Uploaded January 2015 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago
I remember making fun of Starcraft a lot when I first heard about it. “So, it’s Warcraft in space. Uh, I give a shit about this because… why, exactly?” Stuff like that. The lesson here, as always: I’m an idiot. Back in the late 90s, before the Diablo series had really hit it’s stride with Diablo II and World of Warcraft wasn’t even a dot on the horizon, Blizzard was making some of the best RTS (Real Time Strategy, for you neophytes) games in history. Seriously, I’d still play the shit out of Warcraft II if I had a computer that’d run it. Starcraft, initially, felt to me like it was going to be more of the same, and from a mechanical standpoint it wasn’t wildly dissimilar from other top-tier RTSs of its day. You had a variety of buildings and units, you maneuvered them around several different battlefields to collect resources and beat your opponent, and that was it. The one major change (and, in fairness, it was a big deal at the time), was that you had 3 unique races to choose from instead of just two. But what set Starcraft apart for me was the world building, backstory, characters and mythology that Blizzard developed for what has become one of the most successful franchises in PC-gaming history.
I remember making fun of Starcraft a lot when I first heard about it. “So, it’s Warcraft in space. Uh, I give a shit about this because… why, exactly?” Stuff like that. The lesson here, as always: I’m an idiot. Back in the late 90s, before the Diablo series had really hit it’s stride with Diablo II and World of Warcraft wasn’t even a dot on the horizon, Blizzard was making some of the best RTS (Real Time Strategy, for you neophytes) games in history. Seriously, I’d still play the shit out of Warcraft II if I had a computer that’d run it. Starcraft, initially, felt to me like it was going to be more of the same, and from a mechanical standpoint it wasn’t wildly dissimilar from other top-tier RTSs of its day. You had a variety of buildings and units, you maneuvered them around several different battlefields to collect resources and beat your opponent, and that was it. The one major change (and, in fairness, it was a big deal at the time), was that you had 3 unique races to choose from instead of just two. But what set Starcraft apart for me was the world building, backstory, characters and mythology that Blizzard developed for what has become one of the most successful franchises in PC-gaming history.
