Today, Blizzard Entertainment celebrates the ten-year anniversary of one of its most iconic games to date, StarCraft 2.
The company was eager to express its gratitude to players who, over the years, collectively sunk millions of hours into its game, which is considered one of the hardest real-time strategy games available today. "To commemorate this decade of comradery in the Koprulu Sector," Blizzard wrote, "we’re introducing some player-requested features to the game, along with a few extras we hope you’ll enjoy."
Since its debut on July 27, 2010, fans of StarCraft 2 have been modding and creating custom maps for the game, not unlike the fanbase for the Pirate of the Caribbean Game, and it seems that Blizzard has decided to embrace the creativity of its fanbase. The announcement took a moment to point out some of Blizzard's favorite game mods, including a tower defense mode, before going into detail about specific changes.
Fans now have access to a new and improved map editor, which was built with the aim to make map-making more satisfying for creators. For example, map makers can group the elements they use in their map as a 'data collection,' which makes it much easier to manage a large group of items. StarCraft 2 also now supports 15 cliff layers, up from its original 3.
This has a lot of implications for league-level StarCraft 2 gameplay. Any time there is an update to a game used in professional esports, players have to adjust their strategies to compensate for any and all changes. With a new map editor comes new maps and new ways to dominate them. Undoubtedly there will soon be a wave of new maps that make use of the new tools available.
Starcraft 2 is available now for PC.
Source:Â Blizzard