The World Within Or Online Multiplayer Games In Depth

There are basically three main types of multiplayer online games:

First-person shooters (FPS) where the player sees everything through a (usually temporary, just for the online session or less) character’s eyes and his gun’s barrel. This category still remains predominant in total worldwide player numbers (according to Valve, Counterstrike is currently still the most popular online multiplayer game). Some of the other examples include Quake, Unreal Tournament, and Doom3.

Strategy games are the the second main category. Usually similar to FPS games in the round/session-based style of play, in these games the player usually does not have any single entity, but rather commands a number of troops of some kind against other human opponents. There are also various options where one can both play with other humans against the computer etc. Games of this kind include Starcraft, Warcraft III, Age of Empires and many others.

The last group, the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games), is the area which popularity has really exploded in the last few years. Here, the player obtains a permanent character (or entity) or several which can evolve and be equipped with various gear, and undertakes adventures in a large world full with other players. This is probably the most promising group since it resembles the real world most, and it has also been the fastest developing recently. The currently most prominent games in this category are World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, Guild Wars, Everquest II and Lineage II.

FPS

In first-person shooter games, the basic principle is simple. Shoot or be shot, kill or be killed. Starting with the original Castle of Wolfenstein and Doom, these games have developed to a level of frightening realism mainly for men living out their ancient predatory and fighting instincts (according to some surveys, there are about 10 times as many male as female players in average FPS games). One of the recent milestones in this category, Doom 3 is a game which is psychologically scary even to adult men with the highly detailed and realistic monsters suddenly attacking from dark corners. However, once these games take to the online multiplayer stage, their focus shifts a little. The goal is no longer to scare the pants off the lone player in his dark room, but rather to provide a fun platform for competition between many players of different skill. The most popular online game in this category is still without doubt Counter-Strike – a game which has received much negative fame because of various school shootings done by Counter-Strike players, yet still remains a highly captivating pastime for millions worldwide. It is a fan modification of Half-Life, a Valve game, and a team game in its core: one team is the “terrorists”, the other the “counter-terrorists”, and the play is round-based: at the start of a round, each team member receives an identical (except for clothing) avatar, picks some weapons, and the the two teams clash in combat until either a bomb is placed or everyone of one team is dead (there are also variations like “capture the flag” etc).

There are numerous reasons for the massive popularity of Counter-Strike. The game rounds are short-term in nature and don’t require much time. It is comparatively realistic – weapons existing in reality like the M-16 or AK-47 are used in the game, and even one shot may be enough to kill. Also, it is easily accessible – almost everyone can install and run a Counter-Strike server, and there are many thousands of them in the world online at any given time. Although the basic game does not lead to social interaction deeper than a quick chat, the grouping of people around some specific favorite servers and the wish to play better, which inevitably requires solid teamplay, has led to the phenomenon of so-called “clans”, or dedicated player groups, which usually have their own server where they train. A competitive clan will usually have requirements for people wanting to join – a certain skill level, or some minimum playtime – and most serious clan players play at least several hours a day. Dedicated clans will also sometimes meet in real life to discuss strategies and generally have fun, which is not much different from most other groups of people with similar hobbies, like e.g. stamp collectors or RC model builders. Since many servers are regional, mostly there are same-country and often even same-neighborhood people on the same server, which of course makes meeting in real life easier as well.

The picture is roughly comparable in the other FPS multiplayer games like Quake 4 and Unreal Tournament, with the main difference between that the latter are less realistic and include sci-fi weapons like laser guns and such. They are also typically much faster, with frantic movement (means, being hard to target) being highly important to survival, which is a concept rather different to Counter-Strike where sometimes the top scorers just sit in one place with a sniper rifle. However, a thing common to all FPS, mouse control is highly essential. Skilled FPS players develop extremely good mouse control (conventional mice no longer being good enough for them led to the development of a whole new segment of gaming mice) and have reaction times below 0.1 seconds. The numerous stress peaks and drops, lack of time between rounds, and the frantic gameplay often leads to additional addictions, though – many of the hardcore FPS players are chain smokers, fast-food eaters, coffee addicts, or all of it combined. There are worldwide tournaments held for most of the established FPS, and the current champions are mostly from Europe or the US.