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StarCraft: Legacy of the Real-Time Strategy

Simon Dor

Open Access

StarCraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 1998) is a real-time strategy video game, placing the player in command of three extraterrestrial races fighting against each other for strategic control of resources, terrain, and power. Simon Dor examines the game's unanticipated effect by delving into the history of the game and the two core competencies it encouraged: decoding and foreseeing. Although StarCraft was not designed as an e-sport, its role in developing foreseeing skills helped give rise to one of the earliest e-sport communities in South Korea.

Apart from the game's clear landmark status, StarCraft offers a unique insight into changes in gaming culture and, more broadly, the marketability and profit of previously niche areas of interest. The book places StarCraft in the history of real-time strategy games in the 1990s—Dune II, Command & Conquer, Age of Empires—in terms of visual style, narrative tropes, and control. It shows how design decisions, technological infrastructures, and a strong contribution from its gaming community through Battle.net and its campaign editor were necessary conditions for the flexibility it needed to grow its success. In exploring the fanatic clusters of competitive players who formed the first tournaments and professionalized gaming, StarCraft shows that the game was key to the transition towards foreseeing play and essential to competitive gaming and e-sports.

Citable Link

Published: 2024

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

License:

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license

ISBN(s)

978-0-472-05677-4 (paper)
978-0-472-07677-2 (hardcover)
978-0-472-90445-7 (open access)

Series

Landmark Video Games

Subject

Resources

StarCraft original game manual along with the Brood War expansion manual.

Screenshot 1

From Introduction

Fig. 1.Main cover art for StarCraft and its expansion, Brood War

A Terran Marine, a Protoss Zealot, and a Zerg Hydralisk under the title StarCraft.

Screenshot 2

From Introduction

Fig. 2.Original loading screen for StarCraft, showing typical characters respectively for Terrans (a Marine), Protoss (a Zealot), and Zerg (a Hydralisk)

Left, game buildings in hexagon frames, linked together with lines illustrating their dependencies. Right, game units in hexagon frames with the name of the buildings needed to create them.

Screenshot 3

From Chapter 1

Fig. 3.Zerg building and unit dependencies, part of their “technology tree,” as annexed in the game box

Three game screenshots. Top, everything is dark. Middle, a Zerg drone can see Protoss probes gathering minerals and Protoss buildings. Bottom, the same space is now in light dark and shows only the buildings.

Screenshot 4

From Chapter 1

Fig. 4.The “fog of war” principle. Top, a hidden location. Middle, a location actively revealed by friendly units. Bottom, a previously explored location without active friendly units

Illustration of the Heuristic Circle of Gameplay.

Screenshot 5

From Chapter 1

Fig. 5.The Heuristic Circle of Gameplay by Bernard Perron

A screenshot from Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty, showing a base and a quad unit in a desertic setting.

Screenshot 6

From Chapter 1

Fig. 6.Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty

A screenshot from Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, where Orc units attack Human units individually from one side of a bridge.

Screenshot 7

From Chapter 1

Fig. 7.Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and the puller strategy

Illustration of the Heuristic Circle of Real-Time Strategy.

Screenshot 8

From Chapter 1

Fig. 8.The Heuristic Circle of Real-Time Strategy

A screenshot from Herzog Zwei, showing a vertically split screen where red and blue units are each by their side.

Screenshot 9

From Chapter 1

Fig. 9.Herzog Zwei

A screenshot from Modem Wars, where red and blue units fight each other in the top-right quadrant while the position of each unit on the battlefield takes the left-half of the screen.

Screenshot 10

From Chapter 1

Fig. 10.Modem Wars (DOS version, emulated through DOSBox)

In-game screens feature two Protoss characters talking to each other, while text captions in the middle shows their dialog and game objectives are indicated in a bottom-left screen.

Screenshot 11

From Chapter 2

Fig. 11.Tassadar warns the Executor (player character) that Aldaris tries to control them

An in-game screenshot. Sarah Kerrigan's sprite is on the field in teal, her face on the bottom screen and (optionally) her dialogs are subtitled. Terran normal units and buildings are indicated in red.

Screenshot 12

From Chapter 2

Fig. 12.Sarah Kerrigan’s sprite on the field (top right quarter), her face on the bottom screen and (optionally) her dialogs are subtitled

Game units and buildings from an early version of StarCraft.

Screenshot 13

From Chapter 2

Fig. 13.The “Orcs in Space” version of StarCraft showcased at E3 1996 From Wyatt 2012d.

A screenshot from Atrox, which shows a similar interface than in StarCraft.

Screenshot 14

From Chapter 2

Fig. 14.Atrox, a rare case of a game inspired visually by StarCraft

Three Terran buildings (one Barracks and two Supply Depots) placed closed to each other to block a narrow passage.

Screenshot 15

From Chapter 5

Fig. 15.A wall on “Destination”

A Zerg Overlord flies over a ramp facing the player’s point-of-view.

Screenshot 16

From Chapter 5

Fig. 16.The ramp is facing the player’s point-of-view

Ridges that show glitches in their visual representation.

Screenshot 17

From Chapter 5

Fig. 17.Ridges on “Heartbreak Ridge” that does not really fit together visually, especially at the bottom

A screenshot from the “Fastest Possible Map”. Zerg drones harvest from a single mineral very close to their hatchery, while a lot of vespene geysers are chunked on each side of the building.

Screenshot 18

From Chapter 5

Fig. 18.“Fastest Possible Map”