Warcraft

This article is about the first game in the Warcraft series. For the game world as a whole, see Warcraft Universe.

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy computer game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment in 1994. Warcraft was developed for the DOS operating system and is available for Windows and Macintosh. Warcraft is noted for being one of the most successful franchises in computer game history, and has revolutionized the real-time strategy genre of computer games. The game is set in the kingdom of Azeroth, as it appears in later games. (Note that Azeroth is also the name of the continent and world in which the games are set.)

Overview

Bloodthirsty orcs — denizens of another dimension — discover a portal allowing them to enter the largely peaceful human kingdom of Azeroth. The player can play as either the Orcs or the Humans, the main differences being the spells of the spellcaster units.

This screenshot of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans shows a small village with two footmen guarding it. Some of the surrounding terrain is obscured in the fog of war.

Sequels

Warcraft was followed by the two sequels: Warcraft II and Warcraft III, and the spin-off MMORPG World of Warcraft. While it is possible to win the original game as either race, sequels assumed that the war on which the game focuses was won by the Orcs, leading to the formation of "The Alliance" by humans, elves, dwarves and gnomes.

Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans was to be an adventure game set in the Warcraft universe, but was cancelled near the end of the development cycle. The official press release cited "poor quality" and a "lack of standards" as reasons for the game's sudden cancelation. Blizzard later used the plot of the game as the basis for a Warcraft novel (see Spin-offs section).

Trivia

• Bill Roper , the game designer and self-proclaimed "closet actor," provided all the voices for this game and the sequel Warcraft II.
• Individual characters in the game give amusing responses when clicked repeatedly. Blizzard Entertainment has maintained this feature in all of its strategy games, and many other companies have copied it.

Legacy

Due to the success of the game, several developers created "clones" of the game that included several similar elements. One of these were the open source clone FreeCraft. However, developers cancelled the project when Blizzard Entertainment sent a cease-and-desist letter letter in July 2003. The letter concerned the use of the –Craft in the name and the inclusion of ideas which were too similar to Warcraft II. The game has continued development under the name Stratagus.

Spin-offs

Besides the aforementioned MMORPG World of Warcraft, there exists the following spin-offs:

• A set of three books (simply titled Warcraft), related only by their placement in the Warcraft Universe
  • Warcraft #1: Day of the Dragon, Richard Knaak
  • Warcraft #2: Lord of the Clans, Christie Golden (based on the aforementioned cancelled game, Warcraft Adventures)
  • Warcraft #3: The Last Guardian, Jeff Grubb
• A trilogy of novels, Warcraft: War of the Ancients, Richard Knaak
• A new upcoming trilogy of novels, Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, Richard Knaak (with illustrations by manhwa artist Jae Hwan Kim )
• Several lines of action figures
• A Warcraft tabletop role-playing game (Warcraft the Roleplaying Game)
• A Warcraft strategy board game
• Various other merchandise

External links

• The Official Warcraft I Homepage
• Blizzard's Official Warcraft Homepage
• Article on the cancellation of Warcraft Adventures
• Article about the cancellation of FreeCraft
• Warcraft 3 Top 200
• Blizzard's Warcraft merchandise