Online Gaming

Ok, here's my second post.
I havent been posting because I'm busy with work.
And of course I'm a bit new to this blogging thing (which is another excuse for being lazy).

I'm really into online games. Design-wise, that is. (I play any kinds of games).
For one thing, it's all the socializing. Offline games lack this, even with multiplayer options available it still pales in comparison with what online games can offer.

Socializing
And contrary to what people believe, online games help PROMOTE socializing compared to socializing in RL. Gamers are NOT the social recluse that most people think.
Hey, how often do you see a guy in real life going up to a stranger and says, "Hey, wanna hang out together?". More often than not, they'll think you're some kind of nut.
Fact is, in real life, when talking to total strangers, people might shun you because of the way you look (you're fat, skinny, too ugly, race, skin color, clothes, I don't like the way his ears look etc).

But in online games, all of these visual cues are eliminted.
You can go up to a person and say"Hey, Priest, lets party and go levelling" and he'll just think, "(hmm... a Knight), Sure, why not?" And this is the norm. Whatever differences you have in the real world is put aside.

And you will always have a topic of discussion, "Hey, have you seen that huge monster in the new patch?" Having a common interest also helps in socializing. I mean you don't go up to a football fan and talk about basketball. The other guy'll lose interest and you'll find that your conversation is hanging or one sided.

Game Types
There are many terms used when mentioning online games. Some call it Online Games (duh), Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) or Persistent State Worlds (PSWs). All these acronyms can be confusing so, I'm going to explain a bit about them.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) are just a subset of MMOGs.
These kinds of games normally have players selecting a character, selecting a class/race/faction, he usual levelling up your character by level grinidng, quests, item/weapon/armor/mobile crafting etc. (E.g.: Ragnarok Online, World of Warcraft, ROSE Online, Maple Story, Ultima Online, Everquest, City of Heroes etc). These are the most abundant and what most people think when you say MMOG.

But there are other types of MMOGs around. They don't require you to level grind or adjust your stats etc. These kinds include A Tale In The Desert, There and Sims Online.

We also have another kind of Online Games where many people may be online at the same time but only a few play the actual game together. These types are normally casual online games. Meaning, people come, play awhile when they are free and leave. Not much commitment needed. Such games include Gunbound, O2 Jam and Survival Project.

In my opinion, all these games are also known as PSWs because no matter what happens, they still exist. People will still play them for a long long time, until the developers decided to pull the plug on the game, that is.

The there's the lesser known web-based online games. Most of these games are text and are strategy type yet many people still play them. Examples include Utopia, Earth 2025 and Archmage.




Ugh... I've rambled too long. :p
Gomen gomen.
I'll continue more on my thoughts on online games another time.