Warcraft III

Warcraft III takes place on a map of varying size, such as large plains and fields, with terrain features like rivers, mountains, seas, or cliffs. The map is initially hidden from view and only becomes visible through exploration. Areas no longer in sight range of an allied unit or building are covered with the fog of war, meaning that while the terrain remains visible, player caused changes such as enemy troop movements and building construction are not. During a game, players must establish settlements to gain resources, defend against others, and train units from buildings to explore the map and fight computer controlled foes.

There are three main resources that are managed in Warcraft III: gold, lumber, and food. The first two are required to construct units and buildings, while food restricts the maximum number of units that can be possessed at the same time. Additionally, a new "upkeep" system means that producing units over certain amounts will decrease the amount of gold one can earn, compelling players to focus on playing with a limited number of units to avoid penalties.

Warcraft III takes place in the fictional world of Azeroth. Several years before the events of the game, a demon army known as the Burning Legion, intent on Azeroth's destruction, corrupted a race called the Orcs, and sent them through a portal to attack Azeroth. These events were previously shown in Orcs & Humans, Tides of Darkness and Beyond the Dark Portal. After many years of fighting, the Orcs were defeated by a coalition of humans, dwarves and elves known as the Alliance; the surviving Orcs were herded into internment camps, where they seemed to lose their lust for battle. With no common enemy, a period of peace followed, but the Alliance began to fracture.

The game follows the story of three different heroes: The young and idealistic human paladin and crown prince of Lordaeron, Arthas Menethil, as he becomes more and more corrupted until he joins the Undead and assists with the summoning of demonic forces to Azeroth; the adventures of Orc warchief Thrall as he brings his people to the continent of Kalimdor to escape human captivity and the impending downfall of Lordaeron; and the events involving Tyrande Whisperwind, the Night Elven leader, who has to deal with both the arrival of humans and orcs in their sacred lands and the invasion by the demon forces.

After the success of Warcraft II (1995) and Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal (1996), Blizzard originally planned to continue the story with a point-and-click adventure game called Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. This game was supposed to tell the story of Thrall from being raised in captivity to becoming the leader of his clan. However, in 1998, Blizzard canceled Lord of the Clans for not meeting the company's quality standards. Thrall's story was instead worked into Warcraft III, whose development began in early 1998. The game was announced as a role-playing strategy game (RPS) on September 5, 1999, at a press conference by the game's lead designer Rob Pardo inside the Henley-Suite at the European Computer Trade Show 1999.

According to Pardo, Mike O'Brien, the game's lead programmer, originally planned a strategy game—tentatively titled Warcraft Legends—with few units to command, over-the-shoulder camera and no base building. However, after a year of work this concept did not work out and the existing framework was used to create Warcraft III instead. As a result of these design choices, the first version shown at ECTS 1999 had no notable interface, however it did have portraits for the heroes. In first previews, the game's design and gameplay was therefore compared to games such as Myth and Heroes of Might and Magic.

On review aggregator website Metacritic, Warcraft III received a score of 92/100, indicating "Universal acclaim".

Most critics praised the game's graphics, both the design of the individual units as well as the game world itself, concluding that Blizzard successfully entered the 3-D universe. German magazine PC Games compared the units' appearance to beauty pageant contestants and emphasized many details such as waving capes, knights who balance their weight from one foot to another while standing around and bodies of water colored red when units die in them. The campaign-related cinematics were especially noted, with multiple critics declaring them most impressive feats of video rendering. However, GameSpot noted that the character models were of mediocre quality, especially when viewed up close during in-game cutscenes. Critics also praised the interface as simple yet powerful and making it very easy for players to effectively control their units.

Warcraft III has been an influence on real-time strategy games, especially the addition of role-playing elements and heroes as units. More than the game itself, mods created with the World Editor led to lasting changes and inspired many future games. Defense of the Ancients (DotA) paved the way for the multiplayer online battle arena genre, inspiring the creation of the mod's standalone sequel, Dota 2, and games such as League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, and Heroes of the Storm. Blizzard pointed to DotA as an example of what dedicated mapmakers can create using strong developer's tools.

DotA All-stars became an important tournament scenario, starting with its prominence at the debut of Blizzard's BlizzCon convention in 2005. Since then, MOBAs have had a big impact on the development of esports, becoming some of the most watched games in the world. The World Editor was used as a tool for creating many popular tower defense custom maps that served as inspiration for the standalone tower defense games, such as Plants vs. Zombies.