6.370 Home: Background: Primer: Future

The general definition of RTS given at the beginning of this primer tries to abstract away all but the non-changing features of the genre as new games are released. I've mentioned that the features most likely to change are constraints and types of constraints; this means adding new types of units, buildings, resources, terrains, and new dependencies between these four components. After one expansion pack, a game usually reaches a limit beyond which adding more constraints increases tedium rather than fun. Therefore, sequels have to push the envelope in other ways to maintain player interest yet still remain an RTS game.

StarCraft, while it had beautiful graphics, was still pushing 2D sprites around 2D tilesets. At the same time, Dark Reign and Total Annihilation both boasted 3D terrains which let your tanks wobble as they clambered over a hill or your submarines waver through the refractive index of water. Starting in 2000, RTS games pushed the concept of 3D further to include a freely rotating viewpoint. The first attempts, like Force Commander from LucasArts, failed miserably due to awkward camera controls, while 3D RTS latecomers, like Homeworld from Sierra, learned from these early mistakes and yielded breathtaking, cinematic gameplay.

The much-maligned Force Commander.		Sending your fighters into battle in Homeworld.

Tired of harvesting, building, and destroying? Blizzard and Westwood don't want you to break your RTS-buying streak for some role-playing or sim game, so they are starting to borrow features from other genres; that way, you'll think RTS is still where the cool kids hang out. The yet-to-be-released WarCraft III bills itself as a role-playing strategy (RPS), allowing you to travel around maps with small bands of units similar to Heroes of Might and Magic as well as building up the skills of these units from map to map similar to Force Commander and Homeworld.

Screenshot from the much-anticipated WarCraft III.

Think RTS is a waste of time? Well, if South Koreans get their way, it'll soon join the ranks of Olympic sports, like curling, which is obviously not a waste of time. Technology employees laid off by recent economic recessions in the Far East cut their losses by opening hundreds of ... online gaming rooms. Which is why South Korea needs to be the most well-connected country on the planet. You can still make loads of cash playing StarCraft professionally on the circuit or teaching budding young gamers the fine art of the zergling rush— not bad for a game released in 1998. Pop artists record cover labels of the StarCraft theme. Ladder winners are cult heroes. And they're playing RTS, baby. Read about it here.

Hopefully this primer has given you a better understanding of realtime strategy and its prominent place in electronic gaming. I have had to omit some advanced features of RTS like fog-of-war; supply and population limits; and dynamics of multi-player games. These concepts are not necessary for participating in 6.370, but you can learn more about them by playing the games recommended at the beginning of the primer. In conclusion, I would welcome any comments you have about this primer, especially regarding its accuracy and effectiveness; please send feedback to 6370-chair@mit.edu.