Online Games

The term "online games" principally refers to those games that connect players through a line, this connection may be through a local lan or through the internet. Many game genres have developed for multiplayers. You have first person shooter games, first realized with Doom, real time strategy games, the most popular one being DOTA, the cross-platform games for which the code runs on dll packages that are common for several or all operating systems, browser games which run on internet browsers and MMORPG which is a sophisticated browser game that needs high-speed dsl to run. Online gaming has become one popular medium for meeting age and interest peers.

The Diablo Series of Online Games

The Diablo series of online games (I, II and the up and coming III) is medieval hispanic in theme. It is a battle and action MMORPG which was first released on November 30, 1996 by Blizzard Entertainment. Versions I and II are in 2D. Version II is divided into 5 episodes with increasing difficulty. The player's mission is to defeat the three diabolic brothers; Mephisto, Diablo and Baal who are encountered in episodes 3, 4 and 5 respectively. The player can create his character from 7 role types; the amazon, the assassin, the necromancer, the barbarian, the paladin, the sorceress and the druid.

Character Building in Online Games

Following the success of Diablo I and II, many other online games were produced and achieved great popularity. Most of the successful new MMORPG's based their game philosophy on Diablo. A game character increases his level by gaining experience points normally done by killing monsters. Character statistics are generally divided into strength, intelligence, dexterity, life. Character statistics may receive different names in different games. Intelligence is usually associated with spiritual force or mana. Some games make a distinction between agility and dexterity. Each role type in the game needs to build one special statistic to be effective in game play.

Online Game Bosses

MMORPG's normally have storylines which were used to create the game maps and character roles in online games. A game map is a virtual location in the game characterized by having one set of monsters more or less belonging to the same level of difficulty. These monsters occupy that location and the player increases his levels by defeating these monsters. For each location, there is normally one outstandingly strong and well defended monster whose life statistics can run up to the tens of millions. This is the boss of that map. Some bosses can be killed by a single player and some require the players to group into a party to kill it.

Online Game Virtual Incentives

Like the real world, online game worlds also have their economy and their monetary units. Very often, wealth is measured by silver or gold. Diablo II uses gold as its medium of business. Other games invent their own currency; Granado Espada uses vis to conduct transactions. At the lower character levels, the player acquires money by selling items dropped by his monster kills. The value of the items is proportionate with the level of the monster of enemy killed. Once in a while the player manages to pick up items with exceptional attributes, a powerful weapon or very strong defensive gear or items with great magical power.

Online Game Group Play

Many online games feature a group play module where players can assemble in groups for a specially difficult task; to kill a boss monster perhaps. These groups may be variously called parties or squads. Credits for monster kills are shared among the members of the group. The game may provide various options for sharing item drops. Items are usually awarded to the group member who deals the strongest blow. These group escapades are often assembled for quests. Quest items are usually granted to all players in the group, regardless of who dealt the strongest blow. Some players prefer to play alone to avoid squabbles over items but in general playing in a group speeds up the acquisition of experience points.

Online Game Guild Formation

The players of an online game may be given the option to join clans, or guilds or families. These clans have a grand master who has different titles in different games.

Acquiring membership in a clan or guild usually awards bonus statistics to the individual player. These statistics may be different from the normal ones determining the individuals physical and magic powers. Clan membership is an advantage to a player because he can ask for the help of his clan mates in performing quests, sell his good items to them or buy items from them more easily than if he were to make a similar request to other individual players.

Online Game Player Control

The prevalent policy in online games is "one player at a time." Although a player can create as many as 20 characters for a single player account, in nearly all cases, he can only play with one character at a time. Granado Espada, however, popularized the concept of controlling many characters at a time. You can control from one up to three players in this game. The obvious implication to this is that the game experience points are shared among the three characters. Limiting play to only one character in games like this speeds up the experience gain for that character but makes self-defense a little bit harder to negotiate.

Making Money with Online Games

There are many players who have made playing online games their profession. For a diligent and consistent player, money can be made selling game currency, game items and even game accounts for real life currency. This practice has sparked a major controversy between players and gaming companies which involved some internet merchant sites. The game companies maintain that the registered player of their game doesn't really own the account he made. This goes for everything that account encompasses, characters and items included. They hold that the player merely has the right to play that account by virtue of having registered. He has no right to sell it or anything associated with it.

Ways to Get Around Item Sale Issues in Online Games

Ever since the scandal involving a prominent Internet marketing site, selling online game items has stopped being conducted in the open market. Players now resort to contacting prospective buyers on line or through the chat module provided by the game. Although some game management policies penalize using the game chat for real money transactions, it is still largely used for such purposes. It's a confused issue because some players claim that some insiders of management, specially game masters, often transact their items for real money. This is probably the reason that the game chat has become a safe mode for professional players to make money.

by Rulens Satin

Playing Online Game Tournaments

When you hear the term online game tournaments, the first thing that comes to mind is poker. Actually there is a whole world of online games available. Tournament games offer a variety of original games. You may recognize the types of games, but each one is unique to the site. You won't find them anywhere else.

You can start out playing free, then move on to games that offer cash prizes. The site is one of the easiest to navigate on the Internet. There are no hoops to jump through to set up an account. Just enter in your basic information and download the game console. They are completely safe; you will not get any spy ware or un-desirable content on your computer.

All the information you need to get started is easily found. You can navigate the site and get information on each game, how to play it, and even how many other people are playing each particular game.

All the games are based on skill so you can play for free to test your playing ability then move onto entering game tournaments against other players. So if you are going to spend any amount of time playing games online, it only makes sense to play where you can win cash prizes. Some people even supplement their income by playing in online game tournaments.

Most of the online game sites consist of poker and some boring other card games. The fact that you are playing unique, original games, against other people adds an element of excitement that you can only get with online game tournaments. Even if you are not interested in cash prizes, a lot of players are interested in mastering their skills for bragging rights alone.

The names of winners and how much they won are shown at the top of the page; this encourages you even more to get in on the excitement. There are so many games available to play; it is easy to find something for every online game player. There are thousands of online game tournaments that are played daily, so it is incredibly easy to find one to get in to. The really great thing about playing is that you control your entire experience. You control how much you play, when you play, and how much you win. No matter what your choice, you are always in good company playing online game tournaments.

If you want to play full screen, arcade quality Online Tournament Games, this site is the place to be. And they are the longest running skill game site on the net!

by Anthony Cusimano

Good Online Games Can Help Real Sports

Computer games have become a huge part of people's gaming experience recently. With the advent of the internet, people have taken to collaborative gaming in a big way. A lot of good online games have emerged in the past few years. Online gaming is one of the fastest growing industries today, having a growth rate of more than 20 percent every year.

There are some people who are increasingly seeing online gaming as a threat to real world games. There is a school of thought which attributes the decreasing popularity of some sports due to the rise of virtual games played on the computer. They believe that online gaming is pulling people away from real sports.

Contrary to popular belief:

Seen in a different light, good online games can actually help real world games become even more popular. If effectively utilized, online games can increase the reach of sports to places where they aren't very popular. When playing online, people have access to whole range of sports that they can choose from, so there is a greater chance of them finding a game of their interest.

Role playing games:

Role playing games or RPG games, as they are called are the best way to use online gaming as a tool to enhance all forms of sports. They provide users with a lot of interactive opportunities and it can be an extremely exciting experience. For this reason, good online games in this format can be leveraged and put to very good use.

Online fantasy games like fantasy baseball league and fantasy soccer league are already very popular with the masses. Fantasy leagues were introduced 40 years ago as an alternative to other games and they had become very popular. With the rise of the internet, online fantasy leagues have caught the imagination of people in a big way.

Most of the good games come with proper instructions which anyone can understand and enjoy the gaming experience. The high scores and real life experiences of other players are also displayed. It increases people's interest in the players and hence the sport. The most popular game in this format is the fantasy football league.

According to a recent survey, a growing number of Moms are playing fantasy soccer leagues as their favorite pastime, which in turn has raised their interest in international soccer games. This is a very good example of how good online games are helping popularize sports.

How it can be enhanced:

A lot of gaming websites have used innovative techniques to increase their popularity in online gaming. They have made rulebooks which are in line with the rules of the real sport, and are constantly updated. Player profiles are updated according to how they play in a particular match. Drafting a team has become as easy as picking players from a given list.

As we can see, good online games which are developed with an effective strategy can actually help sports spread to more people as opposed to eating into their market.

by:Russ Proudfoot

New to Gaming - Flash Gaming Sites

According to Computer Gaming World, there are 80 gazillion free Flash games sites in the cyber world.

Popular sites are:

* www.games.yahoo.com - this has card games, word games, arcade games, as well as puzzles. The number of violent games is limited so the site appeals to the "old-young" -those who are young at heart.

* www.shockwave.com - a popular site with original games as well as PopCap ones. One can do a jigsaw here everyday.

* www.addictinggames.com - has free games that are updated every week-Friday. The site has action, arcade, puzzle, as well as sports games.

* www.arcadetown.com - has Flash games, java games, downloads and more.

Since Flash offers many advantages to developers as well as players, many games are designed using Macromedia Flash. It is by far the best game platform and has incredible features.

In an industry that's evincing exponential growth, Flash has become the universal and popular choice for multimedia intensive web sites. Flash, singly crosses most barriers-

* It supports complicated and wonderful graphics.
* Allows download of files via the Internet.
* And is compatible with playback devices.

In the world of Flash enabled games the hosting system is the web server itself. Flash enables web sites to host animated as well as interactive movies and games. There is no paraphernalia required. All that is needed is to download the game itself. The costs are minimal and not recurring.

To play on the web all that is required is: a web browser, a Flash player, and the Internet. Flash is the universal plug in needed to play games. It is installed on every PC with Windows XP and Mac.

Playing online can be fun and most games can now be played by many players from all round the world. Just keep in mind:

* That there are players who cheat at games. Look for PunkBuster software on the server, this detects cheats who try and gain unfair advantages.

* Play with others who have credibility and are accountable for their actions. Many online sites need verified log ins, they are actively managed gaming environments. This is a better choice for safe gaming.

* Create a select group of friends and use the broadband server to host a private gaming server.

* Do your research thoroughly. Seek safe and high quality gaming sites.

Gaming is in its golden phase and is set to reach new heights. Innovation, new business models, and unprecedented growth is expected to open new avenues in gaming.

by : Paul Wilson

How to Play Online Games

Use of the Internet has altered all most all activities that we performed in our day to day life thus playing games on computer is not an exception. Now day verities of online games are available like text-based games, Java/Flash Internet based games, online multiplayer games etc. out of that the Java/Flash Internet based games are most admired and too many Sites are available for them like http://www.miniclip.com that provides games in free of cost.

Many people like to play game only for one time hence they don't prefer to buy it. There are numerous games to select from that you can play also from the 80,s classic walkway favorites! In case you book for a page of "my Google" you can also insert Pac man, oh Pac man! But you must know that playing too much the game is dangerous because Pac man is exceptionally addictive game. While playing Internet games, you require downloading the accurate plug-in matching with your browser because accurate plug has numerous Graphics. In case your Internet link is sluggish, then it will certainly take more time in loading. Generally these Games are very easy and are normally solo player games.

Text based games are more simple games compare to Java games that you may purchase for your PC that permit you to contend with additional populace. Earlier in absence of Internet when you want to play in opposition to someone, you need to request your friend and play through a rip screen. Only some of the most popular games were made it possible and may be played in forums or chat rooms. These are the role-play games that were exceedingly admired. Online multiplayer games are the awfully accepted for two players to compete on a network. But due to existence of Internet, at present you don't require to go away from your home, you need only the Internet connection to play your favorite game in opposition to anyone that you like.

Obviously you want to know, how can you go to search populace to play with? In many cases it is not any type of problem, you don't know someone in some place! You possibly will find anyone to play against you from that place somehow even though you don't know where is that place? Either you connect or the game links to a server. The counter players will certainly link to that server thus it become extremely effortless for you to get populace to play with. Irrespective of your presence in the world, at any time it is your need to get someone to play with! That is the plus point of the Internet that it is wide reaching. In case you don't want to sleep then it is best option for you to play against anyone that may be a well-mannered time in someone's time precinct!

Counter Strike, Quake, Half Life and War Craft are the leading names in the market of Online Multiplayer Game where numerous instant messaging customers also join in large numbers with their individual games. It is very interesting and quite simple to play a game rapidly with someone to whom you were taking recently. You can also play games to earn money with the help of Internet. There are too many online gambling sites that can outfit your wants.

The latest videogame news, reviews and previews.Online gaming is a world of fun and any one can join in on the action. Visit http://justonlinegamesblog.com

by : Bruno Auger