Online games are games played over some form of computer network. Computer networking is the Engineering Discipline concerned with communication between Computer systems or devices Networking routers At the present, this almost always means the Internet or equivalent technology; but games have always used whatever technology was current: modems before the internet, and hard wired terminals before modems. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks Modem (from mo dulator- dem odulator is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode Digital information A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that is used for entering data into and displaying data from a Computer or a Computing The expansion of online gaming has reflected the overall expansion of computer networks from small local networks to the Internet and the growth of Internet access itself. Online games can range from simple text based games to games incorporating complex graphics and virtual worlds populated by many players simultaneously. Many online games have associated online communities, making online games a form of social activity beyond single player games. A virtual community, e-community or online community is a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as Newsletters
The rising popularity of Flash and Java led to an Internet revolution where websites could utilize streaming video, audio, and a whole new set of user interactivity. Adobe Flash (previously called Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of Multimedia software created by Macromedia and currently When Microsoft began packaging Flash as a pre-installed component of IE, the Internet began to shift from a data/information spectrum to also offer on-demand entertainment. Adobe Flash (previously called Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of Multimedia software created by Macromedia and currently Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE) commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical This revolution paved the way for sites to offer games to web surfers. Most online games like World Of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI and Lineage II charge a monthly fee to subscribe to their services, while games such as Guild Wars offer an alternative no monthly fee scheme. World of Warcraft (commonly acronymed as WoW) is a Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG also known as Final Fantasy XI Online, is a Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG developed and published by Square (later Square Lineage II The Chaotic Throne (리니지 2 is a Fantasy Massive multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) for the PC and a Many other sites relied on advertising revenues from on-site sponsors, while others, like RuneScape, let people play for free while leaving the players the option of paying, unlocking new content for the members. RuneScape is a Java -based MMORPG ( Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) operated by Jagex Ltd
After the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, many sites solely relying on advertising revenue dollars faced extreme adversity. The " dot-com bubble " (or sometimes the " IT bubble " was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2001 (with a climax on March 10 Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. Despite the decreasing profitability of online gaming websites, some sites have survived the fluctuating ad market by offsetting the advertising revenue loss by using the content as a cross-promotion tool for driving web visitors to other websites that the company owns.
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Definition
"Online gaming is a technology rather than a genre; a mechanism for connecting players together rather than a particular pattern of gameplay. "[1] Online games are played over some form of computer network, now typically on the Internet. Computer networking is the Engineering Discipline concerned with communication between Computer systems or devices Networking routers The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks One advantage of online games is the ability to connect to multiplayer games, although single-player online games are quite common as well. A multiplayer video game is one which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time In video gaming, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session
Early online games
Early networking and timesharing environments often featured games among their most admired features. Online games are currently an industry unto themselves The evolution of these games parallels in many ways the evolution of computers and computer networking with new technologies The PLATO system's game gallery was famous, as was Maze War at Xerox PARC. PLATO was the first (circa 1960 on ILLIAC I) generalized Computer assisted instruction system Maze War (also known as The Maze Game, Maze Wars, Mazewar, or simply Maze) was a historically significant computer game PARC (Palo Alto Research Center Inc formerly Xerox PARC, is a Research and development company in Palo Alto California that began as a division of When personal computers reached the general public in the 1980s, simple multiplayer text-based games, MUDs, were often played on BBS systems using a modem. In computer gaming, a MUD ( Multi-User Dungeon, Domain or Dimension) is a multi-player computer game that combines elements of A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a Computer system running software that allows users to connect and login to Modem (from mo dulator- dem odulator is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode Digital information These games were frequently based on fantasy settings, using rules similar to those in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a Fantasy Role-playing game (RPG originally designed by Other styles of games, such as chess, Scrabble clones, and other board games, were available. Chess is a recreational and competitive Game played between two players. The verb "to scrabble" also means to scratch scramble or scrape about see Wiktionaryscrabble. A board game is a Game in which counters or pieces that are placed on removed from or moved across a "board" (a premarked surface usually specific to that game Since continuous connectivity was often expensive as access was frequently charged on a per-minute basis, some games were set up as play-by-email games. Play-by-mail games are Games of any type played through postal Mail or e-mail.
First-person shooter games
During the 1990s, online games started to move from a wide variety of LAN protocols (such as IPX) and onto the Internet using the TCP/IP protocol. A first-person shooter ( FPS) is an action Video game from the Shooter game The initial development of Maze War Internetwork Packet Exchange ( IPX) is the OSI-model Network layer protocol in the IPX/SPX Protocol stack. The Internet Protocol Suite (commonly TCP/IP) is the set of Communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks Doom popularized the concept of deathmatch, where multiple players battle each other head-to-head, as a new form of online game. Doom (officially cased DOOM) is a 1993 Computer game by Id Software that is a landmark title in the First-person shooter Deathmatch (abbreviated DM) is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many Shooter and Real-time strategy (RTS Computer games The goal Since Doom, many first-person shooter games contain online components to allow deathmatch or arena style play.
Real-time strategy games
Early real-time strategy games often allowed multiplayer play over a modem or local network. A real-time strategy ( RTS) Video game is a strategic game that is distinctly not turn-based. As the Internet started to grow during the 1990s, software was developed that would allow players to tunnel the LAN protocols used by the games over the Internet. By the late 1990s, most RTS games had native Internet support, allowing players from all over the globe to play with each other. Services were created to allow players to be automatically matched against another player wishing to play or lobbies were formed where people could meet in so called game rooms. An example was the MSN Gaming Zone where online game communities were formed by active players for games such as Microsoft Age of Empires and Ants!. Age of Empires (often abbreviated to AoE or AofE) is a History -based Real-time strategy computer game Microsoft Ants is a free multiplayer available on Http//wwwigzones
Cross-platform online play
As consoles are becoming more like computers, online gameplay is expanding. The first online game console was the Japanese SuperNES, the Super Famicom, which offered an online service with the Satellaview. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System or Super NES (also called SNES and Super Nintendo) is a 16-bit Video game console that was The was a Satellite modem add-on for Nintendo 's Super Famicom system in Japan released in 1995 This service was however offered only in Japan. Once online games started crowding the market, open source networks, such as the Playstation 2, Dreamcast, and Gamecube took advantage of online functionality with its PC game counterpart. Games such as Phantasy star Online have private servers that function on multiple consoles. Dreamcast, PC, Macintosh and GameCube players are able to share one server. The, often abbreviated as GCN, is Nintendo 's fourth home Video game console and is part of the sixth generation console era. Earlier games, like 4x4, Quake III and Need for Speed also have a similar function with consoles able to interact with PC users using the same server. Quake III Arena or Quake 3, abbreviated as Q3A or Q3, is a Multiplayer First-person shooter Usually a company like Electronic Arts or Sega runs the servers until it becomes inactive, in which private servers with their own DNS number can function. The Domain Name System (DNS is a hierarchical naming system for computers services or any resource participating in the Internet. This form of open source networking has a small advantage over the new generation of Sony and Microsoft consoles which customize their servers to the consumer.
Browser games
As the World Wide Web developed and browsers became more sophisticated, people started creating browser games that used a web browser as a client. Browser games are electronic Games that are played online via the Internet. The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. Browser games are electronic Games that are played online via the Internet. A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text images videos music games and other information typically located on a Simple single player games were made that could be played using a web browser via HTML and HTML scripting technologies (most commonly JavaScript, ASP, PHP, and MySQL). HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant Markup language for Web pages It provides a means to describe the structure HTML Series The W3C HTML standard includes support for Client-side scripting. JavaScript is a Scripting language most often used for Client-side web development Active Server Pages ( ASP) is Microsoft 's first server-side script engine for dynamically-generated web pages PHP is a computer Scripting language. Originally designed for producing Dynamic web pages it has evolved to include a Command line interface capability MySQL is a Relational database management system (RDBMS which has more than 11 million installations More complicated games would contact a web server to allow a multiplayer gaming environment. The term web server can mean one of two things A Computer program that is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from web clients which are
The development of web-based graphics technologies such as Flash and Java allowed browser games to become more complex. Adobe Flash (previously called Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of Multimedia software created by Macromedia and currently These games, also known by their related technology as "Flash games" or "Java games", became increasingly popular. Many games originally released in the 1980s, such as Pac-Man and Frogger, were recreated as games that could be played using the Flash plugin on a webpage. is an Arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution Frogger is an Arcade game introduced in 1981. It was developed by Konami, and licensed for worldwide distribution by Sega / Most browser games have limited multiplayer play, often being single player games with a high score list shared amongst all players. The high score of a Video game, Arcade game, or Computer game is usually the highest logged point value
Browser-based pet games are also very popular amongst the younger generation of online gamers. These games range from gigantic games with millions of users, such as Neopets, to smaller and more community-based pet games. Neopets (originally NeoPets) is a virtual pet Website launched by Adam Powell and Donna Williams on 15 November 1999
More recent browser-based games use web technologies like AJAX to make more complicated multiplayer interactions possible.
Massively multiplayer online games
Massively multiplayer online games were made possible with the growth of broadband Internet access in many developed countries, using the Internet to allow hundreds of thousands of players to play the same game together. Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just Broadband, is high-speed Internet access—typically contrasted with dial-up access over a Modem Many different styles of massively multiplayer games are available, such as:
- MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game)
- MMORTS (Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy)
- MMOFPS (Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter)
Browser-based MMORPGs
Advances in browser-based technologies have allowed the creation of browser-based MMORPGs, using similar controls as other browser-based games. A massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) is a genre of Computer role-playing games (CRPGs in which a large number of players interact with A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy ( MMORTS) is a genre of online Computer games, combining Real-time strategy (RTS with a A real-time strategy ( RTS) Video game is a strategic game that is distinctly not turn-based. Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter ( MMOFPS) is a sub-category of the Massively multiplayer online game (MMOG Internet Computer game A first-person shooter ( FPS) is an action Video game from the Shooter game The initial development of Maze War
Due to current technology limitations, browser-based games cannot bring the same graphical or sound quality that custom-client MMORPGs can. Browser-based MMORPGs tend to be a little cheaper than full-blown MMORPGs.
Online game governance
With growing numbers of players, it becomes more difficult to maintain social order in online games due to the large amounts of information and freedom that are given to the players. Even though there are many online rules that are already established, wherever there are people, there are conflicts.
More specifically, the advancement of technology allows online games to imitate the complex ecological, sociological, economical, and political dynamics of real life societies. Unpredictable societal dynamics such as hygiene, safety, and pollution require the society to form some type of organized regulation. Andrew Barry writes, "Regulation is often intended to protect and enhance the health and security of firms, cities and individuals. " Like societies in real life, online games can warrant societal complexities and need some type of organized governance. [2]
Popular online games are commonly bound by an End User License Agreement (EULA), which establishes a limited yet definitive social order deemed necessary by the creators of the game. The consequences of breaking the agreement vary according to the contract; however range significantly from warnings to termination, such as in the 3D immersive world Second Life where a breach of contract will append the player warnings, suspension and termination depending on the offense. Second Life ( abbreviated as SL) and its sister site Teen Second Life are Internet-based 3D Virtual [3] Enforcing the EULA is difficult, due to high economic costs of human intervention and low returns back to the firm. Only in large scale games is it profitable for the firm to enforce its EULA.
Edward Castronova writes that "there are issues of ownership and governance that wrinkle the affairs of state significantly. Edward Castronova is Associate Professor of Telecommunications at Indiana University Bloomington as of fall 2004 previously Associate Professor of Economics in the College of " [4] He has divided the online governance into "good governance" and "strange governance". Whereas people actually want to have governance but strangely, democracy still cannot be found in synthetic world. Castronova also mentions that synthetic world is a good test bed for government and management.
References
- ^ Rollings, Andrew; Ernest Adams (2006). Fundamentals of Game Design. Prentice Hall.
- ^ Barry 2001, p. 46
- ^ Second Life | Community: Incident Report
- ^ Castronova 2005, p. 205.
Dictionary
online game
-noun
- (computer games, internet, genre) An electronic game played over the Internet.
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