Quote Originally Posted by kotora View Post
C&C pretty much started the whole multiplayer thing but it didn't do anything new, gameplay-wise as far as I know. The Warcraft series (and eventually Starcraft) turned out to be far more influential for RTS as a genre.
It took the genre to the mainstream and was the game everyone talked about when talking about RTS. "It's a real-time strategy game. You know, like Command & Conquer". I didn't like it, personally, but I still concede that it was the one that started the masses of clones. Although one could point at Warcraft, I'm not sure which of them came out first. But annoyingly (again, since I preferred Warcraft to C&C on every level) C&C was definitely the one that took the genre to the mainstream and was the game used to define the genre for years to come. Even if it should have been Dune II, because I found Dune II way more enjoyable for some reason. Which is strange considering the lack of user-friendly features. It just played so well!