The Escapist Issue #48 Now Available

The forty-eighth issue of Escapist Magazine contains three new articles that all deal with Blizzard Entertainment and the success of their Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft franchises.

Warcraft, like Dune II, was a RTS game, in which the player mined resources in order to build an army. The difference, however, was in the details. Warcraft was set in the fictional world of Azeroth, a land which borrowed heavily from the fantasy universe created by J.R.R. Tolkien. In Warcraft, a horde of orcs have invaded the world of humans and must be pushed back (by the player) to the world from whence they’ve come. Or, alternately, the player must guide the invading orcs onward to victory against the hapless, medieval humans.

Naturally, the story was very familiar to an audience of young, computer- literate gamers. The same could be said of practically every other fantasy tale created since Mr. Tolkien’s epic trilogy was written, but the premise
was simple enough for someone unfamiliar with the Tolkien books to appreciate. It didn’t hurt that Warcraft, in addition to a more compellingly familiar story, offered a handful of other gameplay improvements over Dune II, as well. The resulting product was a game that was at once familiar, accessible and addictive – in other words, a breakout hit.

Warcraft sold enough copies to justify a sequel, which in turn spawned an expansion. Blizzard then achieved the trifecta of game sales, a “Gold Edition” re-release of all three titles called The Warcraft Battlechest. Needless to say, the little company in Irvine was doing quite well for itself. Flush with cash, Blizzard then decided to do a little shopping – for third- party game studios.