Maybe I should clarify by what I meant with defining the genre. I mean the first game that took the genre mainstream to the point that a lot of people knew what it was all about. Generally this means playable via Windows, very high sales, and in general if you ask someone who has played video games from time to time what a [genre] game is and to give the first big example, they'll more often than not say "oh, the first big one was _____."

As for it being in the 90's - well, yes, most genres did become mainstream during the 90's because gaming in general became mainstream in the 90's.

I'm not talking about the most recently innovative, I'm not talking about the most famous current game, I'm talking about the very first games (The First) which are handily pretty easy enough to come up with in most cases, the first to get the basic formula that is used in a stereotypical version of such a game - in Dune II's case, we had the grid map, the minimap, the building of structures, the gathering of resources, etc. (The Formula) and the first 'big famous one' that made the genre well-known in the first place (The Definer). Perhaps 'Definer' was a bad choice of word, I must admit!

I definitely agree that RTS can be pointed into all sorts of types of games from Sins to Warcraft to whatever else, but we're talking the type of game you think of initially when you hear the words. I think most people will think of a similar thing. However if you want to talk 4XRTS or something like that, go for it! I wonder if Sins is the first of it's kind? Surely there was something else beforehand, I seem to recall mention of a previous game from the developer that was very similar to Sins but I think it was turn-based.