Maybe youre one of the millions of people currently enjoyingOverwatch, Blizzard Entertainments multiplayer shooter.
Or perhaps youre an eSports fan, obsessed withLeague of LegendsorDota 2.
Some of you have undoubtedly spent hours hunched over your phones, tapping away atPlants vs. ZombiesorClash Royale.
If so, youve gotWarcraftto thank.
Players and critics liked the firstWarcraftgame.
TheWarcraftfeature film even broke box office records in parts of the world.
BeforeWarcraft, Blizzard made ends meet by programming ports of other peoples games.
Now, the company holds an annual convention dedicated exclusively to its own intellectual properties.
Oh, and the$700 million esports industry?
WithoutWarcraft, it wouldnt exist.
As in most strategy games,Warcraftplayers collect resources, which they use to build armies.
When their forces are big enough, players send their troops out into the wilderness to conquer enemy bases.
The first side to wipe out its opponent wins.
However,Warcrafts biggest innovation was its multiplayer mode.
Pre-Warcraft, most strategy games were solitary affairs.Warcraftchanged that.
Multiplayer was even more important toStarCraft.
WhenStarCraftfinally came out in 1998, Blizzard had Battle.net, its proprietary online matchmaking service.
StarCraftreceived rave reviews, and tens of thousands of players flocked to Battle.net.
The game was especially popular in South Korea, where third-party organizers started to hold tournaments.
In normalWarcraft, players control an army.
In Defense of the Ancients, players control a single character.
Different characters have different abilities, and strategy and teamwork are crucial if you want to survive.
Defense of the Ancients quickly becameWarcraft IIIs most popular modification, and DotA games dominated Battle.net.
Dota is free forWarcraft IIIowners, but that didnt stop developers from trying to capitalize on its success.
The rest is history.
None of this happened in a vacuum, of course.
BeforeWorld of Warcraft, there wasEverQuestandUltima Online.Magic: The GatheringpredatesHearthstoneby 20 years.
We might still have eSports withoutWarcraft, but theyd look awfully different.
And the most exciting part?
Blizzard is just getting started.
Christopher Gates is a freelance contributor.
This article originally appeared on June 29, 2016.
