Most of the Warcraft series takes place on the planet of Azeroth. Other planets in the Warcraft universe include: Draenor (and its shattered remnants, know as Outland), Argus, K'aresh, and Xoroth. There are also several metaphysical areas mentioned, including the Emerald Dream, the Elemental Planes, the Twisting Nether, and the Great Dark Beyond. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, the first game in the series, takes place in the human kingdom of Azeroth.
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy game (RTS), developed by Blizzard Entertainment and published by Blizzard and Interplay Entertainment. The MS-DOS version was released in November 1994 and the Macintosh version in late 1996. Sales were fairly high, reviewers were mostly impressed, and the game won three awards and was a finalist for three others. The sequel, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, became the main rival to Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer series, and this competition fostered an RTS boom in the mid to late 1990s.
Although Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was not the first RTS title to offer multiplayer games, Blizzard's game persuaded a wider audience that multiplayer facilities were essential for future RTS titles. The game introduced innovations in mission design and gameplay elements, which were adopted by other RTS developers.
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans's gameplay expanded the Dune II build base, build army, destroy enemy paradigm to include other modes of game play.[3] These included several new mission types, such as conquering rebels of the player's race; rescuing and rebuilding besieged towns; rescuing friendly forces from an enemy camp and then destroying the main enemy base; and limited-forces missions, in which neither side could make further units, and making efficient use of one's platoon was a key strategy element.[11] In one mission, the gamer had to kill the Orc chief's daughter.[12]
