Online Gaming

by Douglas R. Bowie

What is Online Gaming and How Does it Work?

Online gaming is a collaborative, community experience. Using a personal computer (PC) from home or work, a player may join in an interactive virtual world via the Internet. These worlds contain a variety of genres, characters and objects. Interactivity with other players is the key to this experience. For example, in a medieval fantasy role playing game (RPG), teams of characters can complete quests and obtain virtual prizes before moving on to more difficult challenges with more valuable prizes. A player in a first person shooter (FPS) game can compete with or against other human players to capture a flag or base or to obtain the most number of kills (a.k.a. frags). Other types of online gaming experiences are available to satisfy a wide range of tastes.

Personal Computer central processing unit (CPU) power has grown exponentially over the past several decades as described by Moore’s law which hypothesizes that every 18 months microprocessors double in capacity (Moore 1965). This growth in technological capability has yet to match the complexity of the human mind, but software programmers still work to create beings, called Non-Player Characters (NPCs), that live in these virtual worlds with the decision making abilities and resources of human players. This being the case, the only place for players to find competitors equal to themselves is through online gaming.

High-speed Internet access has fueled the fires of online game playing. Since the late-1990s, with the growing penetration of faster Internet access, large numbers of players have been able to link up and play together on one game server. Broadband Internet access has prompted an explosion in the online gaming arena. High-speed Internet access has created an environment that allows from two to several hundred players to meet, play and interact virtually.

Online gaming requires the use of a PC or Game Console (like a Sony PlayStation), game software and a connection to the Internet. Players connect to a game server that facilitates the interactive portion of the game. The end-user’s PC or console displays the action components of the game and transmits local play decisions to the remote server.

Two different server configurations can be used to facilitate multiplayer online interactivity. In a locally hosted game, one of the player’s PCs is the server for the game. This configuration allows the person hosting the game to customize the experience for participants by changing the number and type of challenges to make playing more or less difficult or to limit or increase the number of players. (See Image 1)

Image 1: Player Hosted Server Configuration

In the second configuration a stand-alone PC is the dedicated server. This server usually has significantly faster Internet access than the player machines and can accommodate more users at a any given time than a player hosted game. Whole fleets of servers can be linked to provide a very large world for several hundred or thousand players at once, as is done with Ultima Online and EverQuest. (See Image 2)

Image 2: Dedicated Server Configuration

Online Gaming Background and Major Manufacturers

The history of modern online gaming starts in September 1997 when Electronic Arts created the pay-to-play service, Ultima Online. (Electronic Arts 2004) Ultima Online is considered by many online game players to be the father of the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). While there were several games prior to Ultima Online that allowed for network play, none of them had the vision of creating a huge virtual world for players to interact in. Connecting hundreds of players at one time, thus facilitating interaction was considered impossible as most users were still on a 56k or slower dial-up Internet connection. Ultima Online proved that players were able to play online over dial-up telecommunication line and were willing to pay for the opportunity. (See Image 3).

Image 3: MMORPG Wedding An Ultima Online Character wedding

There are now several contenders in the online gaming arena. Electronic Arts (EA) has a clear lead with run-away hits like Ultima Online, The Sims and several popular sports titles. (Kessler 2004) Ultima Online has sold 1.5 million copies and boasts an average of 100,000 players online at a time. Electronic Arts isn’t alone, Sony’s EverQuest (EQ) has earned high acclaim as a competing MMORPG with 400,000 units sold. (Kushner 2004) Sony has announced the development of EverQuest II (EQ2), which is expected to be as popular and addictive as the original.

Microsoft’s recent release of Halo 2 was heralded as the largest first-day sales of an entertainment title ever with 125 million units sold. (ign.com 2004)

The Online Gaming Solution

Online gaming began a modified version of single-player games. In the early 1990s most computer games were played against the computer with very little connection to other human players. From the human player perspective this had the drawback of making the computer opponents only as smart as the computer. While computer games such as chess play quite well with computer opponents, most fast action games like Doom and Quake have computer opponents that do not have nearly the sophistication of a human player.

The only way to make the game play more interactive and appeal to a wider audience was to facilitate human to human connections. Before Internet access was widely available, some game manufacturers began to support play with other human players on a separate computer via direct modem-to-modem connection. This allowed one player to play against another player in a different location. While not really being the community experience it is today, it began to solve the problems raised by the limitations of CPU power and software Artificial Intelligence (AI) by directly connecting players together. The wide spread use of the Internet has allowed human-vs.-human computer gaming to expand into human team vs. human team (or computer-controlled team) for a community-style experience.

Several games produced in 2004 are created for only online play. Unreal Tournament 2004 and Battlefield 1942 are examples. As the popularity of online gaming grows, software manufacturers creating successful products will need to facilitate interactive play involving other human players.

Online Gaming Connectivity

Online Gaming will soon cross over from an involving quiet computer “nerds” to a mainstream activity involving all kinds of people on all kinds of platforms. Deloitte Research Group predicts that the total number of people playing online games will be 150 million by 2010, and that it will be so main stream as to sink into the background and no longer be reserved for the computer /gaming elite. (LoPiccoio 2004) A college study published in April 2004 found that university students spend an average of 2.8 hours per week playing online computer games. (Roach 2004)
Already other media outlets have picked up on the popularity of computer games. In the same way that popular books are re-written into screen plays for movies, computer games are being translated into movies. Games like Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat have spawned a series of cinematic theatrical releases. Because of the popularity of the games Resident Evil, Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat as movies, sequels were also made.

Regulatory and Economic Issues

According to computer game industry analyst IDC, PC-based online games accounted for $450 million in revenue in 2003 and is expected to top $500 million in 2004. Comparing revenue, the game industry is bigger than the motion picture industry. (Kessler 2004) The boom in online computer game sales and online game subscription services has created a new industry.

There is some speculation that the amount of time people are spending online is becoming dangerous. CBS news reported on August 6, 2002, about the death of Shawn Wooley. A 21-year old EverQuest player, who spent twelve hours a day logged in to the virtual world. When Shawn’s mother found him at 11 a.m., he had committed suicide with a gun in front of the computer, still connected to EverQuest. (Frankel 2002)

An online survey of 2,000 EverQuest users done in 2002 revealed that the average time players spent playing was twenty hours per week. Thirty-seven percent of players stated that they felt they were addicted to EverQuest and an additional twenty-seven percent thought they were “probably” addicted. (Frankel 2002) In relation to these issues, Sony’s vice-president of Sony Online Entertainment in 2002 Scott McDanial, stated, "It's not our job to police how long people are playing in our virtual world; it's really up to the individual to make sure they are not taking it too far." Clearly more research and monitoring of these types of situations are needed to determine when and if any danger exists for consumers.

Online Gaming Case Histories

The clear leader in the MMORPG category is Electronic Arts with Ultima Online. Origins Ultima Online has 100,000 subscribers and 1.5 million units sold. (Kushner 2004) Ultima Online is the longest running MMORPG in the business starting in September 1997. The success of the product comes in part from being the first to market. Without solid marketing and continued product improvement Ultima Online would have failed long ago. One of Ultima Online’s strengths is the ability to run on older PCs. Users are not forced to update their hardware to keep up with each new generation released by manufacturers.

The Sims Online game is a disappointing story at best. The single player version of The Sims is the all-time best-selling PC game (Hamilton 2004) with 8 million units sold. (Snider 2004) In the original, the online version and now in the expanded The Sims 2, players control the lives of simulated humans onscreen attempting to keep them alive and have them flourish. (Snider 2003)

Following its success with online games like Ultima Online, Electronic Arts created The Sims Online. Electronic Arts put an estimated 30 million dollars into its development, marketing and support of The Sims Online. The company was only able to attract 80,000 users. Because of dismal sales, Electronic Arts is close to discontinuing The Sims Online service. (Hardy and Q.H. 2004)

Innovation of future products in this area will need to be more aware of what the customer perceives as entertainment and less worried about the technical feasibility of the product. Experience has shown that even the greatest single player titles may not function as an online playing experience. The current market for online computer game products has several giants in the field, Electronic Arts, Sony and Microsoft. The entire market is not controlled by these giants, however. Many smaller companies will have a future in the online gaming community.

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