I started playing C&C games when I was 9 or 10 on Sega Saturn. I loved the original C&C, I played it many hours. I was extreamly excited when Red Alert came out and it too was a great game. After Red Alert 2 came out I got bored with the series, mainly because my attention was on HL/CS, but they became repetitive I think. And I think alot of it was after CS I was mainly an online/multiplayer gamer and overlooked the single player. One of the greatest things about C&C was the story lines, character acting, cinematics, etc.
I played Starcraft for the first time last week and I am enjoying it. I started at the very beginning and plan on playing the whole way through, I might even pick up one of the novels written by Blizzard employies. From what I read Starcraft 2 doesn't look to far away, so I'll be caught up on the whole story by then.