******-****-ZFR***-****-******

...aaaaand a year later, my Frozen Throne CD key turned out to be

*****-****-******-****-*ZFR**

Always wanted to share this but part of me was a tiny bit scared that revealing even those 3 characters will make a brute force or similar attack easier (wasn't sure how strong the algorithm used to generate them was). But now, what the heck...

Back then at the peak of cd key popularity when every CD seemed to come with one, this was a pretty neat coincidence.

Anyone else feel The Frozen Throne expansion kinda ruined the story? I mean, Word Of Warcraft was the nail in the coffin for the lore we all know and love, but TFT added so many absurd elements, like the elven refugees addicted to blood magic.

Wow, looks like those 2 cd keys were really meant to be urs. Haha.

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/just_bought_my_first_physical_pc_game_in_years/post7

I liked Warcraft 3 for the skirmish mode, but the campaign mode always felt a bit herky-jerky to me in the main game and expansion, as they tried to meld the RPG and RTS elements. (same general complaint about Spellforce)

It was okay but while I keep it installed to skirmish occasionally, I haven't been tempted to replay the campaign in forever. Could just be me, though.

I like warcraft 1.

I always preferred Warcraft 2. WC3 felt like it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be an RTS or an RPG, and also suffered from some extremely poor level design.

Just posting here for some balance: I thought Warcraft 3 was awesome. It might not have been to everyone's taste, but it continued the Starcraft theme of playing all the sides as one story (something not done before SC), and kept some of the SC themes of arrogance and selfish desires overriding the common good.

It was in my opinion a good game, you may not have liked it, but it was good, and contrary to most games, really stable.

Story wise, the series peaked in Warcraft 2. I did really like the gameplay of Warcraft 3 though.

Of the three, I'd say W2 is my favourite but mainly for nostalgic reasons. I played it soon after it came out and it was one of my first (come to think of it: the first) base-building RTSs. I loved it, though it did suffer from some difficult controls, compared to modern ones (not that I felt it back then), and the fact that both factions were similar, except for the spells.

I played W1 after having played (but not finished) W2. The later campaign levels seemed to consist mostly of surviving (which wasn't always easy) till you could build 6 warlocks/mages, then summoning 6 demons/elementals and wiping the map with them. The controls were even more clunky with the worst offender being only max 4 selectable units and lack of right-click to move. That said, I got used to the keyboard shorcuts pretty quickly so didn't feel the clunky controls that much, it'd probably be worse if I try it again now.

Which brings me to the best part about Warcraft 3: excellent controls. It was innovative back then, and even later I've yet to find an RTS which does it better (granted I haven't played the most recent ones). How often do I find a good spell that I don't cast because it's just not worth it to select that unit in hectic combat and cast it, so I just say screw it (the computer wouldn't have the problem and would use it against me). Not in Warcraft 3. The easily selectable groups, subgroups, autocasting... I loved it. In Warcraft 2 having those 9 ogre magi cast bloodlust on each other wasn't so easy. Plus, W3 very different races, though that was the standard by then. There is another reason Warcraft 3 is special for me, but that's another story.

So W2>W3>W1 for me. But I loved all three. After that, Warcraft just wasn't the same Warcraft...

I liked Warcraft 3 the most from all the Warcraft games. I just loved the very long campaign which I replayed several times. And all that story with so many intro videos. Just perfect.

W2 and its expansion are also very good :) I really loved that sheep magic.

This was perfect. I loved WC3. I liked the story and liked that heroes weren't just a buffed up normal unit. The game continued the theme of having very different factions/races and I loved the minor races too (Naga, Blood Elves, and Draenor). I don't think any rts game will make the same jump that StarCraft made, but WC3 was great.

The one thing that bugged me was upkeep, but I guess that pushes you to move around and kill things.

That's probably because it started out way more as an RPG than RTS, at least according to early development articles I read back when pc magazines were still fashionable. In the end, they simply decided to cut out most of the RPG stuff... which ended up becoming the beginnings of WoW.

WC3 had some sort of single player RPG built-into it as a bonus "game" if I recall that involved running around and questing.