Ever wonder which game propelled esports onto the world stage? Well, it’s the STRs. How so? You don’t know what a STR (or RTS in English) is! Don’t panic — we’ll explain.
Imagine for a moment a genre of games where you are asked to perform more than a hundred actions per minute.
Welcome to the fantastic world of STR ( called RTS in English), for Real-Time Strategy. These games have been part of the video game landscape for over twenty years, and some are even elevated to the rank of video game classics such as Blizzard's Warcraft series and Robot Entertainment's Age of Empires.
It's very simple: the game provides you with several factions.
A faction is a race, a people, a group of characters united by common traits.
You pick one, like the Zerg (the space roaches in StarCraft II), then you select your map from a wide range, and the match begins.
You might start with a base, for example, and a few characters. It's up to you to grow that. You'll need to feed everyone, develop a city, and think up conquest strategies.
It's up to you to manage the minutiae of each tribe member's actions to help them thrive.
That's where things get tricky. You must amass different resources to build your base, construct buildings, but also train your army. This will be crucial for what comes next.
For you will quickly discover other civilizations, controlled by other players, who want to raze your base. Yes, STRs are war games.
Note that RTS are not FPS games, other highly popular games where you play as a soldier and can shoot at anything that moves.
RTS, on the other hand, are management games, not action games.
Note that most STRs are played on PC. Directing your army isn't easy with a console controller, especially when you have to micromanage dozens of units at the same time.
There are quite a few terms that may slip by you from the start of your reading; don't panic — we'll explain them.
APM: Actions per minute. These actions let you create your characters, your buildings, in short, to do it all. They are keyboard shortcuts to perform (like the good old Ctrl+C or Alt+0156 for the seasoned). For example, professional players exceed 400 actions per minute.
Resources: What will allow you to build your city and then your army. These resources vary from game to game; it can be wood, ore, gas, and so on. Without these resources, there is no victory, and essentially no game at all, actually.
A faction: The species you choose for your game; after playing for a while, you start to have a preferred one. Whether Warcraft's Orcs or StarCraft II's Zerg.
Micromanagement: The ability to manage several groups of units independently. Put simply, like a strategist, you issue different orders to each member of your army.
STRs are demanding games, more than the MOBA; you'll need many hours of practice to become good. But the gameplay and the satisfaction of triumphing over your opponent through the sheer force of your intellect will be a tremendous reward.