Re:What are they smoking? (Score 1)

Hello, Since I was the panelist who put Warcraft on the list, I just had to respond to this post. Not because I object to it, but the opposite reason: because CodeBuster reveals a historical point that I would have had to use 100 times these past days -- once for every "why did you include Warcraft when Dune II was published before it." The point is that there many predecessors to both Warcraft and C&C (and not the same group), including real-time roleplaying and a bunch of real-time tactical and strategy games made in the 1980s. The problem with the earlier games (like, say, David Hille's Combat Leader and Battalion Commander, both from SSI, or Dani Bunten Berry's Modem Wars or Command HQ) was that the systems did not have the computing resources to offer good AI opponents and multiplayer was not a serious option (Berry's games start to get closer at least to playable multiplayer). Likewise, it's true that Dune II was not nearly as popular as even Warcraft I would be. If you look at the Warcraft series as a whole, there are a number of other accomplishments that must also be mentioned, from the game-based franchise and story-line capable of spawning a virtual world and numerous other media products (books, boardgames, cardgames) to the very active competitive scene. Those points were outlined in the presentation and will be posted soon to the IGDA Preservation SIG (which was the locus for the panel), along with those for the other games. However, I did want to acknowledge Codebuster for getting the history right. I was expecting more calls for including C&C, but haven't read a comment to that effect yet! Oh, I don't smoke. Never have. Henry