Strategy video game
Strategy is a major video game genre that focus on analyzing and strategizing over direct quick reaction in order to secure success.
They are also usually divided into two main sub-categories: turn-based and real-time, but there are also many strategy cross/sub-genres that feature additional elements such as tactics, diplomacy, economics and exploration.
[1] Thus, most strategy games involve elements of warfare to varying degrees,[2] and feature a combination of tactical and strategic considerations.
[3] A strategy game is typically larger in scope, and its main emphasis is on the player's ability to outthink their opponent.
[3] Strategy games rarely involve a physical challenge, and tend to annoy strategically minded players when they do.
Units can typically move, attack, stop, hold a position, although other strategy games offer more complex orders.
Techniques such as flanking, making diversions, or cutting supply lines may become integral parts of managing combat.
Some strategy games such as Civilization III and Medieval 2: Total War involve other forms of conflict such as diplomacy and espionage.
[8] Games with a large number of upgrades often feature a technology tree,[2] which is a series of advancements that players can research to unlock new units, buildings, and other capabilities.
[9][10] A build order is a linear pattern of production, research, and resource management aimed at achieving a specific and specialized goal.
But a real-time artificial intelligence makes up for this disadvantage with its ability to manage multiple units more quickly than a human.
[3] The relative popularity of real-time strategy has led some critics to conclude that more gamers prefer action-oriented games.
[20] But releases that are considered pure tactical games usually provide players with a fixed set of units,[3][16] and downplay other strategic considerations such as manufacturing, and resource management.
[13][16] Tactical games are strictly about combat,[21] and typically focus on individual battles,[13] or other small sections in a larger conflict.
[33] Single player games will sometimes feature a campaign mode, which involves a series of matches against several artificial intelligence opponents.
Companies such as SSI, Avalon Hill, MicroProse, and Strategic Studies Group released many strategy titles throughout the 1980s.
[3] Reach for the Stars from 1983 was one of the first 4X strategy games, which expanded upon the relationship between economic growth, technological progress, and conquest.
[50][51] 2002's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos has been an influence on real-time strategy games, especially the addition of role-playing elements and heroes as units.
[53][54] Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a community-created mod based on Warcraft III, is largely attributed as being the most significant inspiration for the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) format.
[55][56] Since the format was tied to the Warcraft property, developers began to work on their own "DOTA-style" games, including Heroes of Newerth (2009), League of Legends (2010), and the mod's standalone sequel, Dota 2 (2013).
The term was first coined by Alan Emrich in his September 1993 preview of Master of Orion for Computer Gaming World.
Sid Meier's Civilization and the Total War series are important examples from this formative era, and popularized the level of detail that would later become a staple of the genre.
A BASIC game known simply as Artillery was written by Mike Forman and was published in Creative Computing magazine in 1976.
Auto battler, also known as auto chess, is a type of strategy game that features chess-like elements where players place characters on a grid-shaped battlefield during a preparation phase, who then fight the opposing team's characters without any further direct input from the player.
[67][68][69] Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a genre of strategy video games where two teams of players compete on a predefined battlefield, each controlling a single character with a set of unique abilities.
According to Troy Dunniway, "A player controls hundreds of units, dozens of buildings and many different events that are all happening simultaneously.
Players often assume the role of a general, king, or other type of figurehead leading an army into battle while maintaining the resources needed for such warfare.
Example titles include Warhammer: Dark Omen, World In Conflict, the Close Combat series, and early tactical role-playing games such as Bokosuka Wars, and Silver Ghost.
Examples of this genre are the Civilization, Heroes of Might and Magic, Making History, Advance Wars and Master of Orion.
Wargames are a subgenre of strategy video games that emphasize strategic or tactical warfare on a map, as well as historical (or near-historical) accuracy.
