Online Games

Context

Online games are games played over some form of computer network. It directly implies that online gaming is a direct application of the Internet or equivalent technology. But games have always used whatever technology was existent at that point of time; for instance, modems before the Internet and hard wired terminals before modems. 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.

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.
This revolution paved the way for sites that offer games to web surfers. Some online multiplayer games like World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI and Lineage II charge a monthly fee to subscribe to their services, while games such as Guild Wars offer an alternative no monthly fee scheme.
Many other sites relied on advertising revenues from on-site sponsors, while others, like RuneScape, or Tibia let people play for free while leaving the players the option of paying, unlocking new content for the members.

After the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, many sites solely relying on advertising revenue dollars faced extreme adversity. Despite the decreasing profitability of online gaming websites, 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.

The term online gaming in many circles is being strictly defined to describe games that do not involve wagering, although many still use the term online gaming synonymously with online gambling. Online games that do not involve wagering, however online gambling does.

One advantage of online games is the ability to connect to multiplayer games, although single-player online games are quite common as well.

Types of Online Games

First-person shooter games

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, many first-person shooter games contain online components to allow deathmatch or arena style play.

Real-time strategy games- RTS

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 or lobbies were formed where people could meet in so called game rooms. An example was the MSN Gaming Zone where online game communities were formed by active players for games, such as Age of Empires and Microsoft Ants.

Cross-platform online play

As consoles are becoming more like computers, online gameplay is expanding. Once online games started crowding the market, open source networks, such as the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Xbox took advantage of online functionality with its PC game counterpart. Games such as Phantasy Star Online have private servers that function on multiple consoles. Dreamcast, PC, Macintosh and GameCube players are able to share one server. Earlier games, like 4x4 Evolution, Quake III and Need for Speed: Underground also have a similar function with consoles able to interact with PC users using the same server. Usually, a company like Electronic Arts or Sega runs the servers until it becomes inactive, in which private servers with their own DNS number can function. This form of open source networking has a small advantage over the new generation of Sony and Microsoft consoles which customize their servers to the consumer.

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, ASP, PHP and MySQL). More complicated games such as Legend of Empires or AQ worlds 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. More recent browser-based games use web technologies like Ajax to make more complicated multiplayer interactions possible.More recent browser-based games use web technologies like Ajax to make more complicated multiplayer interactions possible.

Simulation

Is a way to create real world situations to better train someone before they attempt the real action.

MUDs

MUDs are a class of multi-user real-time virtual worlds, usually but not exclusively text-based, with a history extending back to the creation of MUD1 by Richard Bartle in 1978. MUDs were the direct predecessors of MMORPGs.

Massively multiplayer online games (MMOG)
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)
MMOSG (Massively multiplayer online social game)

Online game governance
Popular online games are commonly bound by an End User License Agreement (EULA). The consequences of breaking the agreement vary according to the contract; ranging from warnings to termination, such as in the 3D immersive world Second Life where a breach of contract will append the player warnings, suspension and termination depending on the offense. Enforcing the EULA is difficult, due to high economic costs of human intervention and low returns back to the firm. Only in large scale games is it profitable for the firm to enforce its EULA.

Edward Castronova writes that "there are issues of ownership and governance that wrinkle the affairs of state significantly". He has divided the online governance into "good governance" and "strange governance". Castronova also mentions that synthetic worlds are good ways to test for government and management.

Rollings, Andrew; Ernest Adams (2006). Fundamentals of Game Design. Prentice Hall. http://wps.prenhall.com/bp_gamedev_1/54/14053/3597646.cw/index.html.

Indian Games

In early India, games and sports were very much concerned about the development of the physique and for the art of offence and defence. Also games were considered a kind of recreation, which played a vital role in the development of a man's personality.
In the area of recreation and sports India has been the place of evolution for a number of games. Surprisingly many of the games like, Chess, Snakes and Ladders, Playing Cards, Polo, the martial arts of Judo and Karate had originated as a sport in India and it was from here that these games were transmitted to foreign countries, where they were further modernized. Some of the traditional Indian games are:
Kabbadi Kho Kho
Mallakhamb Ludo
Pachisi

Many of these and other Indian games have a great deal of potential in becoming successful online games.

Indian Games with online Potential

Ludo

In 1896, a westernised version of Pachisi was published in England under the name Ludo (Latin for "I play"), a game which has been popular in that country ever since. The game however, is a highly simplistic version of Pachisi for children. The author has evidence that shows that a game called "Puchese" was published at the much earlier date of 11 April 1862 in England.

There is another less well-known descendent of Ludo called Uckers. The OED's earliest reference to this game sums it up well: "1946 J. Irving Royal Navalese 180 Uckers. A game very similar to Ludo, and played on a large board by teams of three or four men. "
In fact, Uckers is a grown-up version of Ludo played with 2 dice instead of just one. This reverts it to being much closer to it's ancestor Pachisi and the decisions as to which piece to move for each die bear comparison with Backgammon, too.

Snakes & Ladders

Snakes and ladders, or chutes and ladders, is a classic children's board game.[1] It is played between 2 or more players on a playing board with numbered grid squares. On certain squares on the grid are drawn a number of "ladders" connecting two squares together, and a number of "snakes" or "chutes" also connecting squares together. The size of the grid (most commonly 8×8, 10×10 or 12×12) varies from board to board, as does the exact arrangement of the chutes and the ladders: both of these may affect the duration of game play. As a result, the game can be represented as a state absorbing Markov chain.

Snakes and Ladders originated in India as a game based on morality called Vaikuntapaali or Paramapada Sopanam (the ladder to salvation). This game made its way to England, and was eventually introduced in the United States of America by game pioneer Milton Bradley in 1943.

Ali Guli Mane

Ali Guli Mane is an abstract strategy board game of the mancala family, from Karnataka in South India. The name of the game, like that of many mancala games across the world, is simply a description of the board used: it means a "wooden block with holes". It is similar (or identical?) to Pallanguzhi from the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. There are also similarities with the traditional Indonesian mancala game Congkak.

Ali Guli Mane is often played as the Congkak, following the first game with new matches handicapped. The players arrange in their own part the seeds that they have captured. The player who has won more seeds, having an excess (more than 35), can fill his or her holes with 5 seeds each, holding aside the additional seeds as "already captured". The other player fills as many holes with 5 seeds as possible, holding as "already captured" any remaining seeds not sufficient to fill a hole (i.e., up to 4). All holes left empty will be marked in some way to remember that they are "protected" holes, and they will not be used in the new game.