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Computer games have always seemed like a quiet underground, and the news that game revenues have surpassed that of Hollywood came as a surprise to many people. Those people haven't been playing games online lately. The online gaming world is enormous, and it's taking shape as an interesting mirror of some of the ways people interact in the real world. More personal than big public events, more structured than bars and parties, and more subtle than chat rooms, Online Game worlds have their own economies, social structures, codes of ethics, and even languages. Massively multiplayer online (MMO) games arrived at the turn of the millennium. Since then dozens of manufactures have come to market with massively multiplayer online games; EverQuest, PlanetSide, Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and There have all made a mark. At any given moment, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the globe are running around in these online universes. How it All WorksMMO games are a combination of PC games and online social gatherings. The flavors change from game to game—most are more competitive than they are social—but the setup is always roughly the same. When you play a PC game, it fills your whole monitor display, and commands your attention. To play, you go to the store, buy the game, install it on your PC, and away you go. MMO games up the ante by connecting your single PC's game world to Web servers, where lots of people play at once and change the game with their actions. Instead of playing against the computer, or with a handful of friends, you're playing with thousands of people at once. The catch? A small subscription fee, (usually around $10-12 per month) to pay for the servers you connect to. A friendly social gathering on Norrath in EverQuest Game worlds vary widely, but they all offer the chance to create your own character, select a set of skills that will let you make your way in the world, and either take on adventures by yourself or with groups. You might be a soldier in a futuristic war, a character from the Star Wars films, a sojourner in a medieval fantasy world, or a citizen in a more lifelike parallel modern society. You'll control a unique 3-D humanoid that you can craft to resemble you or anyone else you like. With this character, you'll join the war, the adventure, or the rat race—it's up to you, and so is what you do when you get there. Why it's funEvery game has its own recipe for entertaining its players, but it boils down to the unpredictability of people in groups. When you play a game with a computer, you can expect it to do the smartest thing in pursuit of victory—small groups of people tend to do the same. MMO games tap in to the random unpredictability of the crowd. Every game has its suspenseful moments where chance and strategy collide and the outcome is uncertain. That tingle of anticipation is what every game company would like to bottle and sell. Letting massive crowds of strangers loose in each other's company heightens the suspense ... especially because the game never really "ends." You just get tired, go to bed, and log back on later to see what happened while you were gone. A well-balanced squad moves out for adventure in PlanetSide What Actually HappensThere's no way to capture a day in the life of any online gaming world. That's like saying "tell me everything that happened to everyone in Chicago today." But let's take a look at what might happen over the course of a few hours in one of the legends of MMO gaming, Asheron's Call. Asheron's Call takes place in the mystical world of Dereth. Dereth is a world of swords and sorcery, dragons and fair maidens, demons and monsters. Anyone who loves the legends of King Arthur and Camelot can get a mental picture of this world. Dereth features mountains, forests, rivers, seas, towns, and cities. It even has weather, and day and night. You can buy a house of your own, and spend time there with only the friends you invite inside—there you'll be safe from the forces of evil. You can explore the world by yourself and fight monsters, or join with others to explore deadly dungeons and slay foes that no single player could hope to defeat solo. Many of the villains are non-player characters (NPCs); no one controls them but they can "kill" you. This means they can knock you out of the fight, take some of your stuff (swords, wands, medicine), and send you back to where you started. But you can fight head to head with opponents, too. So far, this sounds rather predictable, doesn't it? The depth of MMO gaming comes from not knowing what everyone else is up to. You might be peacefully gathering in the middle of town, safe from harm, buying supplies for your next journey. Meanwhile, a bunch of guys from Hackensack go down the wrong dungeon and get in over their heads—they anger the wrong people (or maybe not even people). Everyone logged on and hanging out in that town hears the war drums. If your speakers are on you'll know a fearsome army's on the march. Ready or not, you now have no choice but to fight or log off. Not every game is about conquering the world, though. Adventures, puzzles, cooperative play, and socializing all have their worlds. Asheron's Call and EverQuest combine all of those elements, along with periodic battles between good and evil. |
