StarCraft (SC) is a real-time strategy computer game by Blizzard Entertainment. Introduced in 1998, it was the best-selling computer game in that year and won the Origins Award for Best Strategy Computer Game of 1998. Blizzard estimated in 2005 that 9 million copies of StarCraft and its expansion pack, Brood War had been sold since its release,Blizzard. 2005. Blizzard FAQ page and it has achieved an international cult-like status in the computer gaming world, especially in its online multiplayer form.GameFAQs. 2004. Game review It is a rare case of a game remaining relevant and popular in its original form many years after publication.
Although in a science fiction setting, StarCraft is broadly similar to Blizzard's popular game Warcraft II. Due to criticism of early development versions, Blizzard tried to steer the game away from being seen as "Warcraft in Space," eventually rewriting the entire game engine. The game's main storyline follows a war amongst three galactic species: the strong, stable human Terrans, the hive mind-sharing insectoid Zerg, and the psychic humanoid Protoss warriors. It was initially released for the PC platform in 1998, with a Macintosh version of the game being released in 1999. Starcraft was also later ported to the Nintendo 64.
Though a best-seller all over the world, the game is especially popular in South Korea, with nationally recognized tournaments, training groups, professional players, teams, and televised cable-access competitions that often broadcast live tournaments.
Players use their resources to construct a variety of buildings. Some of these are used to construct various units (or notionally, to grow, train, or "warp in" those units), while others are used to upgrade the player's forces or to allow more advanced units or structures to be built. Management of resources, expansion to control resource locations, and effective application of offensive and defensive combat tactics are the keys to victory. The unit types available to each race define its racial identity. The Protoss can field powerful and expensive warriors and machinery, while the Zerg rely on sheer numbers and speed to overwhelm their opponents. The Terrans are the versatile and flexible alternative to both races, providing a compromise between specialization and combined arms. However, each race is very balanced, and a player using a different race than his or her opponent does not necessarily have an advantage over them.
Though the game's three races (Protoss, Terran, and Zerg) were slightly imbalanced when the game was first released, the expansion pack and twenty patchesStarCraft versions are numbered 1.00 through 1.13f, including 1.12b, 1.11b, 1.09b and 1.08b. Information on changes introduced with each patch can be found on the Battle.net support site. Patch Information site (of which four affected the gameplay) have balanced the three races to most players' satisfaction. The Brood War expansion released by Blizzard in 1998 provided several new units for each race (which dramatically changed the gameplay) and a new campaign for each race, continuing the original StarCraft story (see StarCraft storyline). Some of the Brood War units such as Dark Templar were available in StarCraft at the beginning of single-player missions, but could not be produced. Many exclusive upgrades to each race's units were also created in Brood War.
For cooperative play, several people can play the same team (controlling the same units), or different teams that are "allied" so they do not harm each other. Up to eight spots can be filled in a game, either by players or computers. Clans are groups of people gathered (typically) for the purposes of competitive team play. Clan players usually attach a clan "tag" to their online name to indicate their clan allegiance (for example, *JohnSmith would be a member of a hypothetical "XYZ" clan). The involvement in a clan ranges from casual friendship to mandatory meetings and tournaments.
In multiplayer gameplay, some players use modified, or "hacked" versions of the StarCraft client to gain an unfair advantage. Blizzard attempts to detect and ban "hackers" in all their games, and several third-party "anti-hack" programs are under constant development to prevent these techniques. The most infamous of these hacks is MapHack, that allows the player to see the whole map, ignoring the "fog of war".
The plot of the original StarCraft game revolves around the Terran civilization in the Koprulu Sector, which was founded by former prisoners exiled from Earth. The most powerful Terran faction is the Terran Confederacy. It is opposed by other factions, such as the terrorist organization "Sons of Korhal". The arrival of the Zerg, led by the Overmind and its Cerebrates, greatly complicates matters for the Terrans. The Zerg Swarm is itself closely followed by a Protoss fleet, led by High Templar Executor Tassadar, which burns all worlds the Zerg infest.
A player plays as a colonial magistrate of the Terran Confederacy, and quickly meets Jim Raynor, a marshal of Mar Sara. After being arrested by the Confederacy for destroying confederate property, (even though it was infested by the Zerg,) the player joins the Sons of Korhal, who free Jim Raynor from a Confederate prison. Jim also joins the Sons and is sent on missions frequently. After the Protoss destroy the Zerg-infested Confederate colony on Chau Sara, the Zerg are used by the rebel organization Sons of Korhal, whose leader Arcturus Mengsk lures them to a number of Confederate installations using psi-emitters to further his own goals. Mengsk acquires the services of General Edmund Duke, a Confederate general, and sacrifices his right-hand woman, the psychic Sarah Kerrigan, to the Zerg after she begins to object to his morals and tactics. This action alienates Jim Raynor, who, along with the colonial magistrate played by the player, flees from Mengsk with a small number of soldiers.
After the Confederacy's fall, Arcturus Mengsk reorganizes the Terran worlds he controls into the Terran Dominion, crowning himself Emperor. Meanwhile, the Zerg flee to the planet Char with their prize, Kerrigan, who is in the process of becoming a Zerg in a cocoon under the protection of a Cerebrate under player control.
Tassadar discovers that he can disrupt the Overmind's control over the Swarm by eliminating its Cerebrate servants with the help of the Dark Templar, a group of Protoss who have forsaken their ancestral psionic powers and the religion of the Khala. While on Char, Tassadar encounters one of the Overmind's newest servants, the recently infested Kerrigan, a powerful psychic. The involvement of the fallen Dark Templar will prove to be fateful; while slaying the Cerebrate Zasz, the Dark Templar leader Zeratul briefly comes in psychic contact with the Overmind, which is then informed of the Protoss homeworld Aiur's location and directs its Swarm towards the Protoss world. This contact also gives Zeratul knowledge of the origin of the Zerg.
The Zerg inflict a number of heavy defeats upon the Protoss, who fight back bitterly, but are simultaneously involved in a civil war between the Protoss high authority, the Conclave, and the alliance between Tassadar and the Dark Templar, with whom the player's character is aligned. In a desperate attempt to put an end to the Zerg's destructive rampage, Tassadar, Zeratul, and the remaining Protoss unite their strengths with Terran forces and attack the Overmind itself. They manage to crush its outer shell, and Tassadar sacrifices himself and rams the ship into the vulnerable form of the Overmind, thereby killing it and himself in the process.
Even as of 2006, StarCraft is still one of the most popular online games in the world, with the number of players online at any given time varying from 50,000 to 100,000 or more.
In the early 2000s, the game experienced an explosion of popularity among South Korean online gamers, with a successful professional scene being established.http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_us&refer=asia&sid=a2JvzciDnpB4 Samsung, SK Telecom, Shinhan Sponsor South Korean Alien Killers. Retrieved on July 15, 2006. Most active StarCraft players now come from South Korea.
In South Korea, StarCraft professional gamers, such as SlayerS_`BoxeR`, Iloveoov, Reach, YellOw, and Nal_rA are celebrities: their games are broadcast over several television channels such as MBC Game, Ongamenet, and (formerly) iTV. A small number of top players have become reasonably wealthy through this - for example, Lim Yo-Hwan, known in-game as SlayerS_`BoxeR`, signed a 1 year, approximately $200,000 US-equivalent contract in 2004, and some can earn a decent to good living from TV-contracts, sponsoring and tournament prizes. However, the lower-echelon pro players tend to subsist on relatively small wages. Many professional gamers play StarCraft during almost all waking hours in order to maintain preparation for the highly competitive leagues.
Also of note is the semi-infamous Operation CWAL (Can't Wait Any Longer). More than just a simple cheat to decrease unit build time, Operation CWAL formed in 1997, as a writers' group, in the StarCraft Suggestions Forum in an attempt to "liberate" a final copy of StarCraft, which appeared obviously completed despite numerous delays on the part of Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard Entertainment has gone as far as to give special thanks to this group in the manual for StarCraft, as well as including their name as a cheat code in the game.
Some people, however, question the immense influence Starcraft and video games in general have on Korean youths. In particular, the death of Lee Seung Seop (known as b0f1000 in Starcraft), a 28-year-old man from Daegu, South Korea on 10 August 2005, who died from exhaustion after playing a 49-hour marathon session of StarCraft in an Internet cafe, sparked a new discussion about video games addiction.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1729573,00.html Korean drops dead after 50-hour gaming marathon, retrieved on July 15, 2006.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4137782.stm South Korean dies after games session, retrieved on July 15, 2006.http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3703646 South Korean man dies during 49-hour computer game marathon, retrieved on July 15, 2006.
In addition, Blizzard Entertainment authorized two short stories in Amazing Stories magazine, entitled Hybrid and Revelations.
Blizzard also licensed Wizards of the Coast to publish StarCraft Adventures, a supplement for the role-playing game Alternity set in the StarCraft universe.
Numerous fan fiction works also take place in the StarCraft universe.
Some optimized versions of BGH such as "Fastest Possible Map Ever" and "StarCraft Dream" have similar placement of bases but are hacked so that 30 to 40 minerals (or in the case of "Fastest Possible Map Ever", 50,000) are placed directly next to the base. Vespene gas is similarly enhanced with a row of 4-8 geysers on either side of the primary base. These modifications greatly decrease the time needed to mine the necessary resources and enables the game to progress much faster regarding both movement up the technology tree and unit production. It also changes the game dynamic as once the default base is destroyed it cannot be rebuilt in the same place.
Zero Clutter (ZC, 0clut) maps are a slightly different version of optimized maps. The resource modifications are very similar to those outlined above but players' default bases are organized into two groups of 2-4 bases in the north and south. These groups are usually separated by a barrier of either mountainous terrain or water with a land bridge in the middle for ground units to cross. Players tell each other where they are located as the game starts and ally players that are adjacent to them. Often there is an agreement between players that no side will attack the other before a set time limit or before "map max" (MM) (1650 units) a point at which the game cannot place any more units into play. There is then no other option but to attack. Games without any set time to attack are often known as "rush games".
The "fastest maps" and zero clutter maps are mostly played by unskilled starcraft gamers, maphackers, and comp stompers who cheat to gain free wins. In order to improve your skills, it is recommended that you stay away from these maps.
Some custom scenarios are named after television shows (Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon, Family Guy, The Simpsons), real-world events (Napoleonic Wars, World War I, World War II, the American Civil War), current events (Bomb Iraq, World Trade Center Defense, Tsunami Run!), scenes from books and movies (Troy, The Lord of the Rings, Dawn of the Dead, Scary Movie, Starship Troopers), or even other games (Diablo II, The Sims, Resident Evil, Warcraft, The Thing, Risk, Russian Roulette.)
There are also many 'genres' that have surfaced. This includes Defense maps, StarCraft Diplomacy, RPG's and many others. Though varying in popularity, each one has its own unique set of characteristics.
The popularity of custom maps is not limited to only custom maps played online. StarEdit allows the mapmaker to "link" several maps, single player "campaigns" (long scenarios played out over several maps, hence the name) have become prominent in the community. Following the revolutionary Antioch Chronicles' lead, many campaigns include modifications to the game that add new "heroes" (i.e. the mapmakers create new art files to be imported in to StarCraft , thus creating completely new units and characters - something which can't be done using StarEdit). Popular campaigns include Campaign Creations' The Fenix, Legacy of the Confederation, Life of a Marine, and StarCraft.org's official campaigns, The Shifters and Fields of Ash.
More powerful, third-party alternatives to the editor StarCraft is sold with, including the StarCraft X-tra Editor, Staredit, StarForge, and SCMDraft allow users to "stack" multiple mineral fields and buildings on top each other, change player colors, use hidden AI scripts, protect maps from common theft, run size-less sounds directly from the StarCraft disc, change the color of text, compress their map, and in more advanced areas, place raw sprites, sprite-units and disabled units, among other things.
Some of these custom maps and campaigns are released commercially via third parties, two of which are Insurrection and StarCraft: Retribution. These third party add-ons did not fare well and were criticized for poor mission designs.
One of the most useful features of replays is the ability for people to snoop in on tactics of good players.
Replays are sometimes accompanied by an audio commentary recorded by the player or an experienced observer during the game, or after the fact, as they were watching the replay. This can be particularly interesting for people new to the game, who can learn from more experienced players pointing out things about a replay they would not have seen on their own, or simply for entertainment. The audio files can be produced and played separately from the replays using third-party audio recording and playback tools, in which case the viewer has to manually synchronize the audio track with the replay, which is read from the StarCraft application. Alternatively, auxiliary applications such as RWA can be used to ensure synchronization. The RWAtoolsBWChart.com. 2003. RWAtools are a set of freeware tools, that create valid replay files, additionally containing an Ogg audio stream. During replays, the commentary is kept in sync with the game.
VODs (from "Video On Demand") are videos that show the screen of a commentator (or sometimes player) during a (usually) pro-level game. They are (legally or not) available from a variety of websites, and are ripped from Korean television or Internet streams. They usually come in the ASF video file format for Windows Media Player or in the WMV format. Because they are compressed with an MPEG-4 codec and the file size needs to be small, there is a significant quality loss in comparison to watching a replay. VODs are usually accompanied by enthusiastic announcing from the Korean commentators, and the occasional crowd shot.
On June 16, 1998, StarCraft 64 was released for the Nintendo 64. The game featured all of the maps from the original game and the Brood War expansion, as well as some exclusive missions, such as two different tutorials and StarCraft Resurrection IV.http://www.gamespot.com/n64/strategy/starcraft64/review.html SC64 review, retrieved on July 15, 2006.
The cursor movement was controlled by the analog stick on the center of the controller, but the game was not as popular as the PC version, perhaps because of a greater difficulty in controlling the cursor compared to the use of a mouse, and the lack of online multiplayer (split-screen was available, however). Also, speech was not present during mission briefings.
Blizzard had been working on a first-person shooter/third-person shooter, Ghost to be released in 2006. It was originally planned on being released in late 2003 but the company that was given the license was scrapped; the change in genre for the franchise from real-time strategy to third-person shooter and absence of a PC version aroused considerable protests among many of the StarCraft faithful, though others eagerly anticipate the game. In March of 2006 StarCraft: Ghost development was put on hold indefinitely,http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox/starcraft-ghost/698419p1.html, Blizzard Postpones StarCraft: Ghost Indefinitely, retrieved July 15, 2006. leaving the future of the franchise unknown. Blizzard is, however, making a StarCraft board Game StarCraft the Board Game, as confirmed by Kevin Wilson on Boardgamegeek.com.http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/113938 Playtest in Minneapolis at the Source on 6/16/06, retrieved July 15, 2006.
Fans impatiently await the creation of StarCraft II. Nearly 13,000 of these eager fans have signed an online petition, created by Kenny Marshall, which is hosted at www.petitiononline.com.http://www.petitiononline.com/strcrft2/petition.html, retrieved on July 15, 2006. Additionally, a group of diehard fans, under the name Snowflake Entertainment,http://www.wc3campaigns.net/revolution/ retrieved on July 15, 2006. are even creating a modifer to have StarCraft run through WarCraft 3, titled Project Revolution. Although this will not be a sequel, Project Revolution will transfer the game from two to three dimensions.http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3980165796053569246 Video of Project Revolution, retrieved on July 15, 2006. The modification is not associated with Blizzard.http://www.blizzplanet.com/content/560/ Project Revolution Q&A session, retrieved on July 15, 2006.
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