ZFR: So here is a question: did Starcraft pioneer the method of having single player campaigns for different races follow a story sequentially, rather than having the campaign for each race run separately "in parallel"?
rtcvb32: Hmmm...
Well having each race separately let you get to memorize and get comfortable with a specific race... Which i think is the main reason the campaigns are set that way.
As for sequentially... for SC you had the ghost get captured in the first campaign, she was hatched in the second campaign, and the Protoss are recovering after the temple was taken over in the third, so it is sequential, just not in parallel...
(
oh right, spoilers...)
Really comes down to making the campaigns. The editor as i recall wasn't bad, the hardest part is the voice actors... and videos.
Thinking back to Command and Conquer, you chose a faction (
GDI, Nod) and you stuck with it... even if 90% of the technology was identical and switching back and forth would not be difficult. So i don't think it was pioneered... Just makes more sense to stick to one thing at a time.
Did you understand what I was trying to say?
Each race/faction/side in a given game has a campaign. Prior to Starcraft, in all games that I played, the campaigns had storylines that were separate and generally mutually exclusive (or unrelated). You either played Humans or Orcs: 2 separate stories; either humans won or orcs won; both couldn't happen together. Similarly you played either Allies, or Russians. Either Ronald or Archiebald.
Starcraft however had one single story for all campaigns. You played Terran first, then Zerg then Protoss. All three did happen one after the other; it was one storyline not 3 separate ones. This format persisted in many games later (Warcraft 3; HoMM3, HoMM5... etc).
So my question is: did any games before Starcraft have this format too?
ZFR: All of the games I played before had a separate campaign for each race/faction (Warcraft 1 and 2, Red Alert and C&C, HoMM2...)
LootHunter: Actually, in Red Alert Allies campaign is a prequel to original C&C and Soviet campaign takes place after Tiberian Incursion and Kane going back in time. At least that's what Westwood planned. But later they chancelled Tiberian Incursion, ditched the idea of Kane time travel and made Tiberian and RA separate universes. (Yes, I know - April, 1st - but you can google if you don't believe me.)
Maybe so. But from a single game perspective, i.e. looking at that game's lore only, it's 2 separate storylines for each faction. Einstein kills Hitler, Allies go against Soviets and you play either one or the other.