StarCraft

StarCraft (SC) is a real-time strategy (RTS) computer game introduced by Blizzard Entertainment in 1998. It is similar to Blizzard's previous hit Warcraft II, except that it has a space opera setting as opposed to a high fantasy setting. The game was so successful that Blizzard estimated in 2004 that 8 million copies of StarCraft had been sold since its release. During the development process, there were great efforts to steer the game away from being simply "Warcraft in Space," and eventually the entire game engine had to be rewritten to allow the developers to achieve the desired result. It is praised for being a benchmark of RTS for its depth, intensity, and balanced races.

The main storyline of the game revolves around a war between three galactic species: the Protoss (a race of humanoid religious warriors), the Zerg (vile insect-like aliens who share a hive mind) and the Terrans (initially, descendants of human prisoners from Earth; later in the series, as human presence widened in the sector, every futuristic human being seen in the game). It was initially released for Windows, and later for Macintosh and the StarCraft 64.

Overview
StarCraft was the best selling computer game in 1998 and won the Origins Award for Best Strategy Computer Game of 1998. In that same year, Blizzard released an expansion pack called StarCraft: Brood War.

StarCraft makes significant improvements over Warcraft II. WC II, while advanced for its time, featured what many gamers believed to be a weakness in that, apart from a few minor (but significant for balance, especially at higher skill levels) differences in available spells and the cost of upgrades, the game's two races were exactly the same mechanically, with only graphical differences. StarCraft improved upon this by adopting the technique introduced by Strategic Simulations' game War Wind of having sides with obvious asymmetries. Though the game's three races (Protoss, Terran, and Zerg) were slightly imbalanced when the game was first released, the expansion pack and fourteen patches (of which four affected the game play mechanics) have balanced the three races.

The Brood War expansion provides several new units for each race (which dramatically modified the game play) and a new campaign for each race, continuing the story begun in StarCraft (see StarCraft storyline). Most people who still play use this expansion and agree that it changed the game significantly for the better, although some still prefer the original game.

The game also includes multiplayer gaming on Blizzard's own Internet gaming service Battle.net. One can play against opponents free of any charge beyond the original purchase of the game and local Internet access fees. Many fans enjoy playing in groups against the computer in skirmish games. While the AI is considered to be weak compared to a good player, decent early game performance can make it an enjoyable opponent for more casual players. Fans are also able to create unfair maps that are advantageous to the computer and can be extremely hard to beat. A few years after the release of the game, Blizzard also released several free maps of a higher difficulty. Over time, the patches have also improved the AI.

StarCraft has achieved a cult-like status in the computer gaming world. Due to the complexity and depth of the strategic possibilities, StarCraft, especially in its online multiplayer form, remains very popular, even years after its original release. The game's popularity in South Korea has been unexpectedly high, with nationally recognized tournaments, and intense training groups sprouting up across the country. There are even a couple of cable-access channels that often televise tournaments live with the top players competing against each other, cheered on by enthusiastic spectators and fans. The top StarCraft players enjoy mild celebrity status.

Fans impatiently await the creation of StarCraft II. Blizzard has announced that they are interested in making a sequel to their popular game, and there is evidence that they may have started design for StarCraft II in late 2004. This includes posts by Blizzard officials on the Battle.net forums asking for suggestions for such a game, the lack of other projects for Blizzard after World of Warcraft's completion, and early preview media unlocked after completing Warcraft III on the most difficult setting, as well as a leak about a 2007 release from HanbitSoft, the Korean publisher of StarCraft, but the development of a sequel has not yet been officially announced. Blizzard was working on a third person shooter, StarCraft: Ghost to be released in 2006; the change in genre from RTS to TPS and absence of a PC version aroused considerable protests among many of the StarCraft faithful, though others eagerly anticipate the game.

Game Play

 * Main article: Gameplay of StarCraft (includes information on famous players and a more detailed description of the game)

StarCraft improved upon its predecessor Warcraft II, which featured two very similar playable factions, by introducing asymmetry between the units and technologies available to its three races (Protoss, Terran, and Zerg). This asymmetry was similar to that pioneered in the lesser-known 1996 SSI release War Wind. The unit types available to each race define its racial identity. The Protoss can field powerful and expensive warriors and machinery, while the Zerg count on sheer numbers and speed to overwhelm their opponents. The Terrans are the versatile and flexible alternative to both races, with an emphasis on specialization and combined arms. In many ways, the Terran can be considered the "in-between" race in that they tend to benefit from more moderate conditions, whereas the other two races tend to prefer one extreme or the other. This can make it difficult to create maps that are fair for all races.

Storyline

 * Main aticle: StarCraft storyline.

The plot of the original StarCraft game revolves around the arrival of the Zerg in the Koprulu Sector and their later invasion of the Protoss home world Aiur. After they have destroyed the Confederate colony on Chau Sara, the Zerg are used by the rebel organization Sons of Korhal, which lures them to a number Confederate worlds using psi-emitters to further their own goals. After the Confederacy's fall, the Sons of Korhal's leader, Arcturus Mengsk, establishes the Terran Dominion, crowning himself emperor. The Zerg Swarm is, however, closely followed by a Protoss fleet which burns down all worlds the Zerg infest. The leader of the Protoss task force, High Templar Tassadar, later discovers that he can disrupt the Zerg Overmind's control over the Swarm by eliminating his Cerebrate servants with the help of the Dark Templar. The involvement of the fallen Dark Templar will prove to be fateful; indeed, while slaying the Cerebrate Zasz, the Dark Templar Zeratul briefly comes in psychic contact with the Zerg Overmind, who is then informed of Aiur's location and directs his Swarm towards the Protoss world. The Protoss high authority, the Protoss Conclave, is defeated by the Zerg Swarm, along with a large proportion of all Protoss. In a desperate attempt to put an end to the Zerg's destruction, Tassadar, Zeratul, and the remaining Protoss unite their strengths with human Jim Raynor and attack the Overmind itself. They succeed in destroying it because Tassadar sacrifices himself, greatly assisting in its destruction.

Popularity
Even as of 2005, StarCraft is still one of the most popular online games in the world. The game itself has its own culture, similar to Slashdot's and Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) communities.

In the early 2000s, the game became extremely popular among South Korean online gamers, to the point of being exaggeratedly referred to as the national sport of South Korea by avid gamers, and the majority of StarCraft players now come from that country. The origin of this unusually high level of popularity is likely a combination of StarCraft's suitability for competitive multiplayer and the fact that it was released during the beginning of the boom in popularity of "cybercafes" in Seoul, resulting in a perfect opportunity for the game to catch on.

In South Korea, StarCraft professional gamers, known by their pseudonyms such as SlayerS_`BoxeR`, Iloveoov, [Oops]Reach, [ReD]NaDa, [NC]...YellOw, and Nal_rA are celebrities: their games are broadcast over the television channels MBC Game and Ongamenet. A selected few have made substantial monetary gains through this. For example, one highly successful player, "[Red]Nada", signed a 3 year, $500,000 contract in 2004. Another example is "SlayerS_`BoxeR" who can, if all goes well, make $780,000 in the next 3 years, making him the highest paid StarCraft player ever. Some players can earn a decent to good living from TV-contracts and sponsoring and tournament prizes. However, the lower-echelon pro players tend to subsist on relatively small wages. Many pro gamers playing StarCraft use every minute of their spare time to play, in order to maintain preparation for the highly competitive leagues. Superior StarCraft and Warcraft III players are often referred to as "gosu". Less than average skilled players are often called hasu. Professional gaming in South Korea is an example of how e-sports can attain a social status similar to physical sports.

Also of note is the infamous Operation CWAL (Can't Wait Any Longer). 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 (typing "operation cwal" during a single player game will dramatically decrease the time required to build units). While not very active today, Operation CWAL remains as one of Blizzard Entertainment's older and more loyal fan groups. Many CWALers are waiting for release information regarding another RTS in the StarCraft universe.

Cast

 * Sarah Kerrigan played by Glynnis Talken.
 * Tassadar played by Michael Gough.
 * Jim Raynor played by Robert Clotworthy.
 * Aldaris played by Paul Cho (Young Kwang).
 * Zeratul played by James Harper.

Influence
While it has many similarities with its conceptual predecessor Warcraft II, StarCraft also draws heavily from characters and scenarios taken from many science fiction works, most notably popular movies. For example, many characteristic elements of the Terran race in StarCraft are reminiscent of James Cameron's Aliens movie. Terran buildings much resemble the installations of the Hadley's Hope colony in Aliens; the resemblance is especially obvious in StarCraft's cutscenes (see cutscene The Amerigo). Terran Marines were also clearly inspired by Aliens' United States Colonial Marines Marines; both the Terran Marine and the Terran Dropship units in StarCraft directly quote characters from the movie (quotes include: "How do I get out of this chickenish *BEEP* outfit?!", "In the pipe, five by five.", "Hang on, we're in for some chop."). A full list of quotes can be found at StarCraft Legacy. The Gauss Rifle used by the Terran Marines has an LED digital ammo display much like the Pulse Rifle from Aliens. The Zerg Hydralisk and infestation process are also references to Aliens' Xenomorphs. In the four-mission string of the StarCraft demo version, which tell the events immediately preceding those of StarCraft, the Zerg are also referred to as Xenomorphs (see StarCraft Prequel). The Terran bipedal combat vehicle Goliath can be seen as drawing its inspiration from Japanese mecha and the Enforcement Droid Model 209 of RoboCop fame.

The popular Warhammer 40,000 series from Games Workshop also obviously had an influence StarCraft's design, plot development, and visual style, particularly in the resemblance of the Zerg to Warhammer's Tyranids and the Protoss to Warhammer's Eldar as well as the Terrans to Warhammer's Imperial Guard and Space Marines. They also share a similarity to Warhammer 40,000's Tau, but in fact, the Tau were not introduced as a race in Warhammer 40,000 until several years after the release of StarCraft. However the Zerg and Tyranids both are predated by the Kryomek game from 1991. Also, the game may borrow from Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, which mentions Overlords and an Overmind. The Firebat (flamethrower) troopers include a hero character named "Guy Montag," a direct reference to Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Tom Kazansky, the pilot of the hero Wraith (a fighter craft), takes his name from the Top Gun character better known as "Iceman".

The above examples are some of the more definitive references that could be made. There are also examples that may or may not exist as purposeful similarities. For example, some people believe that another major influence is Star Wars, with the Protoss having energy blades reminiscent of lightsabers and a philosophy/mysticism reminiscent of the Force, as well as the fact that Protoss infantry units disappear like Jedi when killed. The book Starship Troopers is another major influence, given that it depicted human troops in self-contained powered armor fighting against waves of "bug" enemies. Star Trek is also another influence, particularly the Battlecruiser's quotes. The Battlecruiser's "Yamato Gun" is clearly lifted from the Japanese Anime Space Battleship Yamato marketed in the US as Starblazers.

Because of its vast popularity, StarCraft has become extremely influential in the computer and video gaming fields. In the years immediately following its release, it became the bar against which new real-time strategy games were measured; for example, gaming news site Gamespot.com described StarCraft in 2003 as "The Standard by Which All Real-Time Strategy Games Are Judged" (Link). Several terms now widely used in computer gaming in reference to other games are directly derived from StarCraft: rush (popularized by the term "Zerg rush", although previously used in the multiplayer community of Warcraft II), zerging (though the latter has never actually been used in the StarCraft community itself, but as a derivation of "Zerg rush", has become popular among MMORPG players (primarily by players of World of Warcraft who use it as a claim that another player couldn't win without attacking with a large number of players- "all you do is zerg, you couldnt win one on one"]), and APM (Actions per Minute, first used and popularized by StarCraft game analyses, the term APM is now used throughout the multiplayer gaming community).

Novels and eBooks
StarCraft even became an inspiration for the creation of official novels and eBooks (some of which were not especially well-received by fans). Four novels were officially authorized by Blizzard Entertainment:


 * StarCraft: Uprising (2000) ISBN B00005AS12 (eBook only)
 * StarCraft: Liberty's Crusade (2001) ISBN 0671041487
 * StarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga (2001) ISBN 0671041495
 * StarCraft: Speed of Darkness (2002) ISBN 0671041509
 * ''StarCraft: Queen of Blades ISBN 0743471334
 * StarCraft Ghost: Nova (to be released December 2006) ISBN 0743471342

In addition, Blizzard Entertainment authorized two short stories in Amazing Stories magazine, entitled StarCraft: Hybrid and StarCraft: Revelations.

Numerous fan fiction works also take place in the StarCraft universe.

Custom scenarios
The game comes with a campaign/map editor (practically a "Game Creation System" in itself) called StarEdit. StarEdit has many features, including a trigger system that allows one to make radical changes to the way that map works, readily giving gamers the ability to create custom map scenarios (also called MOD's). Hundreds of custom scenarios are created everyday, giving the game a refreshing variety. The StarCraft map-making community has also constructed additional editors or functionalities that grant the user even more power to modify the game.

Scenarios are created with entirely different sets of rules, objectives, and units. More popular user created scenarios include Evolves, StarCraft Diplomacy, Golem Madness, Turret Defense, Sunken Defense, Nightmare RPG, and the ubiquitous Tower Defense. Maps set in the story lines of popular television shows are also widely used. Android Menace is a particularily developed example, taking place in a large portion of the Dragon Ball Z story line. Maps with infinite minerals are also very popular, examples including "Fastest Map Ever" and "0Clutter." Many real-world events, including the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, World War II and the American Civil War, have also been used as a base for StarCraft maps. There have been recent StarCraft maps depicting single or multiple scenes from books and movies, such as Troy and The Lord of the Rings. These maps include The Battle for Pelennor Fields and The Battle for Helm's Deep. In addition, a large amount of StarCraft players are also engaged in large, multi-player "Lord of the Rings"-type based maps, with each player controlling and developing a whole nation, complete with heros and units. Instead of the building their forces from the ground up, players are given control of pre-built cities and armies. Units are periodically created at a special point, called the "spawn point". The purpose of these maps is usually to destroy a certain building that, when destroyed, disables an enemy's ability to spawn units. These maps range from the tradition Lord of the Rings v. Last Alliance (LA) to newer maps such as The Rings of Power (TRoP) and After Lord of the Rings (After-LotR). Older maps include Lord of the Rings version GOLD, which many accept as the origination of the "castle building" idea, and Middle Earth version Pre Lord of the Rings, which introduced the concept of hero units that were dauntingly stronger than standard the units in a standard army, shifting the focus of the game from large-scale battles to single unit strategy. This includes the strategy of operations, or "opping", which involves using one hero unit to achieve a goal, such as the destruction of an opponents spawn(s) or heros.

The popularity of custom maps is not limited, however, to only online gaming. Because StarEdit allows the mapmaker to "link together" several maps, single player "campaigns" (which are long scenarios played out over several maps, hence the name "campaign") have become prominent in the community. Popularized by the revolutionary Antioch Chronicles, many campaigns even come with "MODs" that feature new "heroes" (i.e. the mapmakers create new art files to be imported in to StarCraft, thus creating completely new units and characters - something StarEdit alone could never do). Popular player-made campaigns include Campaign Creations' Legacy of the Confederation, Life of a Marine, The Antioch Chronicles, and StarCraft.org's official campaigns: The Shifters and Fields of Ash.

In addition, some other map editors exist. These include the "StarCraft X-tra Editor," and have other features not in StarEdit. One of the possibilities included in some editors include "stacking" buildings and minerals, placing many one on top of the other. The ability to change player colors has been left to some of the more advanced editors, including "SCMDraft" and "StarForge," which were introduced after editors such as "GUEdit" and SCMToolkit" were becoming obsolete after barriers were broken and newer limits set. Most serious map creators now prefer "SCMDraft2," "StarForge," "PROEdit," and "uBeR@TiOn," because they give the user in-depth capabilities, such as the ability to use hidden AI scripts, protect maps from common theft, running sizeless sounds directly from the StarCraft disc, changing the color of text, compressing their map, and in more advanced areas, place raw sprites, sprite-units, extended players, disabled units, etcetera. Most of these editors (excluding "StarCraft X-tra Editor") are designed from scratch, eliminating most of the limits of the original StarEdit, the "StarCraft Campaign Editor." Many of these 3rd party programs have revolutionized StarCraft map making and new discoveries as to what different sprites or unit numbers do to the game, or as the most effective way to cloak certain units are discovered virtually every day. Many websites including StarCraft.org, Staredit Network, and StarCraft Index have been built around the capabilities of these impressive StarEdits.

Replays, RWAs, VODs and Battle Reports
StarCraft enables the player to record a game and save it as a replay, which can then be viewed with any other copy of StarCraft, displaying the entire course of the game. As of 2005, there are many websites that host replays of players with different skill levels, though pro-level replays are relatively rarely released, for reasons of team secrecy and pro-league policy.

The RWAtools are a set of freeware tools, that create valid replay files, additionally containing an Ogg audio stream. They allow gamers to comment their own games while they play them and comment replays of other players. During replay the commentary is kept in sync with the game. 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.

BWChart is a program used to analyze a player's actions in order to teach the viewer how a given player plays.

Lasgo's Observer Pack contains, beside other things, a tool that allows you to see the results of the recorded player's actions as if you played yourself (except the mouse pointer and the selection boxes).

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, which plays them with seeking disabled, or in the Windows Media Video 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.

Awards
StarCraft has been nominated for GameFAQ's 10 best games ever, and Sony's Walk of Game.

Official sites

 * StarCraft homepage at Blizzard Entertainment
 * Battle.net StarCraft Compendium
 * StarCraft Forums

General

 * GosuGamers (News)
 * Team Liquid (News)
 * FighterForum (Progaming News)
 * StarCraft Legacy (News, content, Maps, Official link database)
 * StarCraft Index (News, content)
 * CreepColony (Maps, replays, files, strats, forum)
 * WGTour (News, ladder)
 * Rush-Time (French news, replays, articles)
 * 4Starcraft (News, Downloads, Replays, large Board)
 * StarCraft.org (Official map database)
 * Staredit.net (Unofficial map and UMS database)
 * Operation CWAL
 * netnexus.com (First StarCraft based RPG)
 * Replays.HU (Hungarian News, Large replay database)
 * YaoYuan (Chinese, Largest Replay, VOD Database)
 * Yellowchrome.org (List of updated Links)
 * BwTimes.net (Korean, Fan Columns, Fanfic, Progamer pics, Forum, Interviews, News)
 * pgr21 (Korean, News, Progaming statistics)
 * YGclan (Korean, News, Forum, Strats, Maps, Replays)
 * StarCraft NlN (Collection of StarCraft Bugs & Glitches)
 * BWProgrammers (Developer Site for third party programms ( upcoming BwTV))
 * StarCraft Atrium (Content)
 * EFWWH (Battle.net Humor)
 * Hangar Net (Brazilian discussion site)
 * StarCraft Top 200 - Collection of links as ranked by popularity
 * StarCraft Turkiye (Turkish, News, Forum, Replays)
 * First Look: Starcraft 2 - (A humorous article detailing the release of Starcraft 2.)

Strategies

 * Tsunami's Strat Guide (Zerg focused, somewhat out of date)
 * Art of BW (Terran focused)
 * Twotimer's Build Order Guide

Battlereports

 * BattleReports.com

Customs and Campaigns

 * Sovereign Modding Empire
 * Campaign Creations
 * Staredit Network
 * The Star Alliance Mods
 * Broodwar Artificial Intelligence Project
 * StarCraft Mod for Warcraft 3