IntroductionMUDs vs. Online Video GamesPopular Online GamesAttractionGaming is inherently social and playing games has been closely linked with building relationships and social hierarchies throughout history. Not only are games social activities, but many times the game itself is secondary to the social experience. The introduction of video games took away from this social aspect of playing games. Despite this absence of what has historically been an essential component in games, video games have become extremely popular with the children of the 80's and 90's. Video games are now a permanent fixture in our culture, redefining the process by which children mature and develop. Over the past few years, the big news for video games has been the Internet, for it has allowed video games to return to their social roots via multi-player gaming.
MUDs vs. Online Video Games Multi-player gaming is not something foreign to the Internet. It has been around for quite awhile either in the form of MUDs or other games such as online chess. MUDs have received considerable attention in research, mainly focusing on identity and community issues and how it is a form of social communication. Although MUDs and online video games both share several similarities, they differ tremendously in how the online experience is carried out. While MUDs focus more upon text-based communication and are more attractive to adults, online video games revolve around a graphical environment in which communication is not a participatory factor during the game play and are focused toward a much younger audience. Furthermore, MUD dialogue takes a bit of imagination and almost no computer power. The action games, on the other hand, are “quite different with their vivid, noisy battle scenes (The Enquirer 1997).” Therefore, few direct parallels can be drawn between the two and much research needs yet to be done to determine the possible implications of this new social medium of online gaming.Although MUDs will continue to survive, there has recently been and continues to be a changing of the guard on the form online games that are being played; from MUDs to online video games. In 1997, adults represented 77 percent of the people who played games online (mainly MUDs.) By 2002, these adults are expected to account for only 25 percent, with children and teenagers under age 18 making up over 60 percent of the online gaming market (Oring 1998). Without looking into the positive implications of online gaming, this rising percentage could be alarming and fearful, for it presents a picture that children will be spending more time in front of a computer, limiting the amount of face-to-face interaction that these children experience. However, as will be presented the opposite is true, an increase in online gaming will bring with it more positive outcomes than negative. Instead of losing social skills, these Internet gamers are actually developing these skills at an earlier age than their parents’ generation. This new generation has a “new medium to reach out beyond their immediate world, to experience and to engage in play, learning, and overall social intercourse (Tapscott 107).” Popular Online Games Some of the more popular online games are Doom, Quake, Command and Conquer, and Warcraft II. Doom (1993) was the first true hit among online games and has been labeled as the “godfather” of online games. What particularly made Doom a big hit was its “deathmatch” mode which allowed up to four people to play against each other or team up against the monsters. The real breakthrough game was Quake, the next big hit, enabling competition over the Internet for up to 16 players at a time. After the release of Quake (1996), thousands of computer game teams (clans) began forming, creating their own Web sites, staging tournaments and giving themselves unique identities. Clearly, online gaming has made its mark as a feature of the Internet that is here to stay.
Attraction
The lure of multi-player gaming has been interacting with real people, not artificial intelligence. Live opponents made gaming much more unpredictable and much more enjoyable. Originally, however, the online gaming audience consisted solely of die-hard players who were willing to put up with difficult installation and expensive fees. But now, because of the growing popularity of the Internet, the above difficulties have been disintegrating. Not only are potential game players connected to the Internet in large and rapidly growing numbers, but their composition is much more diverse and many new gaming possibilities have been created that were not available with non-Internet games.