Rarely come to light projects that are able to live for many years, get the widest development and love millions of people. This is especially true for computer games. Now this industry is developing at a tremendous pace, so dozens of projects of various directions are going on sale. Naturally, among them is full of average games that are forgotten almost instantly after passing through or even remain dusting on shelves. But there are also masterpieces, such as Warcraft, which people remember for many years. Speaking specifically about this series, it still exists today, has been developed in various directions, and even continued to develop in the framework of computer games, choosing a rather unusual, but very successful route. So, what is the story of Warcraft? How did it all start when the series got the highest success and how will it progress further?
"Warcraft: Orcs and People"
In the distant 1994, that is, more than twenty years ago, the first game was created, known as Warcraft: Orcs and People. It was with her that the story of Warcraft began, which so far does not even plan to end. This project was a real-time strategy that took place in a fictional universe. Here a war broke out between humans and orcs, and the player had to take control of one of these races. It was necessary to rebuild their own base, to produce workers and military units, and the mission was to defeat the enemy and capture his base. The game stood out with incredible graphics for that time, as well as with the features that the project offered to gamers. However, no one could have thought that the developers would go further and the long history of Warcraft would begin its recording. The success of the game was so great that it was impossible not to create a sequel.
"Warcraft 2" and additions
A year later, gamers, frozen in anticipation, were able to see the new project that decorated the history of Warcraft. In 1995, game developers have not yet begun to chase easy money on successful projects, so serious work was continued on the continuation. And in 1995 the game "Warcraft 2" was released, which became a direct continuation of the first part. The player again had to choose between humans and orcs. It should be noted that the developers did their best, and they came out with an original and magnificent project, which brought all the best out of the first part and got enough new. Firstly, the graphics were updated, secondly, a huge number of new features appeared, and thirdly, new units were added to the game for each of the belligerents, so the process became much more fun. Moreover, after a successful continuation, a full-fledged addition was created to it, expanding the single player campaign. But what really captivated the players was the ability to play among themselves on the network - you could choose any of the existing cards or create your own using the built-in editor. It makes no sense to say that the game Warcraft 2 has become a masterpiece and canonical. For many years, all real-time fantasy strategies have focused on her.
"Warcraft: Adventure - Lord of the Clans"
However, after the release of the second part, there was a long lull - no one really expected progress, because the technologies of that time did not allow creating something more impressive in this genre. Therefore, the developers decided to change the genre, and the game Warcraft almost found its new direction in the genre of quest. For three years, everything was created to launch this project, but in 1998 the company announced that the game would not be released. The project was canceled, because it was considered that it does not correspond to the level that the games of this company should be. However, there are videos on the network that demonstrate this very unreleased part of Warcraft: Adventures - Lord of the Clans, and the quest looks very interesting, bright and beautiful. Well, the developers had their own vision about this project and, perhaps, closing it was the right decision, as it allowed the world to see Warcraft 3 after a while.
"Warcraft 3"
In 2002, the third part of the famous strategy was born. Naturally, everyone was waiting for her with bated breath. Of course, there were many skeptics who believed that creating something that would correspond to the level of the second part of Warcraft would use all the modern capabilities of computers, do not disappoint old fans and attract new ones - an impossible task. However, it should immediately be said that the developers coped with it. Until now, the third part of the series is a cult work, everyone remembers the codes for Warcraft 3, I know all the main characters, as well as everything about this game. It has seriously changed in all plans - undead and elf races have been added to people and orcs, unique characters have appeared - heroes who are protagonists. They can carry special items, have their own abilities and have increased strength and vitality. In general, they lead the entire army, which has also undergone strong changes compared to the first and second units. And most importantly - the game has become three-dimensional. It is also worth noting that one of the Warcraft 3 cards, which has the name Dota, has developed the most popular MOBA game to date, played by millions of people. But this is a completely different story, which is only an offshoot of the story of Warcraft. In general, the third part became a real masterpiece, but it also became the completion of this series in the genre of real-time strategy. Therefore, everyone who remembers the codes for "Warcraft", can with pleasure remember youth and go through the game again. There will be no new releases.
"World of Warcraft"
But no one said that the history of the entire series ended at Warcraft 3, it just took a completely different turn. A game was born in which cheats on Warcraft can no longer be used, because this project has become widespread. World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer role-playing game in which you have to choose a hero from one of the races you already know and pump it on world servers. You can kill mobs or fight with the same gamers. Moreover, you can team up with them in clans and attack powerful bosses in dungeons or even wage clan wars. In general, the game quickly gained popularity, and although it was published in 2007, it is still the most popular in its genre. Additions are constantly being released to it, some of which are global, new locations for research, new items, monsters and classes are added. Thus, the developers have been able for over ten years to maintain an unprecedented interest in their offspring. Already not one multi-player role-playing game tried to get around the World of Warcraft, but this project has always remained the best. So forget about the cheats on Warcraft, about the strategic component and the structure of the base - the multiplayer role-playing game will be the main focus of the developers for a long time, and they are unlikely to decide to do something else.
"Warcraft: Heroes of Azeroth"
In 2007, however, information appeared on the developers' website that a new game, Warcraft: Heroes of Azeroth, was announced. Naturally, the noise immediately rose in the gaming community: what kind of hero is “Warcraft”, which will become the main one in this project? Is it really going to be a strategic sequel? Or is there a new genre or even a new word in the game industry? But pretty quickly everything fell into place. The fact is that this statement was made on the first of April, and a refutation was published on the second of the day. All this was an April Fool’s joke. Thus, no hero of Warcraft could become a hero of Azeroth. However, these fans do not leave the hope that the developers will not concentrate solely on Mirne Warcraft.
Table games
Naturally, everything is not limited solely to computer games. There are also other areas that this universe has penetrated. For example, there are four board games that take place in the world of Azeroth. At the same time, two of them focus on the original trilogy, while the other two describe the history of World of Warcraft. So if you do not want to play a massive role-playing game on the network, then you have a great opportunity to do this with friends at the table. And if you are not satisfied with the appearance of Warcraft 3, the story can be told in the desktop project. This is quite normal, after all, this strategy came out almost fifteen years ago and is seriously outdated, although it remains excellent in any case.
Collectible card games
Separately, it is worth noting collectible card games, because here, Warcraft is very widespread. From 2006 to 2009, about ten starting decks were released, as well as a large number of boosters for them. There you will encounter cards with familiar characters from the Warcraft computer series - Leach King, for example. Therefore, fans of the series are encouraged to try their hand in this direction.
Book series
Recently, books on computer games have become very popular. For example, everyone knows about the existence of a huge number of works on the Warhammer universe. Naturally, there are also many books on Warcraft that are related to different series. The very first of them was written back in 2001, and the last in 2014.
Warcraft movie
Back in 2006, the idea first appeared to create a full-fledged film on Warcraft. However, so far there have been long discussions about what this project should contain. Directors, actors and other workers changed several times. The script corresponded, the project was suspended and restarted. At the moment, it is reported that it will be released in 2016, but so far no one gives guarantees.