Wikipedia:Today's featured article/February 19, 2018

Dungeon Siege is an action role-playing game developed by Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft for Windows (2002) and by Destineer for MacOS (2003). Set in the pseudo-medieval kingdom of Ehb, the high fantasy game follows a young farmer and his companions as they journey to defeat an invading force. Instead of manually controlling characters, the player sets their overall tactics, weapons and magic usage. Chris Taylor and Jacob McMahon aimed for a role-playing game stripped of the typical genre elements they found slow or frustrating, including all loading screens, to keep the player focused on the action. Development took over four years, often with 12- to 14-hour workdays. The game is listed by review aggregator Metacritic as the third-highest rated computer role-playing game of 2002. Critics praised the graphics and seamless world, as well as the fun and accessible gameplay, but were dismissive of the plot. The game sold over 1.7 million copies. An expansion pack, Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna, was released in 2003, followed by Dungeon Siege II (2005), Dungeon Siege III (2011), and other titles.