995 Blizzard published Warcraft II: The Tides of Darkness
This had much better graphic than the previous game (still the age of 2D though) and also a lot more units and buildings. The AI was also a bit more complicated than simply 'kill, kill ,kill!'. Probably one of the better improvements was the music. In the first Warcraft game there had been only one song per race which can drive a player quite mad after some time.
The story-line too was expanded as well as the Warcraft geography. A detailed map came with the manual which gave fans a greater perspective of the different locations.
Now, Blizzard had chosen the Orcs as the victorious race from the last game as a starting point. There was now many nations and clans and more races than just Orcs and Humans were added. The Orcs now also had Trolls, Goblins, Ogres, Dragons and Death Knights while the Humans had Elves, Dwarfs, Gnomes and Gryphons.
The basics of Warcraft II, however, was the same as Warcraft I. Build up a base and destroy your enemy. There was also as in Warcraft I a very obvious parallel between the two race's units4, but this was somewhat more subtle in Warcraft II since the units had different methods of attacking.
Blizzard especially expanded on the point point that in the campaigns were various quests, other than just destroy. Things like rescuing somebody and then take the new unit(s) to a point called the Circle of Power. This had been present in Warcraft I but not to much extent. Warcraft II supplied much more intellectual entertainment and challeging strategies.
There was also more scenes than in Warcraft I which only had a swamp landscape and a cave. In Warcraft II there was a winter, summer and wasteland map, each representing some various locations in the world of Warcraft.
Another things were critters. These added more to the atmosphere and reality of the game, wandering randomly about on the maps and could be clicked on for some 'secret' entertainment (see below for more details).
However, the most important new features were the navel units that each race now had. You could now build a shipyard, a refinary and a foundary. Each race had five navel units: three war ships, one that was under water and therefore hidden for most units, and one transport boat. There was also a new rescource, oil, to be used to built boats. To obtain the oil the player had to build an oil platform over an oil patch in the sea and then collect it with the fifth ship, an oil tanker.
There was also air units for each race but only two. One was a warfare one and another for spying.
The humour of course remaind, with funny comments from the units5and amusing scenario maps that followed with the game. Also, if you were to more sarcastic humour, you could click some few times on the critters, like your own units they would make a sound, and they would eventually explode6.
Another feature, a more exciting one, was that now people could, with a simple editor, make their own maps and edit the sound schemes. It was not very complicated and you could not make quests other than simply 'destroy your enemy'. It however made a basis to the fame that Blizzard has earned as a fan devoted company, since editors made it possible for players to develop their own small 'games' and make newer challenges.
Warcraft II was an even bigger success than it's presessor and so in 1996 Blizzard published the expansion set Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal. The new features were few though: a new landscape was added, new heroes (who know had their own uniq sound schemes), a new critter for the landscape (however these things could not be used in the editor, this was added in future editions), new levels for the campaign, both for Humans and Orcs, and some more scenario maps.
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness has won the following awards:
Warcraft II: Beyon the Dark Portal has won the following awards:
And so time went by. Warcraft was of course not forgotten and various version of it was released with both the original game and the expansion set.
As the internet expanded so did Warcraft. Devoted fans began to write stories and expand the world of Warcraft by themselves. However yet another warcraft game was not released for a long time to come. Blizzard was at that time busy with it's new huge success and technological breakthroug: Starcraft and it's expansion set Brood War7. During that time the network named Battle.netwas set up. Yep, yet another break through! This made it much easier for fans to challenge each other across the web and people could battle each others from the other side of the globe.
But what know? Starcraft had become just as big, if not bigger, than it's sister serie and another Blizzard game, Diablo, wasn't doing too bad either. Both had gain the same respect, with the same following making fan fictions. Starcraft had a much more advanced editor that made the game experience almost never-ending. But the serie had stopped expanding with it's expansion set, just as Warcraft had and only one game of Diablo had so far been released. For now Blizzard fans had to settle with the coming of Diablo II and the thousands of maps and other fan stuff circulating around the web.
So time passed. Nothing happened but newer versions of Blizzard games being released (the most popular being Warcraft II Battle.Net Edition). Then finally in the autumn of 1999 things got interesting. Blizzard annoucned that a Warcraft III was possible (when I read this my heart almost jumped through my chest). In fact Blizzard had already been working on the game for a whole year.
It was first not supposed to be called Warcraft because of the fasinating fact that this would in fact not be a RTS but a RPS (Role Playing Strategy) game. It would mean that while strategy would be a part of the game, there would also an adventuring aspsect with quests and such like in Diablo. The reason was that Blizzard was rather tired with the RTS genre now and wanted to try something new.
Now, the release was first planned to be in the summer of 2000. Here Blizzard displayed an unfortunate trait. They always moved the release date futher and Warcraft III would first be due on 3 July 2002, a two year lateness which rather annoyed (to put it mildly) the millions of fans dying to get their hands on the next chapter in the famous serie.
As pictures and reviews were published it was soon realised that Warcraft III was going to be very special. Blizzard had finally gone 3D and it was clear the cinematics were worked hard on, to give one of the best games ever.
It also excited the fans that the amount of races would be doubled. There would of course be the originial Human Alliance and Orcish Horde, but now also there would be the Undead Scourge and the Night Elves. In fact there was also a fifth race, the Burning Legion. Allegedly these would also be a playable race, but Blizzard dedcided that this demon army was much too powerful and would not balance the game out well. So they were declared a neutral race.
And finally, after waiting and a bunch of changes in the release date Warcraft III: Age of Chaos saw the light of day.
It must be said that this was probably a game that revolutionised the gaming world. Not so much in the game play but in the cinematics. The movies in the game were so realistic looking and so finely polised that it was almost better than the game itself. Eventually Warcraft III got an award for it's outstanding efforts with teh graphic, and I personally think it was by far the only right choice.
So, people were and still is enjoying the experience on Battle.Net. Maps are being released daily and fan fic around it is springing up from everywhere.
The map editor is probably one of the major break throughs, beside the cinematics. With it it's possible to change pretty much every single thing in the game. Although it requires some advance knowledge in programming to change the core things such as unit graphic and even the triggers8.
MORE TO COME SOON...
1You could get these by clicking a few times on the units.2In fact all units had the same sound scheme in each race.3It was even put in the game Starcraft, another well-known RTS game from Blizzard Entertainment.4E.g. Ogres corrosponded to knigts and Goblins was only good as suicide bombers just as Dwarfs5Now all units but the Orcish grunts and peons and both race's naval units had a different sound schemes6This became a traditional humouristic feature of the other the following Warcraft games to come, as well as Blizzard's Starcraft serie7Another strategy game, but nothing related to Wacraft, except that in the first period of time when Blizzard made Starcraft it was named by many disgruntled fans 'Warcraft in Space' because Blizzard used the same engine for their new game. Luckly they chose another one and Starcraft turned out much different.8Which could very easily be changed in the Starcraft editor and has therefor been an issue complained about by many fans.
