StarCraft (series)

StarCraft
Genre(s)	RTS
Year of Release	1998
Platform(s)	Mac, Windows
Developer(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Official Website	http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/sc/

StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy (RTS) game released by Blizzard Entertainment in 1998. The game was the first to feature three uniquely different playable races, the interplay of which posed a very complex balancing act with such great depth and variation in strategy that made it one of the best-selling games for the PC, with more than 11 million copies sold as of 2009. The main story is set around 2500 AD in a distant part of the Milky Way Galaxy, when the Terrans, who are descendants of the exiled prisoners from Earth, come in conflict with the insect-like Zerg and the highly evolved Protoss. The storyline is unveiled chronologically in single-player campaigns, each played with a different race. StarCraft's gameplay is typical of the RTS style established since the 90s, involving resource gathering, unit production, fog of war, and management of supply quota. The game is played from third person view with a mouse used for unit control and map navigation, similar to the PC's graphical user interface. Its replay value was considered phenomenal due to its support of multi-player mode through LAN and Battle.net, which facilitated competitive play and laid the ground for the prominent rise of professional gaming in South Korea. The fun in multi-player mode was also complemented by the map editor, which availed new maps with different scenarios emulating other games and genres.