tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post7467919593838200060..comments2024-03-22T19:07:21.790+00:00Comments on The Wertzone: The Rise and Fall of the Real-Time Strategy GenreAdam Whiteheadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11383677312079611311noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-34471878530148919392023-12-18T12:46:59.416+00:002023-12-18T12:46:59.416+00:00You forgot to mention The Settlers, The Settlers I...You forgot to mention The Settlers, The Settlers II, Seven Kingdoms II, and you gave too little credit to Age of Empires I and II. <br />Besides that, great text!O Bardo da Névoahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00172425574123777678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-28524205584427788402021-01-07T00:54:26.148+00:002021-01-07T00:54:26.148+00:00Anyone ever played Telewar published in 1987 for A...Anyone ever played Telewar published in 1987 for Amiga? <br />That's the originAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13817186611573723647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-7750969284526324912021-01-07T00:53:04.186+00:002021-01-07T00:53:04.186+00:00Anyone ever played Telewar published in 1987 for A...Anyone ever played Telewar published in 1987 for Amiga? Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13817186611573723647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-79240820393423754672018-04-05T21:22:06.850+00:002018-04-05T21:22:06.850+00:00Great write-up!
I'd add The Settlers series. ...Great write-up!<br /><br />I'd add The Settlers series. The military system is pretty basic, but as a blend of city-building/economy simulation and RTS the games occupied a pretty fun niche. I need to get back to The Settlers 3 some day.<br /><br />Battle Realms is also a title that tried some interesting tweaks to the usual base-building/unit production system (and had a really great atmosphere), although it flew pretty under the radarAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-64541007244425013042018-04-05T09:12:32.084+00:002018-04-05T09:12:32.084+00:00Dune 2 wasn't a quick sequel inspired by Dune ...Dune 2 wasn't a quick sequel inspired by Dune -- both games were developed in parallel and without any interaction.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-74330454110988040852018-04-02T14:45:03.102+00:002018-04-02T14:45:03.102+00:00Great article as always.
I find it a bit surprisi...Great article as always.<br /><br />I find it a bit surprising there was no mention of Rise of Nations (2003) given it was a huge hit critically, and did fairly well commercially (enough for an expansion pack).Clayton Boucherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12508175164366057743noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-26989892580644045512018-04-01T18:03:16.100+00:002018-04-01T18:03:16.100+00:00"This part of the Dune game was arguably the ..."This part of the Dune game was arguably the least-developed part of the title, but it was the part that inspired a “quickie” sequel from Westwood."<br /><br />That's not how I remember it: The two games were published independently of each other and in parallel, that's why they have nothing in common.<br /><br />See also on Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_II#Development" rel="nofollow">Dune II#Development</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-36291622929219703352018-04-01T01:30:52.816+00:002018-04-01T01:30:52.816+00:00Ancient Art of War by Brøderbund was the first com...Ancient Art of War by Brøderbund was the first comprehensive RTS and beats all those you mention by several years.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7703856341303488608.post-53472283792010508632018-03-31T21:28:50.461+00:002018-03-31T21:28:50.461+00:00Thinking back to the late 1990s: it would have bee...Thinking back to the late 1990s: it would have been hard to imagine, in a time when for most people I knew computer gaming WAS Total Annihilation, Red Alert, Age of Empires and Starcraft (with a little Goldeneye to relax, and a little Thief when no-one else was around), that the genre would have disintegrated so totally. Although I guess it didn't last long - soon we were on to Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment and Icewind Dale.<br /><br />Then again, I guess that it wasn't that much earlier that we played only platformers and beat-em-ups, two genres that rapidly plummeted from total dominance to virtual non-existence... (I didn't have a console and I missed the heyday of SF:II and MK, but I spent a lot of time playing One Must Fall: 2097...)<br /><br /><br /><br />I think a big problem for RTS is that it inherently falls between two camps, as illustrated by how many of the games you mention here try to blend it with something else. On the one hand, there's the fast-paced combat; on the other, there's the strategy. But there was never much strategy, and strategy fans were always being tempted over to the greater complexity you could produce in a turn-based game. [this was me - I was always frustrated in an RTS, because I was happily building up my little settlement/fortress/whatever, and then everything collapsed into this chaos of battle). Meanwhile, the people who wanted fast-paced combat were being tempted over by RTTs and FPSs.<br /><br />I think that maybe, as more games have been created to appeal to both sides, the attraction of a game that sits in the middle has waned - it's easier for each type of fan to find what they want in their own genre.<br /><br />In some ways I think Total War was the big RTS-killer. It's a turn-based strategy, but it's vastly simplified compared to nighmarish simulations like Imperialism, or even compared to Civilization II and its clones, so it gives more strategy than an RTS while still being accessible enough to appeal to the broad market. And in a way it replicates the duality of RTS in a more controllable way: instead of an anxious transition from base-building to battle-fighting, TW lets you do as much building as you like, and only do the battle-fighting when you choose (or skip it entirely). But it still offers that exciting combat as a change of pace, so it still gives both sides of the deal. [And I remember the battles in M2:TW being way more satisfying than the old RTS battles, though admittedly I never played something like Supreme Commander].<br />If RTS works by offering the best of both worlds - exciting tactics and satisfying stragey - games like Total War meet the same demand, but in a more controllable way that meets both needs more succesfully. <br /><br />I think the only way a RTS can really take on TW is to come from the far end of the combat side of the spectrum - at which point, you're facing strong competition from RTT, FPS, multiplayer-FPS, MOBA, action-RPG and so on. <br /><br />I don't think it's a dead genre - I think it can offer its own thing, probably in the form of RTT with minimal resource management and unit-building tacked on, but I think it's an increasingly small mark that developers have to hit, and a game will have to be really, really good to hit it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com