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//by Blu3Flame 21th May 2004
The first generation of online compatible games stood out as benchmarks for future developers, opening the door and showing them what could be achieved. Now, a little more than eight years since their release we have seen very little in the way of the 'endless possibilities' that were originally promised. It's become an unfortunate trend for developers to stick to the 'tried and tested' formulaic gameplay of others, bolting on multiplayer facilities as an afterthought rather than giving them the time and consideration they need. It has become an all too familiar sight to see games on shelves boasting 'online content' to find out it's little more than a restricted high score table, downloadable wallpaper or something as equally ridiculous.
Previously we were limited by the speed of our connections, but since the introduction of high-speed broadband services this has now become of thing of the past. Unfortunately we are still yet to see the huge leaps and bounds in gameplay that many were hoping this new technology would bring.
It is only recently that we are starting to see companies break away from these trends and attempt to maximising online capabilities to their full potential. Although this may sound fantastic, more and more hurdles have been thrown in the way of progress, especially the introduction of subscription based price plans for online content.
The diversity of the online capable games themselves is also questionable, with two predominant genres - the RPG and the FPS. An unfortunate downfall of the RPG genre is that a lot of time and dedication is required before the gameplay becomes rewarding, and as such are not games that can be just played in short bursts. The situation is somewhat similar with the first person shooter. While you may be able to just pick up and play, there is very little reward for dedicated players. Over time as existing players gain more skill it becomes increasingly difficult for a newcomer to just pick up and play without feeling extremely overwhelmed.
A game that manages to achieve simplistic perfection in every aspect of online gaming, is Bomberman Online; a current game developed by Hudson/M-Game with free servers in Japan and Korea. You aren't bound by any subscription contract, nor do you need to download endless patches to get into the game. Simply create an account on the website, download the software and within seconds you are totally immersed in an addictive environment. For each game you win you are awarded points, the more you gain the more characters and levels that become available to you, and the higher your name rises in the charts. As the game progresses each player is given a rank, viewable before you start a game, enabling newcomers to avoid embarrassing loses to professional players, and allowing them to join games with players of equal skill. Bomberman Online really encourages you to succeed, as more points are awarded to the existing players you run the risk of losing your newly acquired characters to other people, encouraging you to always keep playing. Despite the obvious language barrier it is possible for anyone in the world to play this game and you will find a wide range of people lurking on the Japanese servers
Another game, which has captivated the attention of many, is Tetrinet 1.13, a freeware 6 player variant of Tetris. Like Bomberman Online, Tetrinet requires no subscription fee and can be played on any number of the available public servers, the added benefit is you can even host a game yourself within the client. What sets Tetrinet apart from most other games, is not having to worry about any form of lag, even a 56k modem can host a full 6 player game and never encounter any form of slowdown. The game itself is almost identical to the original Tetris, albeit with powerups which can be unleashed onto other players during the game. Thanks to the simple rules, the game is opened upto anyone who is vaguely familiar with Tetris, making a refreshing change from games which require you to learn to new skills before even attempting to play.
In today's market more developers need to take a step back and look at the simplicity of games such as these, perfect examples of what I feel is the essence of online gaming. Hopefully as companies continue to embrace new technology we will begin to see more consideration towards the online context in a wide range of future games - whether they are the stereotypical FPS, or an unexpected genre.
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