StarCraft, a real-time strategy game from quite possibly the top PC developer today, Blizzard, has turned 10 years young. StarCraft, originally released in 1998, slowly took the world by storm. The game is known for its perfect balance between all 3 playable factions in the game: the Terran, the Protoss, and the Zerg. The game by no means revolutionized the real-time strategy genre, although it refined the genre to perfection.
StarCraft had become a huge competitive online multi player game within a couple years of its release. Tournaments are still going on today with StarCraft and shows no sign of slowing down. In South Korea, with a huge online gaming culture, has basically made StarCraft its national sport. Yes, you read correct, "National sport." Just like America's national past-time, baseball, or America's favorite sport, football, a video game in South Korea has become their national sport. For years now, world tournaments in StarCraft are held in South Korea and they even broadcast StarCraft matches on television. StarCraft players that turn professional make the big bucks and has become their full-time job. Some of the top StarCraft players in South Korea, America, or Europe, can make a salary in the $100,000's from playing and wining in tournaments and money from their sponsors.
Clearly, the standards of what is shown on TV is changing. If watching other people play a video game on TV is crazy, just wait and see what happens next. The sequel to StarCraft, StarCraft 2, has been in the works for a few years and will be released in a couple more years. Who knows how popular StarCraft 2 will become.
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