This article is a continuation of a series. See Part 1 and Part 2 for context. In what should be the last of my Warcraft/Starcraft changelog rants, I’d like to talk about the biggest shocker I encountered upon learning Starcraft 2′s launch details. It wasn’t the in-game RPG talkathon, or the Lost Vikings homage. It [...]

If, by some odd twist of fate, you’ve found my blog before you ever heard of David Sirlin,
I would like to make a formal apology.

I apologize for creating Top Tier Tactics since it has, just by merit of its existence, made it slightly less likely you could find David Sirlin’s game design site. After all, most Internet users navigate the web by typing “games” into The Google and hitting I’m Feeling Lucky, right?

Think of it as required reading for Owning Ass 101.

So, who is David Sirlin? He’s a designer. He’s a guru. He’s the human embodiment of gaming philosophy from the nuances of balance to the overarching meta-knowledge of all things competitive and fun.

He’s basically the person you probably wished you’d be when you were [insert your current age here].

Last time, we established that the majority of improvements between Starcraft 1 and Starcraft 2 were actually improvements from Starcraft 1 to Warcraft 3. From the basic 3D camera to the UI and control improvements, a lot of the credit Starcraft 2 has received for its advancement since the original is probably a tad overstated.

More puzzling, however, was the large number of RTS innovations included in Warcraft 3 that are absent in Starcraft 2. The previous article focused primarily on anti-cheesing measures built into each race’s infrastructure that decreased the rock-paper-scissors aspect of early game rushes. With them, Warcraft 3 managed to remove the majority of all-in cheese from the game without placing awkward terrain or time restrictions on players.

What else did Blizzard’s oldest RTS include in its newest offering? For one thing: dynamic environments.

With all the fawning and fanfare over Starcraft 2, it’s easy to highlight how long it’s been since the original Zergling simulator debuted, and how much has changed and improved.

But as accumulated play time increases and more and more aggressive, odd, and cheesy builds emerge, it’s just as easy to overlook how little Starcraft has actually evolved. Where is the modern RTS dynamism and evolution gamers have been waiting for?

Turns out they missed it. It was called Warcraft 3.