Though some video game genres share conceptual and gameplay similarities with the RTS template, recognized genres are generally not subsumed as RTS games. Some features have been borrowed from desktop environments for example, the technique of 'clicking and dragging' to create a box that selects all units under a given area. The tasks a player must perform to win an RTS game can be very demanding, and complex user interfaces have evolved for them. More specifically, the typical game in the RTS genre features resource-gathering, base-building, in-game technological development, and indirect control of units. These resources are in turn garnered by controlling special points on the map and/or possessing certain types of units and structures devoted to this purpose.

In a typical RTS game, it is possible to create additional units and structures, generally limited by a requirement to expend accumulated resources. In a real-time strategy game, each participant positions structures and maneuvers multiple units under their indirect control to secure areas of the map and/or destroy their opponents' assets. The term 'real-time strategy' was coined by Brett Sperry to market Dune II in the early 1990s.

By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to play. Real-time strategy ( RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in 'real time'.

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