World of Warcraft
"World of Warcraft" was first announced by Blizzard at the ECTS trade show in September 2001. Released in 2004, development of the game took roughly 4–5 years, including extensive testing. The 3D graphics in "World of Warcraft" use elements of the proprietary graphics engine originally used in "Warcraft III". The game was designed to be an open environment where players are allowed to do what they please. Quests are optional and were designed to help guide players, allow character development, and to spread characters across different zones to try to avoid what developers called "player collision". The game interface allows players to customize appearance and controls, and to install add-ons and other modifications.
StarCraft
"" is the official sequel to "StarCraft" released for Windows and Mac OS X by Blizzard Entertainment on July 27, 2010. The game was announced at the Worldwide Invitational in South Korea on May 19, 2007 with a pre-rendered cinematic cut scene trailer and a gameplay demonstration of the Protoss. Further demonstrations regarding the game's new features have been showcased at subsequent Blizzcons and other games conventions. The game incorporates a new 3D graphics engine and adds new features such as the Havok physics engine. "StarCraft II" also incorporates DirectX 10 level effects in Windows. Originally envisioned as a single game, "StarCraft II" was split into three parts during development, one for focusing on each race. The base game, "Wings of Liberty", follows the Terrans, while two expansion packs, "Heart of the Swarm" and "Legacy of the Void" have been released to complement "Wings of Liberty" and further the story from the views of the Zerg and Protoss, respectively. The story of "Wings of Liberty" continues from four years after the conclusion of "Brood War", and revolves around Jim Raynor's struggles against the Terran Dominion.