Online Gaming

Back to Sim Cities for a Moment

• Gaming as creating a Sim City and having it interact with other people’s cities.

- Utopia

- Earth 2025

• Gaming as entering and interacting within a Sim City (server).

- Counterstrike

- Everquest

A Brief History of Gaming

• 1969 – Spacewar becomes first modem-to-modem network game

• 1980 – First MUD goes up on ARPANet

• 1993 – Doom is released

• 1995 – Quake is released

• 1998 – Everquest (first MMRPG) opens in beta

Genres

• Different levels and aspects of control: What you can do in a game.

- Simulations

- Strategy

- First Person Shooters

- Arcade

- Role Playing

Game Design

• Graphics: Style of art and graphics

• Storyline: Original story, adapted from media (James Bond, Survivor, Lord of the Rings)

• Sound: music, ambience

• Other Sensory Input: rumble packs

Gaming Culture – The Game

• Economic Structure• The “Real” Economy – Ebay: Buying and

Selling Characters and Items• Clans• Gaming Communities – Strategy and Hint

Sharing• Social Hierarchies and Interactions• Language: L337 speak, slang, abbr. (gl,

gg, stfu, lol, wtf, wth, hf)

Everquest Account

• "You go onto one of the websites, basically give credit card details over the internet and then arrange to meet them in game," he said.

• "You'll log onto the game world and meet them in a tavern or in a town so the virtual you will meet the virtual other player who will hand over the gold to you or they'll hand over the sword to you and the whole transaction actually occurs in virtual space." Robin Dews, Games Workshop

Everquest Again

• Sunkal admits to being amazed at the amount of money people will spend for something they will never hold in their hands.

• Another veteran salesman, Jonathan Yantis, specializes in buying EverQuest accounts from players and selling off all the characters' equipment piece by piece, plus the account.

• He has set up his own site, MySuperSales, which does about $3,500 in business a day, he said. He claims the site has supported him for the last two years. (Wired)

Gaming Culture – The Game

• Economic Structure• The “Real” Economy – Ebay: Buying and

Selling Characters and Items• Clans• Gaming Communities – Strategy and Hint

Sharing• Social Hierarchies and Interactions• Language: L337 speak, slang, abbr. (gl,

gg, stfu, lol, wtf, wth, hf)

Social Interactions• Direct Cooperation - Some opponent is described by the game and

players directly cooperate in order to defeat it.

• Hierarchial Cooperation - hierarchies--whether they be master/apprentice, lord/minion, or senior/freshmen--can add rich depth to social gaming

• Supportive Cooperation - players simply offer resources to each other in order to achieve whatever goals are desired

• Freeform Interaction – socialization• Boredom Relief. Players are feeling unsupported for the system, and just

looking for something to do. • Attention Getter. Players want to get attention from other players. • Ice Breaker. Players are looking for ways to make social interaction less

threatening.

Gaming Culture – The Game

• Economic Structure• The “Real” Economy – Ebay: Buying and

Selling Characters and Items• Clans• Gaming Communities – Strategy and Hint

Sharing• Social Hierarchies and Interactions• Language: L337 speak, slang, abbr. (gl,

gg, stfu, lol, wtf, wth, hf)

Gaming Culture – The Players

• The “Pro” Gamer – Gaming as Work, Tournaments, Leagues

• Fanaticism – Suicide, Homicide, Introversion

MMORPG

• World of Warcraft

• Everquest II

• Anarchy Online

• Star Wars Galaxies

• Matrix Online