The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
Offline games or Online games which is better and which will be most played in the future. After the hit smashing dreamcast title(Phantasy Star Online) online games have been recognized currently to be great satisfaction. So much quality that will it be better than offline games?
Online games holds the ability to play with characters from all over the world as you and your friends online fight or take a quest along side eachother through your dreamcast, but will this also be a downfall to? What if one of the players you play with is totally no good in the game? You will probably be disappointed also what if the person is clueless on how to play the game? It could mean game over in situations like this because basically you dont know what the person through the modem will do.
Offline games which have been surging through our homegames recently have built a reputation for themselves? Offline games you can play with friends in your neighborhood, brothers, sisters, etc, but one bad thing about offline games you can't have someone else feel the action as you do. We all know sometimes you want to play a game with someone else sometimes and online games enable that, but will gamers prefer offline gams or online games? Which will take hold for the future. Expecially with new consoles on the rise such as the microsoft xbox and nintendo gamecube, gaming could go to another level or possibly world.....
Online games holds the ability to play with characters from all over the world as you and your friends online fight or take a quest along side eachother through your dreamcast, but will this also be a downfall to? What if one of the players you play with is totally no good in the game? You will probably be disappointed also what if the person is clueless on how to play the game? It could mean game over in situations like this because basically you dont know what the person through the modem will do.
Offline games which have been surging through our homegames recently have built a reputation for themselves? Offline games you can play with friends in your neighborhood, brothers, sisters, etc, but one bad thing about offline games you can't have someone else feel the action as you do. We all know sometimes you want to play a game with someone else sometimes and online games enable that, but will gamers prefer offline gams or online games? Which will take hold for the future. Expecially with new consoles on the rise such as the microsoft xbox and nintendo gamecube, gaming could go to another level or possibly world.....
I think that the future is both online and offline because people would like tpo play other people from around the world, ut they would also like to sit in their homes not worrying about their phone bils, and eventually they will be RPG being played over the NET and people would lose track of what has been happening, so people would want both online and offline gaming.
well i know i do
well i know i do
I'd have to say that the future is with online games. Sadly, UK internet access costs currently prohibit online gaming somewhat, but when we all have virtually free broadband access (Bill Gates vision of the future.....so it must be right)? then it becomes a straight choice of 'Would you rather play online or with other people?' As someone mentioned in a previous topic (I can't remember who....sorry) just about every game would be more popular with a multiplayer option. Given that online access makes split screens unneccessarry (I was unsure of the spelling there, so I went for the 'mississippi' approach to spelling..) then it could be possible for just about all games to be multiplayer.
A question arises however - As gamers, do we feel the need to socialise in any way, or are we quite happy to grow ever paler and more fearful of sunlight?
Probably the former - so, besides cost, are there any disadvatages of online gaming? Are there any other reasons why it shouldn't be the future of gaming?
I can't think of any, so I see no reason why online gaming shouldn't become ever more widespread and dominant.
On FM's point about planetarion, he's mostly right. I do believe that in the next 'round' though, there will be some 'bot' players, controlled by programs writen by people with too much spare time on their hands. Interesting idea...especially as planetarion is primarily based on human interaction rather than any sense of skill or judgement. I'll write a thread on AI when I'm a little further into my AI module this term....
A question arises however - As gamers, do we feel the need to socialise in any way, or are we quite happy to grow ever paler and more fearful of sunlight?
Probably the former - so, besides cost, are there any disadvatages of online gaming? Are there any other reasons why it shouldn't be the future of gaming?
I can't think of any, so I see no reason why online gaming shouldn't become ever more widespread and dominant.
On FM's point about planetarion, he's mostly right. I do believe that in the next 'round' though, there will be some 'bot' players, controlled by programs writen by people with too much spare time on their hands. Interesting idea...especially as planetarion is primarily based on human interaction rather than any sense of skill or judgement. I'll write a thread on AI when I'm a little further into my AI module this term....
Offline gaming has been with us for such a long time I think that it is going to stay for a while. This is because at the moment it is a bit to expensive to go online for long hours. But with growing 0800 acess becoming available then we are likely to see most todays gamers going for the online genre. Myself am pleased about such hits like PSO becoming available for I think the whole idea of working together in a team sounds wonderfull. What will hapen FM is just like what happens with PSO and that is they will create games suited for both types of gamers. The online and the offline mode for people who do not have internet acess. PSo has started this whole craze off and it is going to become more and more popular like it did with online games on the pc. Sooner than we think we will see the ISP providers being forced to lower there price due to rival contenders. They are slowly killing themselfes even though they are still making money. This is perfect for us because we get such low internet prices for unlimited access to the internet. When we see the release of the dremkey volume 2 browser then the internet is going to become increasingly popular. Internet on the tv is growing with ONdigital and sega. We are going to have to have high speed internet access if we intend to play these online games in such great graphics and speed. This is becoming very likely with the sega and pace set top box which combines tv, dvd, cable speed internet acess and games console all in one. This is going to prove more and more popular. The online genre has already begun but it will not dominate the gaming market. There will be a mixture between single player and multiplayer games. There will soon be two types of gamers, the online gamer and the offline gamer. Each have there own opinion. Which are yu??
Good topic alien. My view is this:
Offline gaming was the way most of us oldies started out, with games like Tetris, X-Wing, Bubble Bobble, AD&D, Mario, etc... which was great.
Then, when online gaming first arrived in the UK the cost was prohibitive. Now that many online ISP's have become cheaper, it's not so bad, but is there a great appeal in online gaming? Your opponents could be regarded as just very advanced AI, but you have to remember that these opponents have feelings too, unlike in a normal offline game. So playing against a human online, whilst more challenging, can be fraught with other considerations, like not fragging the poor guy too much in case he gets bored with it and goes off somewhere else, which wouldn't happen with an AI opponent.
Planetarion is a good example of a MUD game where every opponent you meet is a human opponent. There is no AI in the game at all. Only your skills against hundreds of thousands of other human opponents. You see typical human behaviour that you would not see in other AI games, like alliances being formed between mates, highly tactical assaults and defences being initiated, the levels of complexity bound only by the human imagination.
One aspect of this is that you can fire off an email to an opponent and get a reaction from him, you can't get this against a microprocessor. And what you say in your mail can provoke either a hostile or friendly response, that's part of the game and adds a great dimension, 'intelligence', whereby you can bluff and counterbluff, insult, call for aid, harass and generally all the things you can do with normal mail.
But you have to remember that these are human beings that you are dealing with, and every interraction you have in the game has an affect on another human being. Feelings can get hurt, so you have to be somewhat careful what you do or say. These ethical restrictions would never come about in a standalone offline computer game.
Both on and offline have their merits, both have their downsides. One thing I do object to is being 'forced' to play online with certain games. Take 2 examples:
The PC Game Diablo. Sure, a great game in offline mode, but you can only get certain modes and artifacts to collect by playing the online version, so to get the most out of this game you really are forced to play online.
The DC Game Shenmue. Again, a great game for a single player, but again there are only certain objects that you can collect by logging onto Sega's Dreamarena, and this costs money. (Currently 5 pence per minute).
Both examples show that games manufacturers are trying to lead gamers more and more into online gaming whether they want to or not. Sure, we have a choice, but when others are given an advantage over you by going online when you don't, I don't feel that this is unfair.
Where games used to be self-contained on the disc/cartridge and your console, the trend seems to be heading towards you buying the game and 'having' to go online from time to time to complete it. No fair. Choice is good, but being forced to make a choice is not so good.
Offline gaming was the way most of us oldies started out, with games like Tetris, X-Wing, Bubble Bobble, AD&D, Mario, etc... which was great.
Then, when online gaming first arrived in the UK the cost was prohibitive. Now that many online ISP's have become cheaper, it's not so bad, but is there a great appeal in online gaming? Your opponents could be regarded as just very advanced AI, but you have to remember that these opponents have feelings too, unlike in a normal offline game. So playing against a human online, whilst more challenging, can be fraught with other considerations, like not fragging the poor guy too much in case he gets bored with it and goes off somewhere else, which wouldn't happen with an AI opponent.
Planetarion is a good example of a MUD game where every opponent you meet is a human opponent. There is no AI in the game at all. Only your skills against hundreds of thousands of other human opponents. You see typical human behaviour that you would not see in other AI games, like alliances being formed between mates, highly tactical assaults and defences being initiated, the levels of complexity bound only by the human imagination.
One aspect of this is that you can fire off an email to an opponent and get a reaction from him, you can't get this against a microprocessor. And what you say in your mail can provoke either a hostile or friendly response, that's part of the game and adds a great dimension, 'intelligence', whereby you can bluff and counterbluff, insult, call for aid, harass and generally all the things you can do with normal mail.
But you have to remember that these are human beings that you are dealing with, and every interraction you have in the game has an affect on another human being. Feelings can get hurt, so you have to be somewhat careful what you do or say. These ethical restrictions would never come about in a standalone offline computer game.
Both on and offline have their merits, both have their downsides. One thing I do object to is being 'forced' to play online with certain games. Take 2 examples:
The PC Game Diablo. Sure, a great game in offline mode, but you can only get certain modes and artifacts to collect by playing the online version, so to get the most out of this game you really are forced to play online.
The DC Game Shenmue. Again, a great game for a single player, but again there are only certain objects that you can collect by logging onto Sega's Dreamarena, and this costs money. (Currently 5 pence per minute).
Both examples show that games manufacturers are trying to lead gamers more and more into online gaming whether they want to or not. Sure, we have a choice, but when others are given an advantage over you by going online when you don't, I don't feel that this is unfair.
Where games used to be self-contained on the disc/cartridge and your console, the trend seems to be heading towards you buying the game and 'having' to go online from time to time to complete it. No fair. Choice is good, but being forced to make a choice is not so good.
Offline games or Online games which is better and which will be most played in the future. After the hit smashing dreamcast title(Phantasy Star Online) online games have been recognized currently to be great satisfaction. So much quality that will it be better than offline games?
Online games holds the ability to play with characters from all over the world as you and your friends online fight or take a quest along side eachother through your dreamcast, but will this also be a downfall to? What if one of the players you play with is totally no good in the game? You will probably be disappointed also what if the person is clueless on how to play the game? It could mean game over in situations like this because basically you dont know what the person through the modem will do.
Offline games which have been surging through our homegames recently have built a reputation for themselves? Offline games you can play with friends in your neighborhood, brothers, sisters, etc, but one bad thing about offline games you can't have someone else feel the action as you do. We all know sometimes you want to play a game with someone else sometimes and online games enable that, but will gamers prefer offline gams or online games? Which will take hold for the future. Expecially with new consoles on the rise such as the microsoft xbox and nintendo gamecube, gaming could go to another level or possibly world.....
Online games holds the ability to play with characters from all over the world as you and your friends online fight or take a quest along side eachother through your dreamcast, but will this also be a downfall to? What if one of the players you play with is totally no good in the game? You will probably be disappointed also what if the person is clueless on how to play the game? It could mean game over in situations like this because basically you dont know what the person through the modem will do.
Offline games which have been surging through our homegames recently have built a reputation for themselves? Offline games you can play with friends in your neighborhood, brothers, sisters, etc, but one bad thing about offline games you can't have someone else feel the action as you do. We all know sometimes you want to play a game with someone else sometimes and online games enable that, but will gamers prefer offline gams or online games? Which will take hold for the future. Expecially with new consoles on the rise such as the microsoft xbox and nintendo gamecube, gaming could go to another level or possibly world.....