Online games refer to video games that are played over some form of computer network, most commonly the Internet. The expansion of online gaming has r

2006-06-09T00:54:00.000-07:00

Online games refer to video games that are played over some form of computer network, most commonly the Internet. The expansion of online gaming has reflected the overall expansion of computer networks from small local networks to the Internet and the growth of Internet access itself. Online games can range from simple text based games to games incorporating complex graphics and virtual worlds populated by many players simultaneously. Many online games have associated online communities, making online games a form of social activity beyond single player games.

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1 Early online games
2 First-person shooters
3 Real-time strategy games
4 Browser games
5 Massively multiplayer online games
6 A profitable industry

Online games started in the 1980s with MUDs, simple multiplayer text-based games, often played on a BBS using a modem. These games were frequently based on fantasy settings, using rules similar to those in the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Other styles of games, such as chess, Scrabble clones, and other board games were available. Since continuous connectivity was often expensive as access was frequently charged on a per-minute basis, some games were set up as play-by-email games.

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First-person shooters

During the 1990s, online games started to move from a wide variety of LAN protocols (such as IPX) and onto the Internet using the TCP/IP protocol. Doom popularized the concept of deathmatch, where multiple players battle each other head-to-head, as a new form of online game. Since Doom, most first-person shooter games contain online components to allow deathmatch/arena style play.

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Real-time strategy games

Early real-time strategy games often allowed multiplayer play over a modem or local network. As the Internet started to grow during the 1990s, software was developed that would allow players to tunnel the LAN protocols used by the games over the Internet. By the late 1990s, most RTS games had native Internet support, allowing players from all over the globe to play with each other. Services were created to allow players to be automatically matched against another player wishing to play.

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Browser games

As the World Wide Web developed and browsers became more sophisticated, people started creating browser games that used a web browser as a client. Simple single player games were made that could be played using a web browser via HTML and HTML scripting technologies (most commonly JavaScript). More complicated games would contact a web server to allow a multiplayer gaming environment.

The development of web based graphics technologies such as Flash and Java allowed browser games to become more complex. These games, also known by their related technology as "Flash games" or "Java games"), became increasingly popular. Many games originally released in the 1980s, such as Pac-Man and Frogger, were recreated as games that could be played using the Flash plugin on a webpage. Most browser games have limited multiplayer play, often being single player games with a high score list shared amongst all players.

Most online games websites include hundreds of Flash, Shockwave and Java games.

More recent browser-based games use web technologies like AJAX to make more complicated multiplayer interactions popular.

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Massively multiplayer online games

Massively multiplayer online games were made possible with the growth of broadband Internet access in many developed countries, using the Internet to allow hundreds of thousands of players to play the same game together. Many different styles of massively multiplayer games are available, such as:

MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game)
MMORTS (Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy)
MMOFPS (Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter)

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A profitable industry

The rising popularity of Flash and Java led to an internet revolution where websites could utilize streaming video, audio, and a whole new set of user interactivity. When Microsoft began packaging Flash as a pre-installed component of IE, the internet began to shift from a data/information spectrum to also offer on-demand entertainment. This revolution paved the way for sites to offer games to web surfers. While many games charge a monthly fee to web surfers, such as World of Warcraft, many other sites relied on advertising revenues from on-site sponsors. After the dot-com downfall in the early years of the 21st century, many sites solely relying on advertising revenue dollars faced extreme adversity.

This fluctuation of the advertising market is still affecting online gaming sites today. Shanda Entertainment Group Ltd reported a 95% loss of profits in last quarter's earnings. Shanda Entertainment is resposible for many online gaming websites, their most popular being Dungeons & Dragons.

Despite the decreasing profitability of free online games websites, there still exists some sites have survived the fluctuating ad market by offsetting the advertising revenue loss by using the content as a cross-promotion tool for driving web visitors to other websites that the company owns.

You can help by editing it now. A guide is available, as is general editing help.

For other uses, see Game (disambiguation).

Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment.

Card game, 1895.

A game is an activity, generally recreational in nature, involving one or more players. Most commonly, the word refers to board, card and video games as well as sports. A game generally consists of a goal that the players try to reach and a set of rules that determines what the players can or cannot do. Games are played primarily for entertainment or enjoyment, but may also serve as exercise or perform an educational, simulational or psychological role. Group leaders can use games for creating or altering an individual's ego-boundary or a group's interpersonal boundaries. Games can also be used to alter an individual's or a group's mood. Since games can generate a higher and less cognitive arousal level, they are useful after a large meal or a long and tedious task, but are not good for pre-sleep needs.

Although games have been played since prehistoric times, much of our understanding about them remains speculative.

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1 Etymology
2 Definitions
- 2.1 Chris Crawford
- 2.2 Ludwig Wittgenstein
3 Animals and games
4 Anthropology of games
- 4.1 Classes of games
  - 4.1.1 Games of skill
  - 4.1.2 Games of strategy
  - 4.1.3 Games of chance
  - 4.1.4 Mixed games
- 4.2 Games versus sports
5 One-player games
6 Types of games
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

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Etymology

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Game is a common Teutonic word, in Old English gamen, in Old High German gaman, but only appears in modern usage outside English in Danish gam men and Swedish gammon. The ulterior derivation is obscure, but philologists have identified it with the Gothic goman, meaning companion or companionship; if this be so, it is a compounded of the prefix ga-, meaning with, and the root seen in man.

Apart from its primary and general meaning, the word has two specific applications, first to a contest played as a recreation or as an exhibition of skill, in accordance with rules and regulations; and, secondly, to wild animals hunted for food. A special use restricts the term to gambling. Gamble, gambler and gambling appear very late in English. The earliest quotations in the New English Dictionary for the three words are dated 1775, 1747 and 1784 respectively. They were first regarded as cant or slang words, and implied a reproach, either as referring to cheats or sharpers, or to those who played recklessly for extravagant stakes. The form of the words is obscure, but is supposed to represent a local variation gammle of the Middle English gamenian. From this word must, of course, be distinguished gambol, to sport or to frisk, which, as the older forms (gambald, gambaud) show, is from the French gambade, leap, jump, of a horse, Italian gambado, gamba, leg (Modern French jambe).

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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Definitions

Look up Game in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Games can involve one player acting alone, or two or more players acting cooperatively, but most involve competition among two or more players or between two teams, limited by rules. (Taking an action that falls outside the rules generally constitutes a foul or cheating.) Beyond this, the definition varies widely.

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Chris Crawford

In his book Chris Crawford on Game Design, Chris Crawford defines the term game (p. 6) using a series of dichotomies:

Creative expression is art if made for its own beauty, and entertainment if made for money. (This is the least rigid of his definitions. Crawford acknowledges that he often chooses a creative path over conventional business wisdom, which is why he rarely produces sequels to his games.)
A piece of entertainment is a plaything if it is interactive. Movies and books are cited as examples of non-interactive entertainment.
If no goals are associated with a plaything, it is a toy. (Crawford notes that by his definition, (a) a toy can become a game element, if the player makes up rules, and (b) The Sims and SimCity are toys, not games.) If it has goals, a plaything is a challenge.
If a challenge has no “active agent against whom you compete,” it is a puzzle; if there is one, it is a conflict. (Crawford admits this is a subjective test. Some games with noticeably algorithmic AI can be played as puzzles; see, for example, Pac-Man#Ghosts.)
Finally, if the player can only outperform the opponent, but not attack them to interfere with their performance, the conflict is a competition. (Competitions include racing and figure skating.) However, if attacks are allowed, then the conflict qualifies as a game.

Crawford also notes (ibid.) these other definitions:

“A form of play with goals and structure.” (Kevin Maroney)
“A game is a form of art in which participants, termed players, make decisions in order to manage resources through game tokens in the pursuit of a goal.” (Greg Costikyan)
“An activity with some rules engaged in for an outcome.” (Eric Zimmerman)

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Ludwig Wittgenstein

In Philosophical Investigations, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein argued that the concept "game" could not be contained by any single definition, but that games must be looked at as a series of definitions that share a "family resemblance" to one another. Games were important to Wittgenstein's later thought; he held that language was itself a game, consisting of tokens governed by rough-and-ready rules that arise by convention and are not strict.

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Animals and games

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Although many animals play while young, only humans are known to have games and to play as adults. Whether any other animals are intelligent enough to game is debatable, though a game has ritualistic elements (such as rules and procedures) that are voluntarily acted upon, rather than as a result of instinct. The existence of rules and criteria that decide the outcome of games imply that games require intelligence of a significant degree of sophistication.

Non-human animal species may engage in games whose rules and sophistication humans cannot yet detect. It would, for example, seem incongruous that large-brained species such as many Cetaceans and the larger hominids did not play games. Our inability to observe and understand such games should not be taken as a confirmation that they do not exist. Courtship displays in some birds, such as the Black Grouse, appear (from an anthropological view) to include games with clear victors and losers.

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Anthropology of games

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Various children’s games, 1560.

Games, being a characteristic human activity strongly determined by custom and the frequent subjects of folklore, have been the subject of anthropological investigations.

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Classes of games

While many different subdivisions have been proposed, anthropologists classify games under three major headings, and have drawn some conclusions as to the social bases that each sort of game requires.

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Games of skill

Main article: Game of skill

This category includes Games of skill, such as hopscotch and target shooting, and games of mental skill such as checkers. Games of pure skill are likely the oldest sort of game, and are found in all cultures, regardless of their level of material culture.

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Games of strategy

Chess consists of nearly pure strategy.

Main article: Strategy game

Games of strategy, such as checkers, go, and tic-tac-toe, require a higher material basis. They are associated with cultures that possess a written language: not surprising, since most strategy games are based on mathematics and feature the manipulation of symbols. They often require special equipment to be played. They are associated with hierarchical societies that place a high value on obedience.

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Games of chance

Main article: Game of chance

Games of chance, such as craps and snakes and ladders, appear at a variety of levels of material culture; what they seem to share generally is a sense of economic insecurity. They are associated with cultures that place a high value on personal responsibility, keeping one's word, and maintaining personal standing in the face of misfortune; in other words, with "cultures of honor".

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Mixed games

Monopoly, the best-selling board game ever, is a game of strategy with some chance.

In addition to these basic classifications, there are mixed games; such as football and baseball, involving both skill and strategy, and poker, involving strategy and chance. Baseball Hall of Famer Casey Stengel addressed the illusion of luck dominating skill in his sport when he remarked, "I had many years when I was not so successful as a ballplayer, as it is a game of skill."

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Games versus sports

Soccer is a popular sport worldwide.

There is no clear line of demarcation between games and sports. (Indeed, some say sports are a subclass of games.) Generally, sports are athletic in nature, and have an element of physical prowess, but then so do many games. For cultural anthropologists, the distinction between games and sports hinges on community involvement. Sports often require special equipment and playing fields or prepared grounds dedicated to their practice, a fact that often makes necessary the involvement of a community beyond the players themselves. Most sports can have spectators. Communities often align themselves with players of sports, who in a sense represent that community; they often align themselves against their opponents, or have traditional rivalries. The concept of fandom began with sports fans. Games amuse the players; sports amuse a broader public; in advanced material cultures, sports can be played by paid professionals. When games like chess and go or even video games are played professionally, they take on many of the characteristics of a sport.

Stanley Fish, looking for a clear example of the sorts of social constructions, cited the balls and strikes of baseball as example. While the strike zone target is governed by the rules of the game, it epitomizes the category of things that exist only because people have agreed to treat them as real. No pitch is a ball or a strike until it has been labeled as such by an appropriate authority, the plate umpire, whose judgment on this matter cannot be challenged within the current game.

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One-player games

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Most puzzles, and some card games, are for one player. As well, most computer and video games have single-player modes.

One-player games are sometimes called solitaire games, but this term may be misinterpreted as referring specifically to peg solitaire, Spider Solitaire or Klondike.

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Types of games

For a more comprehensive list, see Game classification

Alternate reality game
Ball games
Board games
Business games
Car games
Card games
- Collectible card games
Casino games
Children's games
Clapping games
Computer and video games
- Computer board games
- Computer puzzle games
- Online games
  - Online skill-based games
  - MUDs
  - MMORPGs
Conversation games
Counting-out games
Creative games
Dice games
Drinking games
Educational games
Economics games
Game shows
Games of chance
Games of dare
Games of logic
Games of physical activity
Games of physical skill
Games of skill
Games of strategy
Games of status
Global Positioning System-based games
Group-dynamic games
Guessing games
Letter games
Locative games
Mathematical games
Open gaming
Party games
Parlour games
Pencil and paper games
Penis games
Play-by-mail games
Playground games
Political games
PowerPoint games
Pub games
Puzzles
Quizzes
Role-playing games
Singing games
Spoken games
Street games
String games
Table-top games
Tile-based games
Theater games (Theatre games)
Traditional games
Travel games
Wargames
Win-win games
Word games

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Online games free games for gamers

Online games refer to video games that are played over some form of computer network, most commonly the Internet. The expansion of online gaming has r

Contents

First-person shooters

Real-time strategy games

Browser games

Massively multiplayer online games

A profitable industry

Contents

Etymology

Definitions

Chris Crawford

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Animals and games

Anthropology of games

Classes of games

Games of skill

Games of strategy

Games of chance

Mixed games

Games versus sports

One-player games

Types of games

See also