Video Games take over the Internet
One of the quickest growing trends in video games in online gaming. Online gaming is when people play a game over a computer network or any similar technology. The type of game available range from simple text-based games to those that have advance graphics. A lot of online games have online communities. These communities enhance the gaming experience by allowing more interaction with other players. Online gaming have different types: RPGs, First-Person Shooter, Real-Time Strategy, Cross-Platform and Bowser games.
World of Warcraft
| World of WarCaft Logo (image courtesy of tvtropes.org) |
One of the most popular online games is World of Warcraft. The game is a subscription MMORPG (Massively Multiple Online Role Playing Game). The game takes place within the Warcraft world of Azeroth. WoW, as it is known, was taken from the 1994 game Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. The game was release in 2004. The first expansion pack for the game The Burning Crusade was released in 2007 followed by two more expansions in 2008 and 2009.
WoW set a world record by having the most subscribers. As it stands, out of all the subscription MMORPGs, it has 62% of the market for the MMORPG type games.
Doom
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| Doom Cover Art (image courtesy of forum.piedixterra.com) |
Doom is an online game that is a first-person shooter game. The game allows the players to sort of be the shooter. The game is in science-fiction/horror genre. It first made its appearance in 1993 and has expanded from being just a simple PC game to going to consoles and now online game play. The game was one of the first to have 3D like graphics. Of course currently that may not seem like a big deal, but back then, for a game to have that kind of graphics spoke a lot.
Half-Life is another example of a first shooter game. In Half-Life players play from the first person perspective of Dr. Gordon Freeman, trying to escape out of a secret underground research facility. The game was created by Valve, a company created by former Microsoft employees. Since its release in 1998, eight million copies of the game have been sold. One thing about this game that stands out is the use of mods (short for modifications). Mods changes made to the base game that have been created by actual players of the game.
Half-Life is another example of a first shooter game. In Half-Life players play from the first person perspective of Dr. Gordon Freeman, trying to escape out of a secret underground research facility. The game was created by Valve, a company created by former Microsoft employees. Since its release in 1998, eight million copies of the game have been sold. One thing about this game that stands out is the use of mods (short for modifications). Mods changes made to the base game that have been created by actual players of the game.
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| Cover Art for Half-Life (image courtesy of wikipedia.org) |
Age of Empires
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| Age of Empires Cover Art (image courtesy of wikipedia.org) |
Age of Empires is a real-time strategy game. It was released back in 1997. The games uses the Genie, a 2D sprite (not the soda, but a 2D image integrated into a larger scene) based game engine. The game allows the player to be the head of an ancient civilization by going through four "ages", stone, tool, bronze and iron. As a player advances to a new "age", they get new technology and powers. The game was originally acclaimed to be a cross between the games Civilization and Warcraft.
Cross-Platform Online Gaming
This type of online gaming allows a player to play on more than one platform. This means if a game is played on a console, such as a Playstation 3, that same game may have a capability to cross over and be played on a regular computer. This type of gamin expands how much a player can play the game and allows more people to play these type of games.
Bowser Games
| A game found on the social networking site, (image courtesy of insidesocialgames.com) |
This type of online gaming is based for internet bowsers. These games are found on websites like Yahoo!, AOL, MSN Facebook, or any of the game developer's websites. They can be played on any computer that has internet access and are usually single-player games. The games also connect other players to each other by allowing interaction in other players' worlds and by online communities each develop makes for the game.
| Another example of a bowser game. (image courtesy of t2.gstatic.com) |
