Build, command, destroy; repeat until done. Rooted in the early 80s with Turn-Based Strategy games like Utopia, avant-garde developer Chris Crawford's Legionnaire, and Bokosuka Wars these games set a few basic rules for the genre: 

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1. The game progresses according to time.

2. Incorporates an element of strategic thinking.

3. Controlling and manipulating the playspace with assets.

4. Players assume a command or leadership position.

5. With intent to defeat an opposing entity.

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The 1992 release of Dune II codified the above with additional rules and features - that players gather resources to build assets, mini-map functionality, technology trees, unique unit functions, and the fog of war.

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To accommodate the complexities of commanding large scale assets and multitasking, desktop features such as box-selection and contextualized cursors made the game easier to read and control. Such features have become standardised within the genre since their inception.

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Companies such as Blizzard, Relic and Cavedog Entertainment further iterated within the genre with titles such as Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Homeworld and Total Annihilation, respectively. Sci-fi and fantasy settings, sub-objectives, and different art styles set the giants apart. Each game received acclaim for their mechanical twists within the settings and art styles, cementing the titles as genre corner stones.

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Ensemble Studios also blended real-time principles with Sid Meier's Civilization and the newly christened 4X Strategy, creating Age of Empires. Later developers integrated settings such as deep space and Tolkein-esque fantasy after the rampaging success of Civilization and Age of Empires, both spawning their own franchises.

Bullfrog's Populous and Lionhead Studios's Black & White merged magic and godlike themes to create the God Game sub-genre, which later expanded to include leader archetypes and forces of nature seen in Spore. It should be noted that God Games share many similarities with RTS games, but differ in one key area - God Games do not directly control the entities under their charge.

Game Genre