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Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games
Some if not all of us play some sort of RPG. From the ever popular Final Fantasy Series to the lovable Zelda series. But recently a new form of RPG has swept the world. The mmorpg. There are hundreds out there already: Diablo, Runescape, Ultima online etc...
But with the change of the Ultima series to mmorpg and with an mmorpg version of Final Fantasy (ie. Final Fantasy XI) soon to be released, are they soon going to be the norm? Will the next Tony Hawks game be set in a huge skate park where thousands of players can interact at the same time?
Or will the next Command and conquer game be able to have a 500 player internet skirmish?
Write back any views or opinions
J9f
Some if not all of us play some sort of RPG. From the ever popular Final Fantasy Series to the lovable Zelda series. But recently a new form of RPG has swept the world. The mmorpg. There are hundreds out there already: Diablo, Runescape, Ultima online etc...
But with the change of the Ultima series to mmorpg and with an mmorpg version of Final Fantasy (ie. Final Fantasy XI) soon to be released, are they soon going to be the norm? Will the next Tony Hawks game be set in a huge skate park where thousands of players can interact at the same time?
Or will the next Command and conquer game be able to have a 500 player internet skirmish?
Write back any views or opinions
J9f
Online gaming is becomming ever so much more popular now in the UK as Internet Service Providers are allowing free access for a small monthly rate. This means that now developers can create larger games that are playable online with a massive amount of players.
PC Games have been online playable for quite a while now. Some developers charge for you to play online on their servers, whereas most others allow you to play for free. This free play has made online gaming more accessable to more and more gamers and means that it's only a matter of time before online console gaming catches up with the PC.
So how did it all start out? Well the reason PC gaming went online first was because of Local Area Networks, and PC to PC networks in homes and offices where two or more computers could like up to play games such as Doom and Duke Nukem. When the internet bacame more widely available in the states, people decided to apply gaming to the new super-network and more and more people could play at once on their favourite games.
At this time, gaming on consoles had already became multiplayer on one unit! Instead of having to connect two consoles together to network them, gamers need only insert a second controller and hey presto, they're both playing on the same screen! Though, as you know, handheld gaming has always relied on networking units, as it is with the Game Boy Advance.
So what happened? Well PC gamers continued to play online, mainly the rich people mind. In the early days of the International superhighway, costs were high. It was expensive to buy a PC of which we'd now consider totally obsolete, maybe even unusable in todays day and age. PC's ran with what we now consider to be a very slow connection, around 16kbps, and processors couldn't deal with much either. Operating systems were still in the Command stage where you had to type a number of commands just to run a program. (See your MSDos Prompt).
Meanwhile, console gaming grew more and more popular, with games going as far as four players, sometimes even more depending on the console! The consoles were considerably cheaper than buying a PC, and the games' prices weren't that much different either, though with PC's you could have better quality games, graphics adn sound effects.
However, coming to the mid 1990's, consoles became more powerful, multiplayer games became more popular, and the need for PC games to become more popular inscreased. Developers decided to allow free use of their servers (though some still charge) and ISP's started charging less, some even for free providing you paid for your call charges. More and more PC games, especially FPS's became online, and PC games became popular again.
Console gaming recently changed for the better though. Nintendo were going to release their N64-DD which would have allowed internet play through the N64. However, the console was on it's last legs, so Nintendo decided not to release the DD in Europe or the States. Sega had however released the Dreamcast with a built in modem which allowed you to connect to their servers and play PC ports and some of their own games online.
It wasn't til the end of the consoles life however, that they stopped charging for internet play in Europe. It's only since February this year that people have been able to play games online using their own ISP which they'd normally use with their PC's. However, the Dreamcast had already stopped being produced and so not many people use this.
The PC now has many games of all genres with online capabilities, so much now that it has become almost standard to have online features with PC games. FPS's have continued to stay the most popular online games, though RPG's and RTS games have caught up a bit with help from Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer series (which now has an FPS game) and from Blizzard who made the Diablo and Warcraft series.
The Dreamcast has the ever popular Phantasy Star Online games which are still playable online via the Dreamcast, and Sega will be releasing new versions on the Nintendo GameCube which will supposedly have online capabilities before even the Playstation 2 which has been out for nearly two years now! Online gaming is the future for multiplayer games, whether you like it or not (I don't). Though it may not neccesarily just be for larger RPG's.
PC Games have been online playable for quite a while now. Some developers charge for you to play online on their servers, whereas most others allow you to play for free. This free play has made online gaming more accessable to more and more gamers and means that it's only a matter of time before online console gaming catches up with the PC.
So how did it all start out? Well the reason PC gaming went online first was because of Local Area Networks, and PC to PC networks in homes and offices where two or more computers could like up to play games such as Doom and Duke Nukem. When the internet bacame more widely available in the states, people decided to apply gaming to the new super-network and more and more people could play at once on their favourite games.
At this time, gaming on consoles had already became multiplayer on one unit! Instead of having to connect two consoles together to network them, gamers need only insert a second controller and hey presto, they're both playing on the same screen! Though, as you know, handheld gaming has always relied on networking units, as it is with the Game Boy Advance.
So what happened? Well PC gamers continued to play online, mainly the rich people mind. In the early days of the International superhighway, costs were high. It was expensive to buy a PC of which we'd now consider totally obsolete, maybe even unusable in todays day and age. PC's ran with what we now consider to be a very slow connection, around 16kbps, and processors couldn't deal with much either. Operating systems were still in the Command stage where you had to type a number of commands just to run a program. (See your MSDos Prompt).
Meanwhile, console gaming grew more and more popular, with games going as far as four players, sometimes even more depending on the console! The consoles were considerably cheaper than buying a PC, and the games' prices weren't that much different either, though with PC's you could have better quality games, graphics adn sound effects.
However, coming to the mid 1990's, consoles became more powerful, multiplayer games became more popular, and the need for PC games to become more popular inscreased. Developers decided to allow free use of their servers (though some still charge) and ISP's started charging less, some even for free providing you paid for your call charges. More and more PC games, especially FPS's became online, and PC games became popular again.
Console gaming recently changed for the better though. Nintendo were going to release their N64-DD which would have allowed internet play through the N64. However, the console was on it's last legs, so Nintendo decided not to release the DD in Europe or the States. Sega had however released the Dreamcast with a built in modem which allowed you to connect to their servers and play PC ports and some of their own games online.
It wasn't til the end of the consoles life however, that they stopped charging for internet play in Europe. It's only since February this year that people have been able to play games online using their own ISP which they'd normally use with their PC's. However, the Dreamcast had already stopped being produced and so not many people use this.
The PC now has many games of all genres with online capabilities, so much now that it has become almost standard to have online features with PC games. FPS's have continued to stay the most popular online games, though RPG's and RTS games have caught up a bit with help from Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer series (which now has an FPS game) and from Blizzard who made the Diablo and Warcraft series.
The Dreamcast has the ever popular Phantasy Star Online games which are still playable online via the Dreamcast, and Sega will be releasing new versions on the Nintendo GameCube which will supposedly have online capabilities before even the Playstation 2 which has been out for nearly two years now! Online gaming is the future for multiplayer games, whether you like it or not (I don't). Though it may not neccesarily just be for larger RPG's.
In short no. They are just a small percentage of the genres of games that people love. To say they are the future would be just a guess, I for one ain't a big fan of them. There are too many genres that will continue to do well and all should be part of the future.
As far as I am aware, Final Fantasy XI isn't soon to be released. Wasn't it something like 2004 that Square announced for a European release?
Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games
Some if not all of us play some sort of RPG. From the ever popular Final Fantasy Series to the lovable Zelda series. But recently a new form of RPG has swept the world. The mmorpg. There are hundreds out there already: Diablo, Runescape, Ultima online etc...
But with the change of the Ultima series to mmorpg and with an mmorpg version of Final Fantasy (ie. Final Fantasy XI) soon to be released, are they soon going to be the norm? Will the next Tony Hawks game be set in a huge skate park where thousands of players can interact at the same time?
Or will the next Command and conquer game be able to have a 500 player internet skirmish?
Write back any views or opinions
J9f
Some if not all of us play some sort of RPG. From the ever popular Final Fantasy Series to the lovable Zelda series. But recently a new form of RPG has swept the world. The mmorpg. There are hundreds out there already: Diablo, Runescape, Ultima online etc...
But with the change of the Ultima series to mmorpg and with an mmorpg version of Final Fantasy (ie. Final Fantasy XI) soon to be released, are they soon going to be the norm? Will the next Tony Hawks game be set in a huge skate park where thousands of players can interact at the same time?
Or will the next Command and conquer game be able to have a 500 player internet skirmish?
Write back any views or opinions
J9f