Real Time Strategy (RTS)

1. What is the historical origin of the genre (first appearance, who designed it, why-- whatever you can cover)

The historical origin of the real-time strategy (RTS) was as a result of an extended period of evolution and refinement. Some of the various games which have been developed today evolved from the RTS. This genre is thought to have first evolved from Japan, North America, and United Kingdom before merging into a unified global tradition. The first RTS game was the Stonkers which was developed in 1983. It was released for the 48 ZX Spectrum system. It was the first game which had the capacity of demonstrating strategy action in real time.  In this game, although the computer and the participant are given the identical units, these units are given commands to move on the map as well as attack the units of the opponent. This means that with its development, this game managed to pare-back fast-paced real time adaptations of the battle phase of conventional war gaming strategies.
2. What is the most popular/most well-known example of the genre? Why?

Star Wars: Empire at War. With this game, it is logical to say that the fans of RTS and any Star Wars are given the opportunity of experiencing the same move battle while gaming.  The reason for that is because this genre mainly features a mode in which participants can either select for the rebel alliance to the empire. In the process, participants are placed in scenarios, for instance, destroying the Death Star, securing Empire Palpatine, or taking an additional faction from the campaign map completely. With this game, the idea is that it puts the participants in full control of their personal army. This then requires players to be keen with the steps they take while gaming
3. What is the newest example of the genre?

            Heroes of the Storm
4. What platform/platforms is the genre most popular on and why?

This genre is typically a subgenre of the various strategy video games in which the game does not proceed incrementally in turns. The platform of this genre makes use of both freemium and free-to-play models. These two models are always supported by various micropayments which are used for purchasing mounts, heroes, and visual alterations for the heroes. Furthermore, in this genre, the player positions himself or herself and maneuver units and buildings under their control so as to be able to protect regions of the map. The player still given the chances of destroying the assets of the opponents (Alquézar et al 73)

5. Where do people compete in this genre? How often? How high are the stakes?

In the RTS game, the gamers divide the screen into a map area so as to display the game world consisting of units, terrain, and buildings. An interface overlay is also generated and it contains production controls, commands, and often minimap or radar to assists in over-viewing the entire map (Fromme et al 82).

6. Is there a professional scene for the genre? Where?

Generally, gameplay comprises of the participant positioned somewhere in the map with few buildings or units which are capable to build other buildings or units. In most cases, the contestant is required to build certain structures so as to be able to unlock other more complex units or buildings in the tech tree. The player is also required to construct an army and use them to defend themselves against virtual forms or to aid in eliminating opponents who owns bases with units having its own production capabilities (Giacobini 333). Furthermore, in the process of gaming, the player is presented with several units to control hence restricting him or her from building additional ones.
7. Is there a collegiate scene?

No. in this genre, the contestant is provided with an isometric perspective of the real world or just a free roaming camera from an aerial viewpoint for contemporary 3-D games (Hutchison et al 291). During the gameplay, the player is given the opportunity of having a full control of his units and other structures. In the process of using the, the player is able to wipe out armies of the opponent. Additionally, other than building such units, the player uses a tech tree for the purpose of deploying stronger ones as the war continues.
8. Who is the most popular player (or team) for this genre?

In this genre, the most popular player is the one who manages to construct various ideal gaming structures which will assist him or her to unlock other complex structures.  Such a player is also the one who is able to build an army to aid him to defend and eliminate opponents while gaming (Esparcia-Alcázar 273).
9. What is the future outlook for the genre? Is it growing, is it fading?

Basically, the rise and fall of this genre is somehow a strange thing. This genre initially emerged out gradually through experiments which combined speed and excitements of action games with the depth and deliberateness of strategy. Nowadays, the general popularity of war games, such as, starcraft, total war, and company of heroes are the ones which have ended up ruining this genre. Moreover, some individuals do perceive that such games are somehow tactical or strategic. The truth is that they are micro-management focused (Alquézar et al 73).

Despite that, it is logical to say that the future outlook of this genre is bright. For instance, from 2010 onwards, this genre has been incorporated with various physics engines like Havok. The idea behind this is to assist in increasing realism experience during gaming. For instance, Age of Empires III is one of the contemporary RTS games which have successfully incorporated with physics engines (Havoc Game Dynamics SDK) for the powering its real-time physics (Fromme et al 82). Another notable example is the Company of Heroes which makes use of practically modeled physics engines as part of gaming. This includes fully destructible gaming environments. Lastly, various RTS tournaments have been held worldwide hence making this genre a famous branch of e-sports.

10. What is one thing not covered by any of the other questions that you consider fascinating, interesting, important, or valuable?

As far as this genre is concerned, one issue which can be addressed here is that strategy and tactics are not the same. Ideally, tactics take into consideration finer details of execution of certain objectives. This is to imply that it is a war staff comprising of in-depth combat ground mechanics. Its main focus is on structure building, positioning, and exploitation of terrain features for the advantage of the player.  Strategy refers to some high-level plans which are executable during gameplay. This implies the building as well as the management of soldiers for the structures the player adds to his or her base using the resources harvested or mined (Fromme et al 82). RTS tactics incorporates strategy mechanics while RTS strategy incorporates tactical elements.

                                                Work cited

Alquézar, René, Antonio Moreno, and J Aguilar-Martin. Artificial Intelligence Research and Development: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference of the Catalan Association for Artificial Intelligence. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2010. Print.

Esparcia-Alcázar, Anna I. Applications of Evolutionary Computation [recurso Electrónico]: 16th European Conference, Evoapplications 2013, Vienna, Austria, April 3-5, 2013. Proceedings. , n.d.. Internet resource.

Fromme, Johannes, and Alexander Unger. Computer Games and New Media Cultures: A Handbook of Digital Games Studies. Dordrecht: Springer, 2012. Internet resource.

Giacobini, Mario. Applications of Evolutionary Computing: Evoworkshops 2009: Evocomnet, Evoenvironment, Evofin, Evogames, Evohot, Evoiasp, Evointeraction, Evomusart, Evonum, Evostoc, Evotranslog, Tübingen, Germany, April 15-17, 2009 ; Proceedings. Berlin: Springer, 2009. Internet resource.

Hutchison, David, Moni Naor, John C. Mitchell, Takeo Kanade, Josef Kittler, Jon M. Kleinberg, Gerhard Weikum, Moonis Ali, Shyi-Ming Chen, Tzung-Pei Hong, Been-Chian Chien, Wolfgang Wahlster, Friedemann Mattern, Randy Goebel, Moshe Y. Vardi, Doug Tygar, Demetri Terzopoulos, Madhu Sudan, Bernhard Steffen, Rangan C. Pandu, Oscar Nierstrasz, and Jörg Siekmann. Next-generation Applied Intelligence: 22nd International Conference on Industrial, Engineering and Other Applications of Applied Intelligent Systems, Iea/aie 2009, Tainan, Taiwan, June 24-27, 2009. Proceedings. , 2009. Internet resource.