Online Gaming

Back to Sim Cities for a Moment Gaming as creating a Sim City and having it interact with other people’s cities. - Utopia - Earth 2025 Gaming as entering and interacting within a Sim City (server). - Counterstrike - Everquest

A Brief History of Gaming 1969 – Spacewar becomes first modem- to-modem network game 1980 – First MUD goes up on ARPANetMUD 1993 – Doom is released 1995 – Quake is released 1998 – Everquest (first MMRPG) opens in beta

Genres Different levels and aspects of control: What you can do in a game. - Simulations - Strategy - First Person Shooters - Arcade - Role Playing

Game Design Graphics: Style of art and graphics Storyline: Original story, adapted from media (James Bond, Survivor, Lord of the Rings) Sound: music, ambience Other Sensory Input: rumble packs

Gaming Culture – The Game Economic Structure The “Real” Economy – Ebay: Buying and Selling Characters and Items Clans Gaming Communities – Strategy and Hint Sharing Social Hierarchies and Interactions Language: L337 speak, slang, abbr. (gl, gg, stfu, lol, wtf, wth, hf)L337

Everquest Account "You go onto one of the websites, basically give credit card details over the internet and then arrange to meet them in game," he said. "You'll log onto the game world and meet them in a tavern or in a town so the virtual you will meet the virtual other player who will hand over the gold to you or they'll hand over the sword to you and the whole transaction actually occurs in virtual space." Robin Dews, Games Workshop

Everquest Again Sunkal admits to being amazed at the amount of money people will spend for something they will never hold in their hands. Another veteran salesman, Jonathan Yantis, specializes in buying EverQuest accounts from players and selling off all the characters' equipment piece by piece, plus the account. He has set up his own site, MySuperSales, which does about $3,500 in business a day, he said. He claims the site has supported him for the last two years. (Wired)MySuperSales

Gaming Culture – The Game Economic Structure The “Real” Economy – Ebay: Buying and Selling Characters and Items Clans Gaming Communities – Strategy and Hint Sharing Social Hierarchies and Interactions Language: L337 speak, slang, abbr. (gl, gg, stfu, lol, wtf, wth, hf)L337

Social Interactions Direct Cooperation - Some opponent is described by the game and players directly cooperate in order to defeat it. Hierarchial Cooperation - hierarchies--whether they be master/apprentice, lord/minion, or senior/freshmen--can add rich depth to social gaming Supportive Cooperation - players simply offer resources to each other in order to achieve whatever goals are desired Freeform Interaction – socialization Boredom Relief. Players are feeling unsupported for the system, and just looking for something to do. Attention Getter. Players want to get attention from other players. Ice Breaker. Players are looking for ways to make social interaction less threatening.

Gaming Culture – The Game Economic Structure The “Real” Economy – Ebay: Buying and Selling Characters and Items Clans Gaming Communities – Strategy and Hint Sharing Social Hierarchies and Interactions Language: L337 speak, slang, abbr. (gl, gg, stfu, lol, wtf, wth, hf)L337

Gaming Culture – The Players The “Pro” Gamer – Gaming as Work, Tournaments, Leagues Fanaticism – Suicide, Homicide, Introversion

MMORPG World of Warcraft Everquest II Anarchy Online Star Wars Galaxies Matrix Online