It was a great game, but I think it was more to do with the balance and the three races than the graphics. It is still fun to throw on a skirmish map and play once in a while. That can't be said of a lot of other 9 year old games.

Saying all of that though, I still played Warcraft II more than Starcraft back then.

starcraft again was about the gameplay.. its the example of how gameplay and story can make a game good over fancy graphics...

How many other games from 1998 are still played today? very very very few.. to have survived for this long shows its a game worth making a sequal out of

I like SC, but haven't played it in years. I also, prefer Enemy Nations too.
The game is still around and its free too. I would like to see Windward Studios
make a remake of the game, it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

Just to repeat what everyone else is saying, it's the gameplay, not the graphics. Everyone would be still playing even if the game was displayed in an astounding 16 colours!

The ABSURDLY well balanced races, the wide variation in strategies, Battle.net, and the rich universe are all point in its favour.

True about the gameplay, but bad graphics can scare casual gamers off.

Also, It is lame that some people essentially worship the game.

C&C 3 has good gameplay, and great graphics too, though, and thats why its my favorite RTS

Up until I started this game I was still chugging away in MoO 1 (1992). So game play defiantly beats graphics in my mind. Too many of recent games have catered to the crowd of graphics. Give me Starcraft, Diablo 1 & 2, Lords of Magic or Baldurs Gate any day over the recent pile of goo (present company excluded).

I know the gameplay is good, but why are people so obsessed with starcraft? Plus, Blizzard is super snide when declaring a new game. They practically give out no details, and they act like they're better than everyone else.   Speaking of RTS, cant wait for Sins of a Solar empire

And C&C 3 is how many years newer than SC? Obviously a newer game will have better graphics...

As for me, I grew up with StarCraft, it's part of my childhood, I can't help it.   

I certainly wouldn't say I ever worshipped the game (My GC II addiction is closer to worship ). Most of that kind of dedication to it came from Korea, where since they don't buy Japanese consoles, they have a huge PC gaming community. With no Mascots like Mario, Sonic or even Master Chief, it kind of grew into a phenemenon(SP?). I did have a friend that played it long after I was through with it and still bugs me occasionally to play him online, but I haven't started it up in a long while.

Blizzard has pretty much proven that anything they put out is going to be a hit, and deservedly so in most cases. So they kind of like an air of mystery nowadays surrounding their releases. One of the smartest things they usually do is not to give a release date till it's close to completion. That's why they make good games that don't seem rushed. Have yet to be really disappointed by any of their games myself(Note: I discount WOW, never played it and never will.)

I have never played a game I considered "bad" created by Blizzard. In fact I think every single game they have put out has been damn good. That said where do you get off on calling them "snide"?? They don't want to give out details on things and give people certain expectations when things can very easily be cut. Would you rather they pull a "Fable" and hype their crap through the roof?
I first got Starcraft in 1998, when I was 8 years old. I've stopped playing a few times for a year interval here and there but I keep coming back to it. Why?
It is like chess. It is extremely well-balanced. It is "fun" and continues to be "fun" 10 years after it came out. Hell, its even just as fun for a lot of individuals to watch the pro-korean games. Graphics can blow me.

I really do like Starcraft, but people have to stop overstating its variety.

There are two strategies: Rush/Be Rushed or Survive the Rush and Turtle. If you choose the latter, then, yes, after the rush, there is variety to be had. Otherwise, no, there really isn't that much variety. Especially (but not only) if you play online.

The game was made in 1998 and the AI was/is very good. Unfortunately, the AI has no limits put on it--it can click things faster than the player can, and at the beginning it has very specific routines it follows. Routines which, in about 90 or 95% of the cases, revolve around rushing.

But.. but surely worshiping the Gods at Stardock isn't pathetic?

I loved that game. If they included the feature of being able to pause the game and make commands in pause during a single player game, I would still be playing it to this day. ( I only like to play RTS in SP).

It was a good game in its time, but its time is long past. Any RTS worth playing these days, IMO, has a map-based, non-linear campaign and more than three distinct factions.

Starcraft is still my fav RTS game to date, i do get bored after a couple games of it now but there were alot of good times... between SC2 and GC2 i wont have time to eat or sleep lol.