Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty was the presciently titled 1992 game for DOS that set a number of important standards for the RTS genre. However, one fateful omission would cut the game’s lifespan short. The game lacked a multiplayer option, a mode of play that would soon become the raison d'etre for some of the greatest RTS games of all time.
By 1994, the next great game in the genre had come along. It was brighter, faster and gave gamers the ever-important option to face off against human opponents from around the world in full-scale war.
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was Blizzard Entertainment’s first entry into the genre. It took the now-classic RTS foundation that Dune 2 had built and dragged it toward the future. The increased speed was the greatest gameplay departure in a title which otherwise borrowed heavily from its predecessor.
Following Warcraft, 1995’s Command & Conquer was the next milestone RTS title to hit the market. Westwood Studios, the creators of Dune 2, built a new game and set aside many of the key points pioneered by Dune 2. The now genre-standard user interface of Dune 2 was altered, user control of the army and important game design choices were changed. The simultaneously confusing and fascinating mechanic of profound army asymmetry (i.e. different factions possessing different weapons and units with which to fight) was brought to new heights. This brought the game new depth.
Brett Sperry, a game designer and the man who coined the term RTS, described C&C to Gamespot.com as a clean start on the idea of real time strategy.
"Command & Conquer was the net result of the Dune 2 wish list," said Sperry. "It was time to build the ultimate RTS."
By 1995, online gaming was already a substantial and growing phenomenon. Doom and Doom 2 were at the forefront of the movement, serving as the backbone of the young online competitive gaming community.
In much the same way that an energetic group of fans organized leagues, news sites and teams for the FPS genre, Command & Conquer was the game in which the RTS genre began to permanently establish a serious community on the internet. Gaming networks such as Kali provided an unmatched competitive environment, an exciting setting where players could grab games at any time, contend with opponents the world over and track their stats through it all. Competitions began in earnest with C&C and a new community was born.
Kali was released in 1995, a successor to a program called iDOOM which Kali co-creator Scott Coleman had written in order to play Doom over the internet. Within a short period, Kali became one of the more important institutions in online RTS gaming. It would stay that way for several years, eventually developing a community rivalry with the official Blizzard online service dubbed Battle.net.
Case’s Ladder was, for a time, the premiere competitive platform for Warcraft. Although its set-up was exceedingly simple (players reported matches via e-mail), its success was significant. It can be partly credited for Blizzard’s decision to include an integrated ladder system in StarCraft.
In December of 1995, Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness was released. This was, without a doubt, the most important competitive strategy title to date.
"It was popular in school," said Blid, the 28 year old administrator for War2.ru, the largest surviving Warcraft 2 community on the net. “Not only did I have friends who I'd play over modem late at night, but I'd even hear about people I didn't know well but who played the game. And we'd arrange a time for one person to set his game to 'receive call' and the other to dial him up on the modem.”
Having begun just a few years prior, the proliferation of online gaming signaled a new era in esports. This would be an increasingly democratic movement in which anyone with access to the increasingly popular and affordable personal computer (and eventually consoles) could participate.
From a growing number of points on the planet, a person could create or modify a game, compete in a tournament and become a recognized champion, a celebrated competitor in a vigorous niche.
"The biggest difference between Warcraft 1 and 2 was the multiplayer," Blid continued. "Compared to the sequel, not many people played Warcraft [1] multiplayer and it didn't have the same capabilities online. I think with Warcraft 2, a lot of people first started playing with modem-play."
From the Warcraft 2 competitive community, it is easy to trace a direct line to the communities of StarCraft, Warcraft 3 and StarCraft 2, three of the most popular and important competitive titles of all time.
Kali, the Windows network emulator, solidified its place as the home of top competitive RTS. Players such as Guillaume "Grrrr..." Patry and Christopher "Pillars" Page, gamers who would go on to become trailblazing professional StarCraft players in Korea, earned their competitive start playing Warcraft 2 on Kali. Complete with cliques, characters, creativity, a serious competitive streak and close knit groups of friends that would help build an industry, Kali was home to a genre on the rise.
While Warcraft 1 and Command & Conquer were titles with relatively short-lived competitive lifespans, Warcraft 2 was at or near the top of the genre for almost three years.
As is the mark of the greatest strategy games, Warcraft 2 is a living and breathing entity with countless twisting paths for a player to take.
The most important RTS games of all time are famous for their ability to fight off the affects of age, to defy stagnation and continue to bring to the foreground new tricks, tactics, strategies and moves that will keep a player thinking hard for years. The greatest competitive games of all time allow for and demand players always move forward.
Call it perpetual motion, the continued evolution that provides fans and players with endless possibilities. Like almost no game before it, Warcraft 2 delivered.