Gods of RTS - Part 2

...Continued from Part 1

Ensemble Studios - Bruce Shelley - (Age of... ...Empires ...Mythology) - The Age of Empires series (1997) really introduced the genera to the concept of micro managing resources, and the battle of attrition. Age also gave us the concept of grouping tech jumps, which helped create that edge over other players. Even today, the term "Age Jump" is used when a player hits the next phase of tech tree. Bruce Shelly was also the silent genius behind the first Civilization game, sorry Sid. So, the Age series basically allowed us to play a limited Civ like game in Real-time. Ensemble's down fall today may be related to its marriage to Microsoft. Microsoft is a advertising powerhouse and funds many of the game reviewing websites, helping Age of Empires 3 sell a crap load of licenses. The problem, AoE3 wasn't really a good game as we were all lead to believe, resulting now in buyer specticism. In addition, Ensemble failed to support the expansion Titans for AoM, due to poor support.

Blizzard - Allen Adham - (Warcraft, Starcraft) - In 1998, Starcraft gave us the concept multiple races that were totally different in gaming style. This helped prove that diversity could work in the stessful environment of real-time. Unfortunately, the balance was never quite on, resulting in Protoss late game wins. Starcraft also gets credit for the perfecting the term "rushing" or "zergling rush". Love it or hate it, rushing is a form of strategy. Blizzard's down fall in the RTS genera was with Warcraft 3. WC3 came off more as a marking tool for its upcoming MMORPG World of Warcraft. Sure, Warcraft 3 helped diversify the universe of Warcraft, but did little else. The RPG hero element wasn't all that great either.With the success of World of Warcraft, Blizzard these days is pumping most of its resources into its MMORPG, resulting its removal from RTS greatness in the 21st century.