Posts Tagged ‘Online Gaming’

First Person Online Games

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

We talked about MMORPGs in our earlier post, but there are also online games that are played in the first person. Instead of having you role play with an avatar representing you, the adventure unfolds from your own point of view. On the large end of the scale you’ll find MMOFPS or Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter games. If you don’t want to play against twenty or more people at a time, there are smaller combat groups as well, like six versus six or “6v6”.   

GameBattles.com is one place to find opponents who want the same kind of experience that you do. Their website explains:

“GameBattles is the largest online destination for competitive console and PC gaming. Featuring tournaments, ladders, forums and more for all the latest and hot titles, GameBattles is home to over 3 million gamers worldwide, and over 800,000 teams looking to compete in their favorite Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP games. Recognized as a world leader in online gaming competition, GameBattles also hosts over 500,000 gamer profiles, heavily trafficked forums with over 22 million posts, video game news, reviews, previews and media with a focus on online multi-player games and community based content.”

A site called MMO Hut.com has a bunch of free games and offered up a list of  the Top 10 Best MMOFPS Shooters.

So there you have it!  If you want to shoot imaginary people with your friends in other locations connected with internet speed, we’ve given you just enough information to get started!

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Massively Multiplayer Online Games

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Actually, the title “Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games” would have been more accurate, but it just seemed like too many words.  Of course they’re also called MMORPGs, which is shorter but makes less sense. As you may have already figured out, they involve lots and lots of players, playing roles in games played not just on your game system, but against people all over world via the magic of the internet. 

Wikipedia explains, “As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a character (often in a fantasy world) and take control over many of that character’s actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player RPGs by the number of players, and by the game’s persistent world, usually hosted by the game’s publisher, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is away from the game.” 

Searching for the minimum requirements for internet speed seems to have stopped being an issue for most people now that broadband connections are readily available.

Wikipedia tells us that Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft dominates as the largest pay-to-play MMORPG (where players must pay to maintain a playing account), alongside earlier such titles like Final Fantasy XI and Phantasy Star Online, though an additional market exists for free-to-play MMORPGs (also known as F2P or FTP) which are supported by advertising and purchases of in-game items.

They’re growing in popularity to the point that YouTube has video clips of games in progress. There are even comedy spoofs like the very popular Leeroy Jenkins that’s been viewed over 18 million times. Not only that, the spoof has been spoofed too, and even included as a question on the game show Jeopardy! Now that’s popularity!

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Imaginary Cyber-Worlds and Real Money

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

The L.A. Times tech blog  recently pointed out that virtual reality has become so real to us, that we spend real money in our simulated worlds, with internet speed. 

Blogger Alex Pham tells us that according to a report released by Frank N. Magid Associates, about one in ten Americans spends an average of $30 on virtual goods—such as outfits, accessories, weapons and other items used in online games.

Of course, of the $1 billion worldwide spending projected for virtual goods this year, about 25% is expected to come from the U.S., the report said. Another firm that works in this market, Strategy Analytics, projected that the amount could grow to $17.3 billion in 2015.

“Why waste real money on intangible items?” he asks. A researcher with the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, Vili Lehdonvirta, says that people buy intangible items to gain status, identity, membership, class and performance. Pretty much the same reasons we buy real items…once we’ve covered the ones that are necessary for our survival, that is.

If you have never encountered anything of this sort, check out the Playfish website. They’ve even come up with a way to donate some of the money spent on imaginary animals toward saving the real things by partnering with the World Wildlife Fund, which is cool. 

There are many types of games out there, a list of the most played games shows that people like to run virtual restaurants, hotels, ranches, and zoos in cyberspace. They like to visit and save virtual worlds, virtual animals, and have virtual families. We can only hope this virtual experience is somehow useful in the real world too, and maybe even in real-time.

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Internet Speed for Console Online Gaming

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

In the past few years, console gaming has become increasingly popular. The reasons for this success are its incredible graphics performance, affordability, and easy usage. Recently, the gaming industry has focused on producing casual games which can be played by the whole family, and this has gotten many adults and even elderly people interested in gaming. Many of these games are sold in online marketplaces, and players can download the games or extra content from the internet. If you are downloading large content, a fast internet connection is needed for a pleasurable gaming experience. Nobody wants to wait hours for a simple download, and therefore, a fast internet connection is recommended by the producers of online console games.

Online gaming adds another dimension to console gaming. Players can play against other real players from any part of the world. In most of the latest console games, an extended multiplayer game is included. Although most of the games are programmed to keep network traffic as low as possible, which gives gamers better efficiency, having a fast internet connection will give you the small advantage you may need to be successful in the games.

Presently, console online gaming is one of the most exciting forms of entertainment that is available in the market. To get the best out of your gaming experience, it is absolutely necessary to have a fast internet connection. As a minimum, your connection speed should be 4 megabits per second if you want to play online games, but if you are a hardcore gaming enthusiast, you will need something faster. Before you start playing online with your console, you should perform a speed test on your internet connection to find out if it is fast enough to give you the kind of gaming experience you want.

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