NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Online Game

Online games refer to games that are played over some form of computer network. At the present, this almost always means the Internet or equivalent technology; but games have always used whatever technology was current: modems before the internet, and hard wired terminals before modems. The expansion of online gaming has reflected the overall expansion of computer networks from small local networks to the Internet and the growth of Internet access itself. Online games can range from simple text based games to games incorporating complex graphics and virtual worlds populated by many players simultaneously. Many online games have associated online communities, making online games a form of social activity beyond single player games. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... For other uses, see Modem (disambiguation). ... A computer terminal is an electronic or electromechanical hardware device that is used for entering data into, and displaying data from, a computer or a computing system. ... A virtual community, e-community or online community is a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as letters, telephone, email or Usenet rather than face to face. ...

The rising popularity of Flash and Java led to an Internet revolution where websites could utilize streaming video, audio, and a whole new set of user interactivity. When Microsoft began packaging Flash as a pre-installed component of IE, the Internet began to shift from a data/information spectrum to also offer on-demand entertainment. This revolution paved the way for sites to offer games to web surfers. Most online games like World Of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, and Lineage II charge a monthly fee to subscribe to their services, while games such as Guild Wars offer an alternative no monthly fee scheme. Many other sites relied on advertising revenues from on-site sponsors, while others, like RuneScape, let people play for free while leaving the players the option of paying, unlocking new content for the members. // == Macromedia Flash == ==]] Using Macromedia Flash 8 (bundled in Studio 8) in Windows XP. Maintainer: Adobe Systems (formerly Macromedia) Latest release: 8 / September 30th, 2005 OS: Windows (no native Windows XP Professional x64 Edition support), Mac OS X, Linux (i386 only, via wine [1]) Use: Multimedia Content Creator License: Proprietary Website... Java language redirects here. ... // == Macromedia Flash == ==]] Using Macromedia Flash 8 (bundled in Studio 8) in Windows XP. Maintainer: Adobe Systems (formerly Macromedia) Latest release: 8 / September 30th, 2005 OS: Windows (no native Windows XP Professional x64 Edition support), Mac OS X, Linux (i386 only, via wine [1]) Use: Multimedia Content Creator License: Proprietary Website... Internet Explorer, abbreviated IE or MSIE is a web browser from Microsoft currently sold as part of Microsoft Windows. ... World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the fourth game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. ... Final Fantasy XI ), also known as Final Fantasy XI: Online, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) as a part of the Final Fantasy video game series. ... Lineage II: The Chaotic Throne (Korean:ë¦¬ë‹ˆì§€ 2) is a fantasy massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for the PC, and a prequel to Lineage. ... This article is for the Guild Wars series. ... RuneScape is a Java-based MMORPG operated by Jagex Ltd. ...

After the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, many sites solely relying on advertising revenue dollars faced extreme adversity. Despite the decreasing profitability of online gaming websites, some sites have survived the fluctuating ad market by offsetting the advertising revenue loss by using the content as a cross-promotion tool for driving web visitors to other websites that the company owns. The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995â€“2001 during which stock markets in Western nations saw their value increase rapidly from growth in the new Internet sector and related fields. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...

Early online games

Early networking and timesharing environments often featured games among their most admired features. The CDC Plato system's game gallery was famous, as was Maze War at Xerox PARC. When personal computers reached the general public in the 1980s, simple multiplayer text-based games, MUDs, were often played on BBS systems using a modem. These games were frequently based on fantasy settings, using rules similar to those in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Other styles of games, such as chess, Scrabble clones, and other board games were available. Since continuous connectivity was often expensive as access was frequently charged on a per-minute basis, some games were set up as play-by-email games. For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ... Maze War (also known as The Maze Game, Maze Wars or simply Maze) was the first networked, 3D multi-user first-person shooter game. ... PARC current logo. ... This article is about a type of online computer game. ... BBS redirects here. ... For other uses, see Modem (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Fantasy (disambiguation). ... This article is about games in which one plays the role of a character. ... This article is about the role-playing game. ... This article is about the Western board game. ... The verb to scrabble also means to scratch, scramble or scrape about: see Wiktionary:scrabble. ... A board game is any game played with a premarked surface, with counters or pieces that are moved across the board. ... Play-by-mail games are games, of any type, played through postal mail or e-mail. ...

First-person shooter games

During the 1990s, online games started to move from a wide variety of LAN protocols (such as IPX) and onto the Internet using the TCP/IP protocol. Doom popularized the concept of deathmatch, where multiple players battle each other head-to-head, as a new form of online game. Since Doom, many first-person shooter games contain online components to allow deathmatch/arena style play. LAN redirects here. ... See also Ericsson IPX Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) is the OSI-model Network layer protocol in the IPX/SPX protocol stack. ... The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols that implement the protocol stack on which the Internet and most commercial networks run. ... Doom (or DOOM)[1] is a 1993 computer game by id Software that is a landmark title in the first-person shooter genre. ... Deathmatch (abbreviated DM) is a widely-used gameplay mode very well integrated into first-person shooter computer games. ... This article is about video games. ...

Real-time strategy games

Early real-time strategy games often allowed multiplayer play over a modem or local network. As the Internet started to grow during the 1990s, software was developed that would allow players to tunnel the LAN protocols used by the games over the Internet. By the late 1990s, most RTS games had native Internet support, allowing players from all over the globe to play with each other. Services were created to allow players to be automatically matched against another player wishing to play. A real-time strategy (RTS) video game is one that is distinctly not turn-based. ...

Cross-platform online play

As consoles are becoming more like computers, online gameplay is expanding. Once online games started crowding the market, open source networks, such as the Playstation 2, Dreamcast, and Gamecube took advantage of online functionality with its PC game counterpart. Games such as Phantasy star Online have private servers that function on multiple consoles. Dreamcast, PC, Macintosh and GameCube players are able to share one server. Earlier games, like 4x4, Quake III and Need for Speed also have a similar function with consoles able to interact with PC users using the same server. Usually a company like Electronic Arts or Sega runs the servers until it becomes inactive, in which private servers with their own DNS number can function. This form of open source networking has a small advantage over the new generation of Sony and Microsoft consoles which customize their servers to the consumer. The Nintendo GameCube (Japanese: ゲームキューブ; originally code-named Dolphin during development; abbreviated as GCN) is Nintendos fourth home video game console, belonging to the 128-bit era; the same generation as Segas Dreamcast, Sonys PlayStation 2, and Microsofts Xbox. ... This article or section should include material from Anarki For an overview of the Quake game franchise go to Quake series. ... On the Internet, the Domain Name Server (DNS) associates various sorts of information with so-called domain names; most importantly, it serves as the phone book for the Internet by translating human-readable computer hostnames, e. ...

Browser games

As the World Wide Web developed and browsers became more sophisticated, people started creating browser games that used a web browser as a client. Simple single player games were made that could be played using a web browser via HTML and HTML scripting technologies (most commonly JavaScript, ASP, PHP, and MySQL). More complicated games would contact a web server to allow a multiplayer gaming environment. Browser games are electronic games that are played online via the Internet. ... WWWs historical logo designed by Robert Cailliau The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. ... Browser games are electronic games that are played online via the Internet. ... An example of a Web browser (Mozilla Firefox) A web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. ... HTML, an initialism of Hypertext Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ... The W3C HTML standard includes support for client-side scripting. ... JavaScript is a scripting language most often used for client-side web development. ... Active Server Pages (ASP) is Microsofts server-side script engine for dynamically-generated web pages. ... For other uses, see PHP (disambiguation). ... MySQL (pronounced (IPA) , my S-Q-L[1]) is a multithreaded, multi-user SQL database management system (DBMS)[2] which has, according to MySQL AB, more than 10 million installations. ... The inside/front of a Dell PowerEdge web server The term Web server can mean one of two things: A computer program that is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from clients, which are known as Web browsers, and serving them HTTP responses along with optional data contents, which usually are...

The development of web-based graphics technologies such as Flash and Java allowed browser games to become more complex. These games, also known by their related technology as "Flash games" or "Java games", became increasingly popular. Many games originally released in the 1980s, such as Pac-Man and Frogger, were recreated as games that could be played using the Flash plugin on a webpage. Most browser games have limited multiplayer play, often being single player games with a high score list shared amongst all players. // == Macromedia Flash == ==]] Using Macromedia Flash 8 (bundled in Studio 8) in Windows XP. Maintainer: Adobe Systems (formerly Macromedia) Latest release: 8 / September 30th, 2005 OS: Windows (no native Windows XP Professional x64 Edition support), Mac OS X, Linux (i386 only, via wine [1]) Use: Multimedia Content Creator License: Proprietary Website... Java language redirects here. ... Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution by Midway Games in 1979. ... This article is about the video game. ... High score of the Commodore 64 game Great Giana Sisters. ...

Browser-based pet games are also very popular amongst the younger generation of online gamers. These games range from gigantic games with millions of users, such as Neopets, to smaller and more community-based pet games. Neopets (originally NeoPets) is a virtual pet website launched by Adam Powell and Donna Williams on November 15, 1999. ...

More recent browser-based games use web technologies like AJAX to make more complicated multiplayer interactions possible. AJAX redirects here. ...

Massively multiplayer online games

Massively multiplayer online games were made possible with the growth of broadband Internet access in many developed countries, using the Internet to allow hundreds of thousands of players to play the same game together. Many different styles of massively multiplayer games are available, such as: MMO redirects here. ... A WildBlue Satellite Internet dish. ...

An image from World of Warcraft, one of the largest commercial MMORPGs as of 2004, based on active subscriptions. ... This article is about games in which one plays the role of a character. ... Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy (MMORTS) is a genre of online computer game that combines real-time strategy (RTS) with a large number of simultaneous players over the Internet. ... A real-time strategy (RTS) video game is one that is distinctly not turn-based. ... Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS) is a category of computer games that combines first-person shooter gameplay with a large number of simultaneous players over the Internet. ... This article is about video games. ...

Browser-based MMORPGs

Advances in browser-based technologies have allowed the creation of browser-based MMORPGs, using similar controls as other browser-based games.

Due to current technology limitations, browser-based games cannot bring the same graphical or sound quality that custom-client MMORPGs can. Browser-based MMORPGs tend to be a little cheaper than full-blown MMORPGs. ^{[citation needed]}

Categories: Articles lacking sources from September 2007 | All articles lacking sources | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since November 2007 | Online games | Multiplayer online games | Browser-based games Video games are categorized into genres based on their gameplay. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Action-adventure games (British English: arcade adventure) are video games that combine elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. ... Three enemies from Silent Hill 4: The Room, a survival horror title released by Konami in 2004. ... Solid Snake hides behind a tank in Metal Gear Solid, a popular stealth video game. ... Beat Em Up is the Iggy Pop album on which the band were first labeled as The Trolls: Iggy Pop, Whitey Kirst, Pete Marshall, Alex Kirst, Lloyd Mooseman Roberts. ... HACK/slash is the name of a graphic novel from Devils Due Publishing. ... Screenshot of The King of Fighters XI (2005, SNK Playmore). ... A simple platform sequence from the game Wonder Boy Platform game, or platformer, is a video game genre characterized by jumping to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Side-scrolling game. ... Shooter games cover a fairly broad spectrum of sub-genres that have the commonality of controlling a character who is usually armed with a firearm that can be freely aimed. ... Artillery is the generic name for either early two or three-player (usually turn-based) computer games involving tanks fighting each other in combat or similar derivative games. ... This article is about video games. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A run and gun (also known as run n gun or for some variants, overhead shooter) is a sub-genre of video games that incorporates elements from shoot em up games and platform games. ... For the video/computer game genre, see Shoot em up. ... Tactical shooters include games of the first-person shooter (FPS) and third-person shooter genre of video games that generally simulate non-fictional, squad-based or man-to-man combat. ... Third-person shooter (TPS or 3PS) is a genre of 3D computer and video games in which the player character is seen at a distance from a number of different possible perspective angles, as opposed to the first-person model in which the player views everything in the game world... Grand Theft Auto A top-down shooter (sometimes shortened to TDS, and also known as a top-view shooter) is a genre of computer and video games in which the player is displayed from above, or a top-down perspective. ... This is an article about the computer and video game genre. ... Dating simulations (dating sims) are a video game subgenre of simulation games, usually Japanese, with romantic elements. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Zork I is one of the first interactive fiction games, as well as being one of the first commercially sold. ... A visual novel is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art. ... The term casual game is used to refer to a category of electronic or computer games targeted at a mass audience â€” typically with very simple rules or play techniques, a very low degree of strategy, making them easy to learn and play as a pastime. ... For the 1970s Canadian TV game show, see Party Game (game show). ... Minesweeper, a popular computer puzzle game found on many machines. ... A word game or word puzzle can be of several different types: // [edit] Letter arrangement games The goal is to form words out of given letters. ... There are two types of traditional games: In games, a traditional game (historic) In computer and video games, a traditional game (computer) is a computer program adaption of a non-computer game (such as a board game or card game). ... A board game is a game played with counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a board (a premarked surface, usually specific to that game). ... For the game on The Price Is Right, see Card Game (pricing game). ... A racing game is any game that involves competing in races through a surrogate playing piece or vehicle, either getting it from one point to another or completing a number of circuits in the shortest time. ... A racing game is any game that involves competing in races through a surrogate playing piece or vehicle, either getting it from one point to another or completing a number of circuits in the shortest time. ... A racing game is any game that involves competing in races through a surrogate playing piece or vehicle, either getting it from one point to another or completing a number of circuits in the shortest time. ... For flight simulator software from Microsoft, see Microsoft Flight Simulator. ... Screenshot of BVE 4. ... In its broadest definition, a space simulation is any software that simulates space and/or space flight. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Space simulation. ... Space trading and combat simulators[1][2][3][4], also known as space trading and combat games or space trading simulators[5][6][7] (sometimes with the term exploration thrown in between[8][9][10][11][12]), are a genre of video games which is characterized by trading, combat and... Vehicular combat (also known as car combat) games are typically video or computer games where the primary focus of play concerns automobiles or other motor vehicles, normally armed with guns or other weaponry, attempting to destroy vehicles controlled by the CPU or by opposing players. ... Computer role-playing games (CRPGs), often shortened to simply role-playing games (RPGs), are a type of video or computer game that traditionally use gameplay elements found in paper-and-pencil role-playing games. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... An Action-RPG, or action role-playing game is a type of computer and console role-playing game which requires quick action or reflexes from the player. ... Screenshot of The King of Fighters XI (2005, SNK Playmore). ... A roguelike is a computer game that borrows some of the elements of the 1980s computer game Rogue. ... A tactical role-playing game (usually simply called tactical RPG, sometimes referred to as strategy role-playing game or SRPG) is a type of computer role-playing game (CRPG) in which the focus of the gameplay is on making tactical decisions in battles. ... A screenshot from The Sims: Deluxe Edition. ... The SimCity series, a well known example of the city-building game type. ... Typical view from Transport Tycoon. ... This article is about the computer game genre. ... A government simulation or political simulation is a game that attempts to simulate the government and politics of all or part of a nation. ... Life simulator games, or life simulators, are simulation games in which the player lives or controls an (or several) artificial lives. ... A pet-raising simulation is an online or computer game that focuses on the care, raising, breeding or exhibition of simulated animals. ... Chess is one of the most well-known and played strategy games of all time. ... This article is about the strategy game genre. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A real-time strategy (RTS) video game is one that is distinctly not turn-based. ... A destroyer patrols local space around its attached carrier in Nexus: The Jupiter Incident. ... Tactical wargames are wargames in which units range from individual vehicles and squads to platoons or companies, and are rated based on types and ranges of individual weaponry. ... A turn-based strategy (TBS) game is a game where the game flow is partitioned into well-defined and visible parts, called turns or rounds. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards and make it easier to understand, this article or section may require cleanup. ... MMO redirects here. ... Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS) is a category of computer games that combines first-person shooter gameplay with a large number of simultaneous players over the Internet. ... A screenshot of Eternal Lands, a MMORPG Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a genre of online role-playing video games (RPGs) in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world. ... Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy (MMORTS) is a genre of online computer game that combines real-time strategy (RTS) with a large number of simultaneous players over the Internet. ... Adult video games, like adult movies or other media, are intended for an adult audience. ... An eroge , erotic game) is a Japanese video or computer game that features erotic content, usually in the form of anime-style artwork. ... Open source music video game StepMania A music video game, also commonly known as a music game or rhythm game, is a video game where the gameplay is oriented almost entirely around the players ability to follow a musical beat and stay with the rhythm of the games... A sports game is a computer or video game that simulates the playing of traditional sports. ... GTA: San Andreas is a sandbox-style game with a huge free-roaming map. ...