StarCraft: The Catalyst of the Pro-Gaming Revolution

Ultimately the StarCraft universe was very well received by gamers and served, to great effect, in bringing many science fiction fans, who were not already gamers, into gaming’s fold. Blizzard’s fans from WarCraft II remained loyal despite the RTS genre not continuing in the WarCraft universe. By expanding the appeal of the game to a larger demographic, StarCraft was able to become the number one selling PC Game in 1998, selling over 1.5 million copies. To date, StarCraft has sold over 9.5 million copies worldwide.

With StarCraft acting as the gateway and introducing record numbers of gamers to the scene, the player pool suddenly became large enough such that a player of any skill level would very likely be playing at the same time as another player of approximately equivalent skill. Previously, games involving multiple players typically had to be arranged in advance, and would generally not take place between anonymous players. There were of course exceptions to this rule as with Kali, a game browser and chat system which connected WarCraft II players in exchange for a monthly fee. The additional cost of services such as Kali deterred most players from participating in online play however, severely reducing the available player pool.

StarCraft was the second game released by Blizzard to make use of Battle.net, Blizzard’s free online gaming service incorporated directly into the game. Battle.net meant that every single gamer who purchased a copy of StarCraft was able to meet and connect to other players online, instantly, without downloading anything extra, at no additional cost (providing they had the required internet connection of course). The number of users using the Battle.net online game service skyrocketed over 800% shortly after StarCraft’s release. This multiplayer feature strongly encouraged players to engage one another online, going well beyond the traditional single player part of the game.

The Battle.net service, initially packaged with Diablo, offered gamers only basic services like online chatting and game listings. Gamers connecting to the service could talk with others and create and join multiplayer games of Diablo. Aside from user account information, no game data was stored on Battle.net servers. Battle.net served only as an intermediary to connect players to each other.

To even further promote competition between gamers, StarCraft’s version of Battle.net was expanded to include ladder play, where in addition player’s statistics being recorded, they were ranked and would gain or lose points depending on the rank of their opponent after winning or losing a game. To help cope with the surge of additional players logging in for StarCraft, Battle.net also gave players access to game filters to aid them in finding a suitable opponent. Online competition heated up tremendously as players contended to hold a top spot on StarCraft’s ladder. Eventually, top ladder players would be rewarded by receiving the privilege of attending invitational only tournaments, some where the champion would take home over $10,000.

The Battle.net service for StarCraft was later divided into four gateways, US East, US West, Europe, and Asia. Players could choose to connect to the gateway closest to them in order to ensure the best connections and minimize language barriers. Each gateway had a separate ladder and unique statistics for its users, and has sparked much debate about which hosts the best players, West vs. East in particular.

By expanding the demographic being targeted to vastly increase the number of gamers, in combination with providing a completely free, ranked online service for those players to compete with one another, StarCraft had indeed sown the seeds needed for a competitive gaming revolution! All that remained was to find a bed upon which those seeds could flourish. As it so happened, these seeds did not go neglected for long.

Immediately following its release, StarCraft began gaining huge popularity in South Korea at an alarming rate. By October 21, 1999 StarCraft had sold over 1 million copies in Korea. According to the industry standards, and given that Korea has a population of approximately 40 million, a successful game was considered to sell 10,000 – 15,000 units, this made the StarCraft phenomenon in Korea completely unprecedented! Worldwide, StarCraft enjoyed sales of more than 3 million units at this time, resulting in over one third of all StarCraft players being Korean. Of the 9.5 million copies of StarCraft sold to date, over 3.5 million of those were sold in South Korea, maintaining the ratio of one to two.

The success of StarCraft in Korea was partially attributed to the opening of over 10,000 game rooms (cyber-cafes, internet gaming coffeehouses) which attracted Koreans from all over and fueled their developing gaming addictions, creating the foundation of the social scene around gaming and making StarCraft online play accessible to almost everyone. Before StarCraft, there were only around 500 game rooms in Korea in total, which meant about 19 new game rooms opening for every one that existed before StarCraft.

Continued on Page 3 »