Before Overwatch, before World of Warcraft, before Activision, Blizzard Entertainment was known primarily as a developer of real-time strategy games. Of course, they dabbled in other genres a bit throughout the 90s, releasing hits like Rock n’ Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings, not to mention the genre-defining Diablo. But their backbone in the late 90s was the twin franchises of Warcraft and Starcraft. By the early 2000s, Warcraft was mostly left behind due to its futuristic sequel – Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness came out way back in 1995, and RTS fans mostly switched to the hugely popular Starcraft. But then, on July 3, 2002, Blizzard released Warcraft III.
The game has expanded beyond the three factions of Starcraft to include four – the Alliance, the Night Elves, the Orcs, and the Undead. For the first time in Blizzard’s RTS, characters and buildings were presented as 3D models rather than 2D objects. And the hero-focused gameplay brought role-playing elements, in which players were challenged to hunt down “creeps” on the map, using their characters to build up their powers while improving their tech tree and defending their base.
Warcraft III further expanded on the fantasy world that Blizzard continued to explore in World of Warcraft. But perhaps its most enduring and expansive legacy is in games built on user-generated content. While MOBAs have their origins in the “Aeon of Strife” map created for Starcraft, the Warcraft III Defense of the Ancients mod really started it. It’s no exaggeration to say that games like League of Legends probably wouldn’t exist today if it wasn’t for Warcraft III. Considering that another genre has since evolved from the MOBA (auto-battlers), Warcraft III is probably one of the most generative games of the last 20 years.
