Vol.
2, Issue 8
January 14, 1999
Down
the Pipe
Online Gamer
by
Russell "RadPipe"
Lauzon
ve
been using gamers.com recently,
and Im finding it very useful. Its a self-proclaimed
gaming portal, a search engine for everything gaming. It kind
of reminds me of Slipgate Central, a site run by one of the originals,
Joost Schur, now of GameSpy Industries.
Joost maintained a database of links to popular FPS sites and
even rated them based on content and quality. It was the first
site of its kind and was extremely useful if you were looking
for that elusive URL or just wanted to find whatever websites
existed on a topic. But enough nostalgia.
I was
kicking around gamers.com and came across a list of links to web
based java and flash games. Since Im always looking for
a diversion from work, I clicked through to check some of them
out.
Ive
been a fan of web-based games ever since I came across this
site that hosts a version of Tetris. Warning, dont
go there. Its highly addictive, especially when you start
hitting the high scores list. Anyway it was my first real clue
that web-based games could be more than just bathroom amusement.
Unfortunately, it turns out that most web-based games are little
more than bathroom amusement. Little characters running around
drinking milk and avoiding cats and vacuum cleaners is pretty
much run-of-the-mill. On the other hand, there are a few of note.
Im not going to list them here, you can find them on your
own.
Probably
the most interesting of the games I came across are the multiplayer
ones. And since youve just missed the importance of that
statement, let me open a can of worms on you. I mean, this is
what gaming community is all about, isnt it. Getting diverse
people from diverse cultures together and having fun while pitting
my Alien Queen against your Spideroid. And damn but its
addictive. The chat, the game, the personal advancement and trying
to win the top position on the high scores ladder.
Of the
sites I came across, Games
Domain had the best interface to an array of multiplayer games.
Click
here for a direct link. There were the usual chess, checkers,
even a quadlinks. You drop into a chat forum and match up with
other people looking to play. Its a fairly slick design
that lets you easily chat and play. My favorite game on the site
was Cyberwars. It pits up to 6 players together and lets
them battle it out with a selection of monsters and power ups.
The graphics are quite cheesy as far as turn-based games go, its
dang simple, but as as I say, its a highly addictive just
the same.
Its
interesting the effect that some of these multiplayer games are
having on people. My mom, of all people, is hoping online almost
every night to play Bridge. Shes heard about all the wonders
of the internet and how she can find information on almost everything
including news, movie reviews, even places where you can go and
meet and chat with wonderful people from around the world. She
plays Bridge. And she meets wonderful people from around the world.
But its multiplayer Bridge that finally got her online.
Yeah thats right, that age old card game that only old people
have the patience to play. And by god she goes on about it. She
tells me about this wonderful game called Bridge (Yeah but mom,
have you tried Quake3:Arena yet?) and that you can actually chat
with people while playing! (Yeah but mom, how many frags did you
get?) And of course, shell tell two people, and theyll
tell two people, and so on, and so on, until the whole goddamn
world is playing nothing but Bridge and going on for god knows
how long about how you can actually chat with people while you
play.
Geez where
did that come from.
Online
multiplayer gaming is going to change the world, baby. I think
the fine folks that created Unreal Tournament and Quake
III:Arena had the right idea all along. In essence, I think
human interaction is what we thirst for. And of course a way to
elevate ourselves over our fellow players and have it fixed forever
in a high scores list. But thats just human nature.