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BOOT CAMP 351 (09/11/04)
Online gaming
With Christmas just
around the corner here’s an acronym that’s worth committing to memory. My guess
is you’ll be seeing quite a lot of it in the near future. Knowing what it means
should impress the younger members of your family and if you have kids you will
probably be asked to spend money on it...
MMORPG stands for
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game and it’s shaping up to become the
next big thing in computer games, allowing thousands of players to
simultaneously interact with one another in vast virtual
worlds.
Of course online gaming
is nothing new and players connected to computer networks and the Internet have
been battling with one another since the early 1970s when the first computerised
versions of Dungeons and Dragons appeared followed swiftly by the likes of
Adventure, Zork and a multitude of space war games, which rapidly clogged
university networks. Initially games were mostly text based requiring players to
type in written commands but as computers evolved graphics replaced text,
initially with simple shapes moving around the screen, leading eventually to the
highly detailed animated displays we see today.
What makes MMORPGs
different is the scale and complexity of the artificial worlds the players
inhabit, fuelled by the power and storage capacity of modern PCs and the speed
of broadband Internet. However there’s another dimension that parents and users
are being slowly acclimatised to and that the cost element.
Virtual online worlds
exist on large remote servers and most games require the user to buy a setup
disc or download an access program and then pay a subscription to participate in
the game. Over the past few years this has moved from pay-per-hour plans to
monthly subscriptions, which has helped shift the market from a relatively small
number of dedicated gamers to a much broader audience, content to pay upwards of
$10 per month to play the game.
The sophistication of
online games has developed at an astonishing rate and has moved far beyond the
basic shoot-em-up and monster-fighting scenarios. Many online games are based
around synthetic economies where the game world continues to exist, irrespective
of the number of people using it. The overall goals are to acquire strength,
wealth, property, goods, characters and resources by trade with other players,
selling services or won in battle by defeating enemies.
Incredibly these
synthetic economies spill over into the real world and virtual characters,
skills and assets are regularly traded in games like Dark Age of Camelot and
Ultima Online, often for quite considerable sums, on auction websites like ebay.
Once money has changed hands the buyer and seller will then ‘meet’ inside the
game at a specified location or a virtual bank to exchange the
goods.
The online gaming
community is now eagerly awaiting the official launch of one of the biggest
MMORPGs to date, called World of Warcraft (www.blizzard.com/wow). The game is currently
being ‘beta’ tested by several thousand volunteer players in the US across
Europe and in Korea and is due to go live early next year. Set inside the
Warcraft ‘universe’ players take on the roles of characters to explore and
engage in adventures and quests within a vast expansive world containing six
capital cities, miles of deserts, tundras, forests and mountains, all in near
photographic detail. It’s so large that it has its own transportation system
with a network of underground railways, boats, airships and flying creatures and
the developers promise to add new lands and quests providing players with a
never ending supply of challenges.
Players can choose to
pursue solo adventures, join ‘guilds’ or form alliances and friendships with
other players to battle with enemies and rival factions, communicating with one
another through ‘chat’ windows. Status, strength and skills can be acquired
through trade and the game’s built in ‘auction’ houses.
If the thought of
battling malevolent hob-goblins and wandering through pixellated landscapes
doesn’t tickle your fancy and you prefer a slightly more cerebral challenge then
you can experience online gaming on a more modest scale via the free Internet
games included with Windows XP (see also Tip of the Week).
There are five to choose
from: Backgammon, Checkers, Spades, Hearts and Reversi. All you need is an
Internet connection (dial-up or broadband), then go to Start > Programs >
Games and make your selection. If you are not already online the game will make
a connection and if you have a firewall you will be asked to for permission go
online. You will be automatically assigned an opponent, according to your
language and other criteria that you can specify (see each game’s Help section)
and during the game ‘chat’ using a short list of preset queries and comments.
For an even wider selection of free online games, including several with cash
prizes, playable through your web browser or requiring a small download, go to
http://zone.msn.com/en/root/default.htm.
Next week – Christmas presents for your PC
JARGON FILTER
BETA
A
near final version of a program or application, made available to testers and
volunteers on an at-their-own-risk basis, to help identify any remaining bugs or
glitches
CHAT WINDOW
Box that appears in a game allowing players to exchange text
messages
SERVER
Powerful computer, connected to a network or the Internet
storing large volumes of files that can be accessed by remote computers
connected to the network
TIP OF THE WEEK
Not all multiplayer online games (MPOGs) require a
subscription or joining fee and there are thousands of free games, of all genres
and types, on the web. The problem is sorting the wheat from the chaff, avoiding
the ones laced with advertising and pop-ups, not to mention the small minority
that may infect your PC with ‘malware’ (adware, spyware etc.). If you are going to play games online, away
from the relative safety of the well known commercial titles and those included
with Windows or available on the MSN web site then you should make doubly sure
that your anti-virus software is kept up to date, you have an effective firewall
and you scan your PC regularly for nasties using free cleaner utilities like
AdAware (www.lavasoftusa.com) and
Spybot www.safer-networking.org/.
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