VIRTUAL WORLDS AND GAMINGBy Brandon Thomas, Ashley Uhrin, and Mayumi Velasquez

OUTLINE

⦿ What is online gaming?⦿ Types of online gaming⦿ History of online gaming⦿ Benefits of gaming⦿ Definition of virtual worlds⦿ History of Virtual Worlds⦿ Example⦿ Online Gaming Vs. Virtual Worlds⦿ Virtual Future⦿ Activity⦿ Questions⦿ Division of Labor ⦿ References

WHAT IS ONLINE GAMING?⦿ Online gaming is the technology that

connects players to play games over a computer network. It enables connectivity to multiplayer games and they usually don't require any payment. A wide variety of games for all types of players are available.

(Ask.com)

TYPES OF ONLINE GAMING

⦿ PC Gaming • EX: Civilization Series, Doom,

Command and Conquer ⦿ Console Gaming

• EX: XBOX 360, PlayStation 3, XBOX 1, Play Station 4

HISTORY OF ONLINE GAMING

⦿ 1973 – Empire – John Daleske, Silas Warner – Thought to be the first ever networked multiplayer game (running on the PLATO network); it was a simple space-craft war, your ship controlled by typed commands.

⦿ 1974 – Spasim – Jim Bowery – The first multiplayer 3D game, pitting up to 32 players in a space-craft shootout on the PLATO network.

⦿ 1974 – Maze War – Steve Colley – The first multiplayer 3D first person shooter and p2p game ever (possibly the first ever FPS). The Maze had more impact on gaming (most notably the FPS genre) than any other single title in history.

⦿ 1978 – Multi-User Dungeon (MUD) – Roy Trubshaw – The first virtual world, allowing users to interact with objects and each other. Text based running on Telnet or the MUD client.

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HISTORY OF ONLINE GAMING 2

⦿ 1984 – Multi-Access Dungeon (MAD) – Bruno Chabrier, Vincent Lextrait – Similar to MUD, only running on the BITNET network. MAD, the first ever global MMORPG become so popular it saturated the network, causing it to be banned on all of BITNET after just 2 years.

⦿ 1985 – Islands of Kesmai – CompuServe – The first commercial multiplayer online role playing game (ASCII text based graphics). The game was free with your CompuServe connection fee of $6/hour for a 300 baud modem, $12/h for a 1200 baud.

⦿ 1988 – Netrek – Kevin Smith, Scott Silvey – The first game to use both TCD and UDP, this Star Trek based space shooter became the first internet team game and the first game to use metaservers to locate an open game

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HISTORY OF ONLINE GAMING 3

⦿ 1992 – The Shadow of Yserbius – Sierra Online – Both playable as single-player or online. The online game cost $6/hour, but offered an unlimited package for $115/month, making it the first online game to run on a monthly subscription.

⦿ 1993 – Doom – ID Software – Doom quickly became the most storied FPS of all time, partially thanks to its Deathmatch feature. Doom Deathmatches became so popular it caused load problems on many of the networks used to play the game.

⦿ 1995 – Command & Conquer – Westwood Studios – The first successful RTS game to feature four-player online multiplayer. This game literally changed the world of gaming forever becoming the standard which all RTS games would be measured.

⦿ 1998 – Planet Poker – Planet Poker – On January 1st 1998 the first hand of real money online poker was dealt by the Planet Poker servers.

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HISTORY OF ONLINE GAMING 4

⦿ 1999 – Everquest – Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost – Released and run by Sony, they confirmed this to be the first game to ever have more than 100,000 concurrent users. It also was the first game to have in-game items sold for real-world money.

⦿ 2001 – Halo – Bungie – While Halo didn’t invent the FPS, they certainly refined it for the console. While XBLOX live didn’t exist yet, this game supported multiplayer (up to 16 players) via system link.

⦿ 2002 – XBOX Live – Microsoft – Microsoft launched XBOX live, their pay-to-play platform, for all XBOX online gaming.

(Silver Oak Online Casino)

HISTORY OF ONLINE GAMING 5

⦿ 2003 – PokerStars – PokerStars – The poker boom started after a PokerStars satellite qualifier, Chris Moneymaker, won the WSOP Main Event in 2003, bringing the yearly revenue from online poker to an estimated 2.4 billion by 2005

⦿ 2007 – Zynga – Zynga – With launches acquiring over 100,000 users on the first day, it’s no wonder how Zynga claims over 270 million active users across their multiple Facebook games.

⦿ 2010 – StarCraft II – Blizzard Entertainment – This long awaited sequel to Blizzard’s best-selling non-subscription game sold over 3 million copies in the first month alone.

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BENEFITS OF GAMING

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/virtual-worlds/video-games/the-gamers-edge.html?play

DEFINITION OF VIRTUAL WORLDS

“A virtual world is a computer-based online community environment that is designed and shared by individuals so that they can interact in a custom-built, simulated world. Users interact with each other in this simulated world using text-based, two-dimensional or three-dimensional graphical models called avatars. Avatars are graphically rendered using computer graphics imaging (CGI) or any other rendering technology. Individuals control their avatars using input devices like the keyboard, mouse and other specially designed command and simulation gadgets. Today's virtual worlds are purpose-built for entertainment, social, educational, training and various other purposes. ”

- Techopedia

HISTORY OF VIRTUAL WORLDS

1973- Maze wars

1990s- active worlds, Palace

1999- NeoPets

2003- second life

2005- club penguin

2006- rebirth of

second life

EXAMPLE

⦿Second life• http

://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/virtual-worlds/second-lives/what-is-second-life.html?play

ONLINE GAMING VS. VIRTUAL WORLDS

Virtual Communitie

s

Virtual WorldOnline

Gaming

Have an overall goal or mission

Can create and do anything

VIRTUAL FUTURE

ACTIVITY

Avatars are a huge part of virtual worlds so...

⦿Take out a piece of paper and take 2 minutes to sketch out what you would make your avatar look like? They can be a mirror reflection of you or someone completely opposite of who you are. Either way have fun with it and hurry! You only have 2 minutes.

QUESTIONS

1. Based on your knowledge of virtual worlds and gaming, which do you think you would be more likely to use?

2. What are some differences you can see between virtual worlds and gaming?

3. Do you believe that one of these will eventually take over the other in popularity, or has already done so?

DIVISION OF LABOR

⦿Brandon- What is Online gaming, Types of online gaming, and History of online gaming.

⦿Mayumi- Virtual Worlds Definitions and History

⦿Ashley- Activity and Questions

REFERENCES

• Ask.com. 2013. http://www.ask.com/question/Definition-of-Online-Gaming. 5 November 2013.

• "MediaShift." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/10/your-guide-to-virtual-worlds283/>.

• "Only a Game." 'Only a Game'. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_ga

• "Virtual World." Techopedias. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://www.techopedia.com/definition/25604/virtual-world>.

• Silver Oak Online Casino. 2013. http://www.silveroakcasino.com/blog/entertainment/the-history-of-online-gaming-infographic.html. 4 November 2013.• Ask.com. 2013. http://www.ask.com/question/Definition-of-Online-

Gaming. 5 November 2013.