Genre Defining Games: Warcraft 3, The beginning of a huge revolution in the gaming world.

When it comes to something as big as Warcraft 3, it's hard to get it all together and do your research and write out a coherent structure, this is the first article iv'e had trouble on, not because it's hard to write or hard to go through the lists but it's hard to shrink the achievements and reach of Warcraft 3 into something that can be read in one sitting, it's extremely far reaching in many different ways, from RTS to MOBA to MMO, back to RTS and even into future genres, Warcraft 3 has had a profound, lasting effect on the gaming world and it's impossible to shrink down it's achievement too much.

So i'm going to try to keep this short and hopefully I don't miss too much.

Setting and Story

Warcraft 3 picks up after the events of Warcraft 2, in the magical world of Azeroth, after a successful story in Warcraft 2, Blizzard decided to go one step further and set up plots and story lines that are still being rapped up now, almost 16 years later, these stories would be expending in a massive way through the expansion, The Frozen Throne, but also through World of Warcraft, arguably the most successful MMORPG to ever exist, during the early 2000's, video games were just starting to take their stride and Warcraft 3 would go on to take running leaps, as the fan base not only grew, but the aforementioned World of Warcraft would release in 2004, making Warcraft 3 the last RTS game in the warcraft franchise for 16 years.

The setting of Warcraft 3 moved away from factions and racial wars and moved into the more mystical fantasy realms, with characters like The Lich King, the master of the undead, the return of the Burning Legion, the demonic host of Sargeras who aims to wipe out all life, but also to set up new and unique characters that would go on to play massive roles in the following years such as Illidan Stormrage, Sylvannas Windrunner and Jaina Proudmoore, but also in technical aspects of the RTS genre, refining their already amazing work with Starcraft and adding even more support to the map creator and editor that would eventually lead to one of the biggest E-Sports games of all time.

The game also had some relative success in the early competitive scene and I have no doubt that Warcraft 4 would of been truly amazing but instead we got something a little different in terms of Warcraft 4, something that is still talked about today and became a household name to even non gamers.

The Birth of World of Warcraft.

It's hard to talk about Warcraft 3 without also talking bout World of Warcraft, the most popular MMORPG of all time, building on their success of Warcraft 3 and The Frozen Throne, Blizzard had been developing World Of Warcraft in the background, 2 years after the release of Warcraft 3 they would release World Of Warcraft to massive success that would go on to become a household name and draw an entire generation into gaming, unfortunately this signaled the end of the warcraft RTS, 16 years removed and Warcraft 4 is still a distant dream however what occurred in Warcraft 3 was the basis for WoW in more ways than one.

Having an already expansive lore and memorable places, World of Warcraft brought warcraft to life with capital cities, iconic places and the heroes and villains of the warcraft franchise, their basis for the players character however influenced from previous MMORPG'S was better refined by the hero system they had in Warcraft 3, hero characters were stronger than normal units, could be leveled up and unlock new talents as well as equip items this very rough outline would become the basis of World of Warcraft.

However this isn't a World of Warcraft review so lets move on.

DotA

Warcraft 3 spawned the "first" iteration of the MOBA genre, and with it a game that would take the competitive e-sports scene by storm, while not a Blizzard creation, a dedicated team expanded on Warcraft 3's hero system and refined it into a sharp point, Defense of the Ancients, DotA, is a 5v5 hero battle map where instead of the standard RTS experience, players controlled a single hero, one they could level up and who all had different abilities that worked in synergy with the team that was playing.

DotA started off slow but quickly gained popularity a few months before the release of the Frozen Throne, it's also important to note that the basis of DotA can be traced back to Starcraft's map "Aeon of Strife", as DotA surged in popularity in the late 2005's, tournaments began to pop up everywhere and would later lead to the second game "Dota 2" that would form The International, a massive tournament of Dota 2 that would see millions of dollars in prize money change hands, DotA is also responsible for numerous "clones" of the game, such as League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth and i guess you could argue Heroes of the Storm.

But it's strange that a game like DotA, being a mod of Warcraft 3, could spawn another genre by itself, one that has nothing to do with RTS games in anyway or even Warcraft 3.

The OBA genre

The OBA genre is hard to define, while it shares a lot of lineage with Team Fortress 1&2, the refined characteristics and hero mechanics of games such as Overwatch, Dirty Bomb, Paladins and even Smite can trace their lineage back to Warcraft 3, while yes it's true Blizzard weren't the first to create the hero class being the main character they instead refined it and drew on it's legacy, piecing these things together is complicated, there's a lot of gaps and holes, but it's important to note that if you were tie a string from Overwatch to Warcraft 3, you'd actually be able to make a very solid connection to each other.

Hero shooters are becoming huge in the world of gaming, while they do also trace their lineage to Team Fortress Classic, the contributions of Warcraft 3 can't be understated, what seems like a small piece of the puzzle now, was actually a very large piece in the early 2000's and their hero upgrade system would go on to take many different iterations and versions as the years went on, most notably, the longest stretch would be games like Overwatch, an RTS that is 16 years old today, somehow influencing an entire different and new genre, also made by Blizzard.

What about the actual game?

We've heard a lot about the accomplishments of Warcraft 3 and it's long stretching legacy, but what about Warcraft 3 itself? well it's kind of underwhelming, while an amazing game no doubt, it never hit the mark in the same way that Starcraft did, this isn't because it's a bad game, rather that Starcraft did such an amazing job of revolutionizing the RTS genre that Warcraft 3 couldn't compete, but it really didn't need to strangely, unlike Starcraft which focused on intense in-depth strategy and Actions per minute, Warcraft 3 was a more "casual" experience.

While it does have the same basics as Starcraft, Base Building, Resource management and Army makeup, it was a lot slower than Starcraft in terms of not needing to be switched on all the time to still succeed in the game, the hero class system managed to work as a stop-gap between Starcraft and Warcraft in terms of unit cohesion and game play, where as Starcraft would see players create army waves to use, Warcraft allowed players to do this with faction heroes that could level up and act as a small army themselves.

While the multiplayer aspect of Warcraft 3 wasn't as big as Starcraft, the Single player campaign was truly amazing, creating new fans of the Warcraft universe as they played the campaign and would later go on to create World Of warcraft where the stories were even more expanded and the factions and heroes came to life, the biggest draw of Warcraft 3 though strangely, was the world editor and custom map creation, while Starcraft also had this, people tended to focus more on the competitive scene rather than custom maps.

I spent literally thousands of hours in Warcraft 3 playing custom maps, Footmen Frenzy, Enfos Team Survival, Tower Defense, DotA, Tech Wars, Fortress Survival, the maps and game modes were endless and lead to extremely fun lan parties back in the day, since it had a dedicated community there was always something new to try, something i feel that is lacking in the current iterations of RTS games, where half the fun comes from exploring different, crazy and weird maps, one of which being DotA which as you know would later become one of the biggest games in the world.

Critical Review and Reception.

As a massive Warcraft fan, Warcraft 3 created story lines and plots that would keep me entertained for nearly 20 years, it spawned numerous genres, games and has an amazing prestige in the gaming world, one of the last "big" RTS games to ever hit the market, Warcraft 3 is still being played to this day online and new maps surprisingly keep coming out, all though most of the community has moved to Starcraft 2.

While not an amazing multi player experience, it had enough to completely revolutionize the gaming world and the single player campaign can't be understated for it's importance and sheer awesomeness, it's innovative hero class system would go on to be the basis for numerous different games and arguably spawned the Moba genre by itself, it also created a lasting impression on the gaming world that a single game could be responsible for great strides in its own way, personally for me Warcraft has been a lifelong enjoyment for me in the story department, creating some memorable and amazing characters I have followed for over 20 years.

Whatever the case may be for Warcraft 3's legacy, it still stands as an amazing game that revolutionized the gaming world in the early 2000's that would go on to alter how we play games and how games would eventually be made.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review, if you enjoyed it feel free to up-vote, resteem or follow me for more, have you got any memorable moments from Warcraft 3? let me know in the comments and i'll get back to you as soon as possible, thanks guys!