Online Gaming with Technologies

Written by Kun Ma, 09058311

Introduction

Since the appearance and the development of personal computers and Internet, surfing the Internet has become a great activity to public, and more and more turned into an important leisure way. Till June in 2012, 2,336 million people were using the Internet which represented one third of the world population. It had brought a shock while in 1995, only 16 million people could access the Internet. People communicate on the Internet. Sometimes they have clear tasks in reading news or promoting products, sometimes they just aimlessly search interesting stuffs for fun and relax. Online gaming has come into our eyes in such an unsurprising way.

1^st generation

The first generation of online games were created between 1969 and 1977. Because there was no unified technology standard for the computer hardwares and softwares, the platform, the operating system and the language of online games at that time were totally different. They were more like experiments and were operated on the mainframe of universities, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Virginia and University of Essex.

The characteristic of those first generation games is their non-durable. Related information would be lost after the restart of computers, so it was not possible to simulate a continuous world. In addition, games had to be operated within the internal server or terminal system, not for cross-systems. In those years, various online games were designed and supported on PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) with features of sharing disks, standard terminals, high ability of image processing and central processing. The first online game SpaceWar could be pursued till 1969. It would be interesting to know that year 1969 is also the birth of ARPA net (Advance Research Projects Agency Network). Its success directly resulted in the birth of TCP/IP.

Space War

2^nd generation

Between 1978 and 1995, some professional game developers and publishers had participated into online games which released the first group of products with common significance. The so-called second generation products came with the idea of durability. Players could develop their roles in the game day by day. Only they needed was the personal computer with the compatible hardware and the modem, they were able to link with any online games.

Roy Trubshaw from University of Essex wrote the first MUD game; till the end of 1983, the source code of MUD was spread so rapidly through the world and was even rewritten into new versions. The original  system has become the one with the longest operating time since it has still been used today .

3^rd generation

Time past to 1996, an industry environment with a large scale and clear divided tasks has been founded finally. The idea of MMOG has surfaced. Online games would not rely on the single server and platform anymore. It links with Internet in a direct way and builds a unified market on a global scale.

In the first place, it was real-time strategy games on the Internet during 1990s. It was developed for players operate over a modem through telephone lines or local network. Later on, these RTS game players were allowed to play with people across the globe by the support from the real Internet service used till today. A well-known example is MSN Gaming Zone. As a sub program of Windows Live Messenger, it provides the option of sending games invitation to MSN users with their friends in the dialog box. Once users login the web page of MSN games, they can also enter a game that would automatically match other users for them to play together. Chinese most popular instant chatting tool QQ has adopted the similar idea to create a game hall with hundreds of game rooms. They even added a chatting board next to the game screen so players can freely talk with each other during the game or leave the contact information; because in this time, they are able to choose any of the game rooms as they hope and players they want to play with. It is worth noting that every player enters the game room with a sparkling character showed on the screen which means that Flash animation has also been widely used in the online games.

QQ Game Hall

Flash animation for the Flash games has played in an essential role in Internet nowadays. Flash games are quite acceptable for the reasons of easy-handled, green, uninstalled, small size and so on. Their designers aim to create some small but funny enough games; though previously many of those games were copied from some classic video games, such as Tetris, Pacxon and Super Mario World. At present, Flash games have earned its own place where Crimson Room is amazingly spread to the world by Internet. The strengths of them are resulted from the use of vector graphics.

On the other hand, Flash games are written and controlled under ActionScript which accompanies with the technology of TimeLine and MC nestification. Therefore, all of them are equipped with the feature of the cross-platform. That is to say, no matter what kind of platforms players stand, the final display results would always be the same, only Flash Player needed. Mobile phone users of Symbian OS and Windows mobile OS who are benefit from Flash software portability, moreover, have the chance of designing own functions for the phone. Flash has represented a developing web medium with the strong interactive technology, and has gained a rapid growth though it has been developed for the research on interactive components long time ago. One of reasons which could explain the success of Flash games is the popularization of Flash technology. Now it has supported IE browser, Firefox, Opera, Safari and so on, for both computer users and mobile phone users.

Crimson Room

Two online games above are classified into browser games, or they can be called Web games. The biggest characteristic is they are based on the browser without any clients. In last 90s, programmers had tried to write web pages with HTML and failed because the poor knowledge of interactive technology. Every interaction between players and the game would always lead the browser refresh itself. Under the push of Internet bubble economy, a lot of large-scaled Web games have appeared. In China, they were named not as the game but the virtual community at the beginning. Living in the virtual community, players were able to practice levels, do the part-time job, feed pets, build a home, etc. Thousands of players had kept waiting in front of their computer screen for those virtual data which brought page views went crazy.

Virtual Community: Mole's World

However, what had increased more quickly than page views was the burdening pressure of the server. With the ruin of Internet bubble economy, virtual communities got hurt from the decreasing page views. Many of them died with low level on the quality and management.

Things began turning or recovering since Japanese company Net Game exported their Web games to China from 2001. Their games have used Perl technology and the data storing way of DBM. It makes the game become easier to play, only the battle and some simple system setup are left. Besides, the program is not difficult to master and more functions are added gradually. At this moment, Web games are gained the attention from many websites and companies. After the technology problem is solved, advantages of no download and no installment are again reflected; players login the web page, then play games. It makes a revolution of online games from the first step on the participation way. What is more, one of the biggest target group of Web games is young officers who are under the working pressure, and have few time and energy to play but luckily with much more money to pay for the games. There is more broad space of obtaining benefits than traditional online games.

Some criticize that Web games probably draws a circle to its own development since there are no downloads. In this field, the market of the client mode has been mature, their own market is continuously encroached on by SNS community games. Few enterprises presented Web games with new ways of playing and display results. But, this turns all the burden of a client to the server terminal has made uncountable difficulties and cost. The future of Web games seem like not bright.

Compared with the easy-handled and tiny Web games, there is another kind of online games which is based on the client. In the field of online games, players as the client could require services from the game provider as the server by HTTP communication protocol. Once the server received the request, the required web data would send back as a response. Through the game client, players could not only link with the server to play games, but also update the game program to the newest version. Client games are comparatively have a better game experience than others because all graphics and music are stored already in players' computers without loading.

Most popular client game in China: Legend of the Swordman III

People started to think about the designing way and running method for online gaming business during the period. They hope to generalize a systematic fundamentation which is lacked for a long time. Under this situation, the flat rate system has been accepted widely and has become the mainstream on the charge mode. It leads online games into the public market.

4^th generation till now

With the transition of Internet age and changing demands from net citizens, online games have come against the illegal plug-in programs. It is quite common now which many game companies both create and operate online games by themselves to obtain as more benefits as possible. Related commercial products such as the music and toys are developed to grab players.

In order to attract players, visual experiences are emphasized in client games more and more. 3D technology is borrowed to online gaming industry. Editors concerning the scene, the model and the animation often provided in 3D game engine which improve the working efficiency for game designers.

As mentioned before, the trend in recent years, not for online games only, has been occurred on the cross-platform. It focuses on the adaptability of digital virtual stuffs among different operating systems. For example, players are allowed to choose to play Web games from Facebook in IE browser, Google Chrome or Firefox. Displayed graphics and music are shown well under all the browsers. They could also download a client on mobile phones to play online games if it is provided. Once players turn off online games on computers, they could shift to phones to continue. The server is communicating. The more ways of linking with players exist, the more benefits are gained.

QQ Game Hall on Phone Client

Possible change in the future

For the potential road of online games, one possible change could be made. The feedback session is not strong enough for such a digital stuff. Except for related game designers and normal advertising workers, one more job the field promotion has come with in last several years in China. Their job concerns the information collection and regular visits on Internet bars. Amounts of computers and the IP address are both included. Regular visits are set to build the customer emotional relationship so that they can post game posters and convince Internet bars to install their new games. It is quite critical that online games do not receive feedback online. It would be better for game companies to notice this problem and conduct an effective system to collect all the information digitally.

Conclusion

Online games as one part in people’s digital life have walked through nearly 50 years. From the primary accessory for fun and interest among universities, it has gradually grown up to a significant business with potential. It is created to fulfill needs, relax bodies and spend the free time with the supported technologies. As a business, online games are thought more about the investment and the return. Players in the role of customers have specific requirements on the character setting, the story line, the graphics, the background music. With changing demands of online game players, technologies have to be updated quickly. Relatively, new technologies would guide new format of online games. The editing platform, the editing softwares and the editing language are improved as a basis for a better performance of online games. Therefore, online games are able to display in various ways. In the near future, the increasing market share of mobile phones would make the platform of phones be the new cake for game companies to scramble for. Online games are going forward under the technology focus and the effective feedback.