Gaming

=Video Game Platforms=

The HD-DVD/Blu-Ray Format War


Although the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray conflict started much earlier than the launch of the previous generation consoles, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, the format war had a severe impact on the future of the video formats. The high definition optical disc format war saw its roots when high definition content was made available to consumers. In order to ensure that consumers are able to watch such content via discs, a format had to be established in order to facilitate the larger and better format. Two key players emerged, the HD-DVD and the Blu-Ray Disc. Both had different formats, capacities and capabilities that gave the consumers a better viewing experience. The launch of both formats to the public was the start of the official format war. Company alliances were formed, with each company backing up a different format. The Blu-ray Disc Foundation was formed by Hitachi, LG, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Thomson on May 20, 2002. Other early supporters included Dell, HP, Mitsubishi and TDK. The Blu-ray Disc Association was inaugurated on October 4, 2004 by 14 companies of Board of Directors which added 20th Century Fox to the 13 above-mentioned companies, Contributors of 22 companies, General members of 37 companies, and a total of 73 companies. Acer, Alpine, Asus, HP, Hitachi Maxell, Kenwood, Lanix, LG, Lite-On, Meridian, Onkyo and Samsung, provided non-exclusive support. Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Memory-Tech Corporation started HD DVD Promotion Group on September 27, 2004. It also included Microsoft, RCA, Intel, Venturer Electronics. In Europe, HD DVD was supported either exclusively or non-exclusively by Medusa Home Entertainment, Studio Canal, Universum Films, Kinowelt Home Entertainment, DVD International, Opus Arte, MK2, Momentum Pictures, Twister Home Video, among others. During the height of the format war, some studios supported both formats, including Paramount Pictures (including subsidiaries Nickelodeon Movies, MTV Films, DreamWorks Pictures and DreamWorks Animation), BBC, First Look Studios, Image Entertainment (including the Discovery Channel),Magnolia Pictures, Brentwood Home Video, Ryko and Koch/Goldhil Entertainment.

The launch of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 only heightened the war. The Xbox 360 was the supported of the HD-DVD and the PlayStation 3 was the support of the Blu-Ray disc. The launch of the PlayStation 3 with a Blu-Ray Drive became the indication of a shift towards the Blu-Ray Disc medium as the new high definition medium. Although Sony was initially selling the consoles at a loss due to the high component prices of the Blu-Ray Drive, the efforts of the company were not in vain. Movie Studios began seeing the benefit and capabilities of the Blu-Ray Disc and began shifting their format support towards Blu-Ray, but the sales of the Blu-Ray disc were still lower when compared to the sales of HD-DVDs. However, the final blow came when Warner Bros, one of the biggest movie studios in America, announced its plans to drop HD-DVD as its disc format and switch over to Blu-Ray Discs. Shortly after the announcement, various retailers such as Warlmart, Best Buy, and others, began shifting their inventories towards the Blu-Ray format and began recommending consumers the discs as the preferred choice. Other studios and digital companies, also began integrating the Blu-Ray Disc as the standard medium.

The format war was finally put to rest when Toshiba, one of the major manufacturers of HD-DVDs, decided that it would abandon the HD-DVD format to focus production on the Blu-Ray discs. This became the final nail in the coffin for the HD-DVD, as more and more companies began to abandon the format in favor of Blu-Ray. Microsoft and its Xbox 360 became one of the few companies that still supported the HD-DVD, until its announcement of the Xbox One and its use of the Blu-Ray Drive. The tide of the format war was heavily influenced by the launch of the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, as both had separate formats and both companies tried to pursue the public to use one over the other. In the end, the Blu-Ray Disc became the winner, due to its better format capabilities, larger storage capacity, and other various capabilities.

Nintendo 3DS
The Nintendo 3DS is a portable gaming console Nintendo developed to rival Sony's Playstation VITA. The 3DS is preceded by Nintendo's DS. The 3DS has next generation features which has made it the leading portable gaming console. The 3DS features 3D cameras, StreetPass and Virtual Console.

The 3D cameras allows the individual to create an avatar that can be utilized in an augmented reality (SIMS is an example of augmented reality). The StreetPass is a unique Nintendo feature that allows other 3DS user to exchange software content with others in the area. If an individual wants to connect online and challenge someone in a Pokemon battle, the StreetPass Feature allows for an individual to scan for other 3DS players in the area and offer a challenge.

The Nintendo 3DS has sold 34 million units since September 2013. Before it's launch, Amazon reported that the Nintendo 3DS has the largest preorder count in video game systems ever. In fact, Nintendo of American, the United States operations for Nintendo, also reported that the preorder count doubled Wii.

Wii U


Wii U is a video game console from Nintendo released November 2012 to rival Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One. The Wii U incorporates a new 6.2 inch touchscreen GamePad as the main controller and supplements the gameplay from the television. The GamePad retains the old Wii's motion control and sensor bar and adds in a new camera feature with microphone and speakers on the GamePad to allow for video chatting with friends while playing. The Wii U GamePad allows the Wii to increase capacity of players to five at a time. The Wii U console also has a new feature called the Miiverse, which allows the user to access a brand new community of gamers where they can discuss and share entertainment content.

Hardware
The Wii U uses a custom multi-chip module developed by AMD, IBM and Renesas in cooperation with Nintendo. The multi-chip module contains a CPU, GPU, and a EEPROM memory controller. WIi U comes with a 8 GB and a 32 GB capacity of storage. A 2GB DDR3 memory. WI-Fi,Bluetooth, and four USB 2.0 ports are also included. The Wii U Game Pad is the main controller that comes with the system it has a 6.2 inch touchscreen which can enhance game play or can be used as a display for the system.



PlayStation 4
PlayStation 4 is a video game console created by Sony, announced on February 20, 2013. It replaces the current generation of PlayStation 3. It was just released recently on November 15, 2013 in North America. Its main competitor is the Xbox One, which plans to be released on November 22, 2013. The PlayStation 4 is built around a powerful custom chip that contains eight x86-64 cores and a 1.84 TFLOPS graphics processor with 8 GB of ultra-fast GDDR5 unified system memory. All this supports games with rich, high-fidelity graphics and gives you a gaming experience like never before. One of the greatest benefits of this console is that it also provides gamers with other entertainment applications, such as Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, NBA Gametime, and more. Many different sorts of new media can be accessed just through the PlayStation 4 console.

Hardware
The PlayStation 4 has a Semi-custom 8-core AMD x86-64 CPU (integrated into APU), with a 500GB Hard drive that is upgradeable. It contains an 8 GB GDDR5 of memory. PlayStation 4 features an auxiliary port for connection to the PlayStation Camera, a motion detection digital camera device that enhance gaming without the controller. WI-Fi and Ethernet connectivity, Bluetooth, and two USB 3.0 ports are also included. The new Dualshock 4 controller is bundled with the PlayStation 4 with a mono headset, which can be plugged into the DualShock 4. Audio/video output options include HDMI TV and optical S/PDIF audio but this time it Sony removes analog audio/video output.



Software
The system is run through an operating system sonny created called "orbis OS". It share a little similarity with the old OS on the PS3 but the main interface has been changed. Users can connect to the internet using WI-Fi and Ethernet connectivity built in the system to provide richer functionality. Sony has a PlayStation Network which allows gamers access online features such as the PlayStation store and online gaming with people across the internet. Users can directly download and pay for the games they want though PlayStation network.



Media Interface
Sony added some features that is absent previously from the PlayStation 3 which improved social functionality. The DualShock 4 controller includes a "SHARE" button, which allowed player to share 15 minutes of their gameplay by uploading to PlayStation Network or social networking sites suck as Facebook and Twitter. Gamers who wants to live stream their gaming also has that option on the PlayStation 4, players can broadcast live video of one's own gameplay via public services Twitch and Ustream, allowing friends to view and comment on them from other web browsers and devices.

Xbox One
The Xbox One was announced on May 21st, 2013. At the time being, Microsoft kept a very tight lid on the next-generation console's specs and its capabilities, but emphasized the idea that the console will be more focused towards the living room experience rather than just outputting raw power for better graphics. The user and the family experience was the focus in this generation's console. The Xbox One was launched on November 22, 2013, almost a week after the launch of the PlayStation 4.

Hardware
The Xbox One is power by a custom, AMD built octa-Core x86 CPU Chip. The x86 architecture is the same architecture found in desktop computers, thus giving developers an easier time with the development. The Xbox One's CPU runs at 1.75GHz and has a 8GB of DDR3 Memory clocked at 2133 MHz. The Xbox One also contains a 500GB Hard Drive and a Blu-Ray/DVD Combo player. The console will also feature 802.11 N wireless along with Gigabit Ethernet capabilities. The console also features a custom AMD GPU that is clocked at 853 MHz with 768 Shader cores, which have the capability of around 1.23 Teraflops. The console also has 4GB of flash memory, USB 3.0 support, HDMI support and also 4K resolution support, as well as standard 1080p. The Xbox one controller has similar designed to the one Xbox 360's has. The directional pad has been changed to a four-way design, and the battery compartment is slimmer. Menu and View buttons have replaced the Start and Back buttons. The Xbox One will come with a updated version of Kinect, for motion tracking and voice recognition. It has the ability to recognize up to six people at once. The new Kinect also has the ability to perform heart rate tracking, track gestures performed with the Xbox One Controller, and scan QR codes to redeem Xbox Live gift cards. The Kinect also features voice recognition and has the ability to receive voice commands from the user when needed. It also has the ability to wake the console up from sleep upon the given command.

Software
The Xbox One features custom software from Microsoft that offers very similar user-experience as the PC Operating System Windows 8. The operating system is capable of multi-tasking, voice commands, Skype Integration, and a variety of other features. The Xbox One will also be able to have Windows apps with different compatibility, but developers will be able to port the Windows Apps into the Xbox One operating system with minimal effort. The Xbox One will also features its known Xbox Live service, a subscription based service that allows the users to enjoy the various features of Xbox Live such as multiplayer, music, video streaming and so on. The Xbox One will also feature applications such as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and Redbox Instant. It will also feature media channel applications such as ESP, Fox Now, Machinima, The CW, TED, NFL and eventually HBO GO. The Xbox One also allows the user watch live TV via the console, another feature that brings the home experience to the console users. Xbox One lets you watch live TV from your HDMI-compatible cable or satellite box, making it easy to switch from games to live TV – all with the sound of your voice, and without having to switch TV inputs. Just connect your set top box to your Xbox One and you can watch live TV through your Xbox One.

Console Controversy and Consumer Backlash
At the announcement of the Xbox One, Microsoft stated that the console would follow strict licensing policies as follows.

Buy the way you want—disc or digital—on the same day: You’ll be able to buy disc-based games at traditional retailers or online through Xbox Live, on day of release. Discs will continue to be a great way to install your games quickly.

Access your entire games library from any Xbox One—no discs required: After signing in and installing, you can play any of your games from any Xbox One because a digital copy of your game is stored on your console and in the cloud. So, for example, while you are logged in at your friend’s house, you can play your games.

Share access to your games with everyone inside your home: Your friends and family, your guests and acquaintances get unlimited access to all of your games. Anyone can play your games on your console--regardless of whether you are logged in or their relationship to you.

Give your family access to your entire games library anytime, anywhere: Xbox One will enable new forms of access for families. Up to ten members of your family can log in and play from your shared games library on any Xbox One. Just like today, a family member can play your copy of Forza Motorsport at a friend’s house. Only now, they will see not just Forza, but all of your shared games. You can always play your games, and any one of your family members can be playing from your shared library at a given time.

Trade-in and resell your disc-based games: Today, some gamers choose to sell their old disc-based games back for cash and credit. We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers. Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games.

Give your games to friends: Xbox One is designed so game publishers can enable you to give your disc-based games to your friends. There are no fees charged as part of these transfers. There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once.

The announcement of such a strict licensing policy was met with severe consumer backlash, even at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Many consumers felt that they were entitled to the games they bought and should have the right to share their games as they felt like. Many also felt confused by the many propositions that Microsoft made regarding the policy and many felt betrayed as the company was trying to cover up the Xbox One with other lavish features in order to steer away the attention from the controversial policy. At the major E3 video game conference in June, Sony used the widescale backlash against Microsoft's plans to boost the popularity of its rival PlayStation 4 machine. At Sony's E3 press conference, company executives made it clear that PS4 would place no restrictions on pre-owned sales and wouldn't require daily online authentication – the announcements received a huge applause. Many consumers were beginning to lean towards the Playstation 4 due to its lower price, 399.99, compared to the Xbox One's 499.99 and the better features and no-restriction policy. However, few weeks later, Microsoft took notice of the huge consumer backlash, and removed many of the controversial policies regarding used gaming, 24 hour synchronization and other restricting features that might ruin the user experience.

Console Launch and Black Friday
The Xbox One was launched on November 22, 2013. Following a worldwide celebration, Xbox One launched in 13 markets on Nov. 22 to great fanfare. Microsoft is excited to confirm the launch of Xbox One was the biggest launch in Xbox history, with more than one million consoles sold through worldwide in less than 24 hours – surpassing day one Xbox 360 sales and setting a new record for Microsoft. . The Xbox One also saw great sales during the American event known as Black Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday. Both of Microsoft’s machines – the Xbox One and the prior-generation Xbox 360 — represented 61% of all consoles sold at Wal-Mart and Target stores on Black Friday, according to market researcher InfoScout. The Xbox One represented about half of those sales, providing a key indicator of early demand for the device following its Nov. 22 debut.

=Gaming Companies=

Valve


Valve Corporation (formerly Valve Software, commonly referred to as Valve) is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States. Founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, Valve became famous for its critically acclaimed Half-Life (released in 1998) and Portal sub-series (released in 2007). Valve is also well known for its software distribution platform Steam (released in 2002), and the Source engine (released in 2004).

Half-Life
After acquiring a license to the Quake engine (through the help of friend Michael Abrash of id Software) in late 1996, Newell and Harrington began working on Half-Life. Originally planned for release in late 1997, Half-Life launched on November 19, 1998. Valve acquired TF Software PTY Ltd, the makers of the Team Fortress mod for Quake, in May 1998 with the intent to create a standalone Team Fortress game. The Team Fortress Classic mod, essentially a port of the original Team Fortress mod for Quake, was released for Half-Life in 1999. Gearbox contributed much after the release of Half-Life. Gearbox Software is responsible for the Half-Life expansion packs, Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift, along with the home console versions of Half-Life for the Sega Dreamcast and Sony PlayStation 2 which included a third expansion pack called Half-Life: Decay, that enabled two-player split-screen co-op.

Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe. By the fourth beta version, Valve Software, the developer who created Half-Life, began assisting in the development of Counter-Strike.[1] In 2000, Valve bought the rights to Counter-Strike, and would publish the title for Microsoft Windows that year, and later in 2003 for the Xbox. OS X and Linux ports were available in January 2013.

The game has been expanded into a series since its original release, which currently includes Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Counter-Strike: Source, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Counter-Strike pits a team of terrorists against a team of counter-terrorists in a series of rounds. Each round is won by either completing the mission objective or eliminating the opposing force.

The game was the most played Half-Life modification in terms of players, according to GameSpy in 2008.

As of August 2011, the Counter-Strike franchise has sold over 25 million units.

Gameplay
Counter-Strike is a first-person shooter in which players join either the terrorist team, the counter-terrorist team, or become spectators. Each team attempts to complete their mission objective and/or eliminate the opposing team. Each round starts with the two teams spawning simultaneously.

A player can choose to play as one of eight different default character models (four for each side, although Counter-Strike: Condition Zero added two extra models, bringing the total to ten). Players are generally given a few seconds before the round begins (known as "freeze time") to prepare and buy equipment, during which they cannot attack or move (one notable exception is that a player may receive damage during freeze time. This happens when a map is changed to spawn players at a certain height above the ground, thus causing fall damage to the player. This is a method map designers use to alter the starting "HP" of players on a map). They can return to the buy area within a set amount of time to buy more equipment (some custom maps included neutral "buy zones" that could be used by both teams). Once the round has ended, surviving players retain their equipment for use in the next round; players who were killed begin the next round with the basic default starting equipment.

Standard monetary bonuses are awarded for winning a round, losing a round, killing an enemy, being the first to instruct a hostage to follow, rescuing a hostage or planting (Terrorist) /defusing (Counter Terrorist)the bomb(C4)in the bomb site.

The scoreboard displays team scores in addition to statistics for each player: name, kills, deaths, and ping (in milliseconds). The scoreboard also indicates whether a player is dead, carrying the bomb (on bomb maps), or is the VIP (on assassination maps), although information on players on the opposing team is hidden from a player until his/her death, as this information can be important.

Killed players become "spectators" for the duration of the round; they cannot change their names before their next spawn, text chat cannot be sent to or received from live players, and voice chat can only be received from live players and not sent to them (unless the console variable sv_alltalk is set to 1). Spectators are generally able to watch the rest of the round from multiple selectable views, although some servers disable some of these views to prevent dead players from relaying information about living players to their teammates through alternative media (most notably voice in the case of Internet cafes and Voice over IP programs such as TeamSpeak or Ventrilo). This form of cheating is known as "ghosting."

Blizzard
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher founded on February 8, 1991 under the name Silicon & Synapse by three graduates of UCLA, Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearce and is currently a subsidiary of American company Activision Blizzard. Based in Irvine, California, the company originally concentrated primarily on the creation of game ports for other studios before beginning development of their own software in 1993 with the development of games like Rock n' Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings. In 1994 the company became Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. before being acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates and later by Vivendi. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped their breakthrough hit Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. Blizzard went on to create several successful video games, including the Warcraft sequels, StarCraft, and Diablo series, and the MMORPG World of Warcraft. Their most recent projects include Diablo III, World of Warcraft's fourth expansion, Mists of Pandaria, and the first expansion of StarCraft II, Heart of the Swarm.

On July 9, 2008, Activision officially merged with Vivendi Games, culminating in the inclusion of the Blizzard brand name in the title of the resulting holding company.[4] On July 25, 2013, Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of 429 million shares from owner Vivendi. As a result, Activision Blizzard became an independent company.[5] Blizzard Entertainment offers events to meet players and to announce games: the BlizzCon in California, United States, and the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in other countries, such as Paris, France and Seoul, South Korea.

History
Blizzard Entertainment was founded by Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham, and Frank Pearce as Silicon & Synapse on February 8th 1991, a year after all three had received their bachelor's degrees from UCLA. In the early days the company focused on creating game ports for other studios. Ports include titles such as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I and Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess. In 1993, the company developed games such as Rock n' Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings (published by Interplay Productions).

In early 1994 they were acquired by distributor Davidson & Associates for $6.75 million. The same year the company briefly changed its name to Chaos Studios, before finally settling on Blizzard Entertainment after it was discovered that another company with the Chaos name already existed. Shortly thereafter, Blizzard shipped their breakthrough hit Warcraft: Orcs & Humans.

Blizzard has changed hands several times since then: Davidson was acquired along with Sierra On-Line by a company called CUC International in 1996; CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, and car-rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent that CUC had engaged in accounting fraud for years before the merger; Cendant's stock lost 80% of its value over the next six months in the ensuing widely discussed accounting scandal. The company sold its consumer software operations, Sierra On-line which included Blizzard, to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard was part of the Vivendi Games group of Vivendi. In July 2008 Vivendi Games merged with Activision, using Blizzard's name in the resulting company, Activision Blizzard.

In 1996, Blizzard acquired Condor Games, which had been working on the game Diablo for Blizzard at the time. Condor was renamed Blizzard North, and has since developed hit games Diablo, Diablo II, and its expansion pack Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Blizzard North was located in San Mateo, California; the company originated in Redwood City, California.

Blizzard launched their online gaming service Battle.net in January 1997 with the release of their action-RPG Diablo. In 2002, Blizzard was able to reacquire rights for three of its earlier Silicon & Synapse titles from Interplay Entertainment and re-release them under Game Boy Advance. In 2004, Blizzard opened European offices in the Paris suburb of Vélizy, Yvelines, France, responsible for the European in-game support of World of Warcraft. On November 23, 2004, Blizzard released World of Warcraft, its MMORPG offering. On May 16, 2005, Blizzard announced the acquisition of Swingin' Ape Studios, a video game developer which had been developing StarCraft: Ghost. The company was then merged into Blizzard's other teams after StarCraft: Ghost was 'postponed indefinitely'. On August 1, 2005, Blizzard announced the consolidation of Blizzard North into the headquarters at 131 Theory in UC Irvine's University Research Park in Irvine, California. In 2008, Blizzard moved their headquarters to 16215 Alton Parkway in Irvine, California.

World of Warcraft was the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. Blizzard announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001. The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise.

The first expansion set of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007. The second expansion set, Wrath of the Lich King, was released on November 13, 2008. The third expansion set, Cataclysm entered into closed beta testing in late June 2010 and was released to the public on December 7, 2010.

With more than 10 million monthly subscriptions in October 2010, World of Warcraft is currently the world's most-subscribed MMORPG, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. In April 2008, World of Warcraft was estimated to hold 62 percent of the MMORPG subscription market. In 2008, Blizzard was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for the creation of World of Warcraft. Mike Morhaime accepted the award.

As the website Gamasutra in February 2012 writes, Blizzard Entertainment will lay off around 600 employees "in order to address the changing needs of our company", as the Blizzard CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime in a statement said. Blizzard has an office in Austin, Texas as well as in numerous countries around the globe. As of 2012 Blizzard has 4,700 employees across 11 cities, including nearly 1,700 located at their headquarters in Irvine, California.

StarCraft
StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment and released for Microsoft Windows on March 31, 1998. The game later spawned a franchise, and is the first game of the StarCraft series. A Mac OS version was released in 1999, and a Nintendo 64 adaptation co-developed with Mass Media was released on June 13, 2000.[2] Work on the game started shortly after Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness's release in 1995. StarCraft debuted at the 1996 E3, where it was unfavorably compared to Warcraft II; as a result, the project was entirely overhauled and then showcased to public in early 1997, receiving a far more positive response.

Set in a fictitious timeline during the Earth's 25th century, the game revolves around three species fighting for dominance in a distant part of the Milky Way galaxy known as the Koprulu Sector: the Terrans, humans exiled from Earth skilled at adapting to any situation; the Zerg, a race of insectoid aliens in pursuit of genetic perfection, obsessed with assimilating other races; and the Protoss, a humanoid species with advanced technology and psionic abilities, attempting to preserve their civilization and strict philosophical way of living from the Zerg.

Many of the industry's journalists have praised StarCraft as one of the best and most important video games of all time, and for having raised the bar for developing real-time strategy games. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, StarCraft is one of the best-selling games for the personal computer. The game has been praised for pioneering the use of unique factions in real-time strategy gameplay and for a compelling story. StarCraft's multiplayer is particularly popular in South Korea, where players and teams participate in professional competitions, earn sponsorships, and compete in televised tournaments. StarCraft has had its storyline adapted and expanded through a series of novels, the expansion pack StarCraft: Brood War and two authorized add-ons. Over 12 years later, a sequel, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, was released in July 2010.

Gameplay
Blizzard Entertainment's use of three distinct races in StarCraft is widely credited with revolutionizing the real-time strategy genre. All units are unique to their respective races and while rough comparisons can be drawn between certain types of units in the technology tree, every unit performs differently and requires different tactics for a player to succeed.

The enigmatic Protoss have access to powerful units and machinery and advanced technologies such as energy shields and localized warp capabilities, powered by their psionic traits. However, their forces have lengthy and expensive manufacturing processes, encouraging players to follow a strategy of the quality of their units over the quantity. The insectoid Zerg possess entirely organic units and structures, which can be produced quickly and at a far cheaper cost to resources, but are accordingly weaker, relying on sheer numbers and speed to overwhelm enemies. The Terrans provide a middle ground between the other two races, providing units that are versatile and flexible. They have access to a range of more ballistic military technologies and machinery, such as tanks and nuclear weapons.

Although each race is unique in its composition, no race has an innate advantage over the other. Each species is balanced out so that while they have different strengths, powers, and abilities their overall strength is the same. The balance stays complete via infrequent patches (game updates) provided by Blizzard.

StarCraft features artificial intelligence which scales in difficulty, although the player cannot change the difficulty level in the single-player campaigns. Each campaign starts with enemy factions running easy AI modes, scaling through the course of the campaign to the hardest AI modes. In the level editor provided with the game, a designer has access to four levels of AI difficulties: "easy", "medium", "hard" and "insane", each setting differing in the units and technologies allowed to an AI faction and the extent of the AI's tactical and strategic planning. The single-player campaign consists of thirty missions, split into ten for each race.

World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. World of Warcraft takes place within the Warcraft world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous Warcraft release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001. The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise.

The first expansion set of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007. The second expansion set, Wrath of the Lich King, was released on November 13, 2008. The third expansion set, Cataclysm, was released on December 7, 2010. The fourth expansion set, Mists of Pandaria, was released on September 25, 2012. The fifth expansion set, Warlords of Draenor, was announced at BlizzCon 2013.

With over seven million subscribers as of July 2013, World of Warcraft is currently the world's most-subscribed MMORPG, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers.

Gameplay
As characters become more developed, they gain various talents and skills, requiring the player to further define the abilities of that character. Characters can choose from a variety of professions, such as tailoring, blacksmithing, or mining. Characters can learn four secondary skills: archeology, cooking, fishing, and first-aid. Characters may form and join guilds, allowing characters within the guild access to the guild's chat channel, the guild name and optionally allowing other features, including a guild tabard, guild bank, and dues.

Much of World of Warcraft play involves the completion of quests. These quests, also called "tasks" or "missions", are usually available from NPCs. Quests usually reward the player with some combination of experience points, items, and in-game money. Quests allow characters to gain access to new skills and abilities, and explore new areas. It is through quests that much of the game's story is told, both through the quest's text and through scripted NPC actions. Quests are linked by a common theme, with each consecutive quest triggered by the completion of the previous, forming a quest chain. Quests commonly involve killing a number of creatures, gathering a certain number of resources, finding a difficult to locate object, speaking to various NPCs, visiting specific locations, interacting with objects in the world, or delivering an item from one place to another.

While a character can be played on its own, players can group with others to tackle more challenging content. Most end-game challenges are designed in a way that they can only be overcome while in a group. In this way, character classes are used in specific roles within a group. World of Warcraft uses a "rested bonus" system, increasing the rate that a character can gain experience points after the player has spent time away from the game. When a character dies, it becomes a ghost—or wisp for Night Elf characters—at a nearby graveyard. Characters can be resurrected by other characters that have the ability, or can self-resurrect by moving from the graveyard to the place where they died. If a character is past level ten and they resurrect at a graveyard, the items equipped by the character degrade, requiring in-game money and a specialist NPC to repair them. Items that have degraded heavily become unusable until they are repaired. If the location of the character's body is unreachable, they can use a special "spirit healer" NPC to resurrect at the graveyard. When the spirit healer revives a character, items equipped by the character at that time are further degraded, and the character is significantly weakened by what is in-game called "resurrection sickness" for up to ten minutes, depending on the character's level. This "resurrection sickness" does not occur and item degradation is less severe if the character revives by locating its body, or is resurrected by another player through special items or spells.

World of Warcraft contains a variety of mechanisms for player versus player (PvP) play. Players on player versus environment (PvE) servers can opt to "flag" themselves, making themselves attackable to players of the opposite faction. Depending on the mode of the realm, PvP combat between members of opposing factions is possible at almost any time or location in the game world—the only exception being the starting zones, where the PvP "flag" must be enabled by the player wishing to fight against players of the opposite faction. PvE (called normal or RP) servers, by contrast, allow a player to choose whether or not to engage in combat against other players. On both server types, there are special areas of the world where free-for-all combat is permitted. Battlegrounds, for example, are similar to dungeons: only a set number of characters can enter a single battleground, but additional copies of the battleground can be made to accommodate additional players. Each battleground has a set objective, such as capturing a flag or defeating an opposing general, that must be completed to win the battleground. Competing in battlegrounds rewards the character with tokens and honor points that can be used to buy armor, weapons, and other general items that can aid a player in many areas of the game. Winners get more honor and tokens than losers. However, players also earn honor when they or nearby teammates kill players in a battleground.

Diablo
Diablo is an action role-playing hack and slash video game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment on December 31, 1996. Set in the fictional Kingdom of Khanduras, located in the world of Sanctuary, Diablo has the player take control of a lone hero battling to rid the world of Diablo, the Lord of Terror. Beneath the town of Tristram, the player journeys through sixteen dungeon levels, ultimately entering Hell itself in order to face Diablo.

An expansion pack, entitled Diablo: Hellfire, was released in 1997, although it was not created by Blizzard Entertainment. In 1998 Blizzard released Diablo for the PlayStation. this version featured direct control of the main character using the PlayStation controller and was developed by Climax. This was followed by a sequel, Diablo II, in 2000, and a third game, Diablo III, was released on May 15, 2012.

Gameplay
Diablo is an action role-playing hack and slash video game. The player moves and interacts with the environment primarily by way of a pointing device. Other actions, such as casting a spell, are performed in response to keyboard inputs. The player can acquire items, learn abilities, defeat enemies, and interact with NPCs throughout the entire game.

Classes
Diablo has three character classes: the warrior, the rogue, and the sorcerer. Each class has a different set of assigned attributes along with a unique skill. Although each class is capable of using almost all of the same items and spells, class defined skills and attributes reward play that utilizes them efficiently.

Warrior: The Warrior is the most physically able of the three classes. The Warrior is a close-quarters fighter and can generally take the most physical punishment. The Warrior's primary character attribute is Strength. The Warrior starts with the skill to repair objects in his possession at the cost of overall durability. Rogue: The Rogue is a master of ranged weapons. While not as strong as the Warrior, the rogue is very effective at attacking enemies from a distance. The Rogue's primary character attribute is Dexterity. The Rogue's unique starting skill is the ability to disarm traps. Sorcerer: The Sorcerer is a spellcaster. The Sorcerer's is the most physically weak of the three classes, but can learn the most spells at the highest levels. The Sorcerer's primary character attribute is Magic. The Sorcerer's unique starting skill is the ability to recharge some magical weapons.

In the expansion set, Diablo: Hellfire, the Monk was added. Two other characters, the Bard and Barbarian', were hidden characters in Diablo: Hellfire.