Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Online: Feat. Call of Duty

One great example of a multiplayer game series that I must have in this series of blogs is my personal favorite, is Call of Duty. Call of Duty uses the basic multiplayer setup. With multiple players in one room theres split screen mode. There are up to 4 players, and online games can go up to 18 players. This multiplayer shooter was revolutionary to the gaming world. "COD" became the one of the best selling game's of all time.

In multiplayer shooters, players either fight in free for all's or in team based games. In the past players would sit around one TV and play in split screen battles. Now you'll find most people with their own TV's playing online with each other. The impact of Online was huge for multi-playing games. Online, players can add friends and play together as teams to become the best in the world. Stats are maintained in an online database, where players can go to keep up with how they rank against others in the world. Nowadays if you aren't playing campaign mode, your most likely going to be online, competing with or against friends.

Ive found that the most memorable times I've had playing video games were with friends. Sometimes around one TV, but that can't compare to the countless hours of time I put into playing online with those same friends and also strangers. Ive maintained an online friendship with multiple people over video games, mainly Call of Duty. Ive found myself in racial debates online and funny conversations. Not only does online gaming connect players to play a game, but its a social platform. In Call of Duty players talk to one another to win. In serious competitive battle, without communication your team will be less effective in what it can achieve.

Online completely changed the landscape of video gaming, similar to what its done to the world. Its created a powerful connected world between gamers, and made multiplayer gaming loads better. Now there's always the negatives like paying for every little thing through DLC's, but thats another story. For the gaming world, it couldn't continue to grow without multiplayer online.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Multiplayer Gaming: Premise

In the many years of gaming, multiplayer and single player gaming has almost split into 2 completely different areas. Game developers nowadays either create a single player game, multiplayer, or take the time to create both. It is not known exactly which game was the first multiplayer game created. An early example of a multiplayer game that can be used is Pong. Whoever lasts the longest hitting the pong ball back and forth wins. Pong simply set up a way for 2 people to compete with each other, which is the basis of what multiplayer gaming is.

Fast forward from the what i'll call the "pre-historic gaming era," into the 90's, where gaming systems became huge compared to arcade games. Multiplayer games began to expand into a bevy of different areas. People not only competed against each other, but began to play together as teams. Systems from Playstation, Nintendo, and Sega would each create multiplayer games that would change the way gamers play forever. Improved graphics and faster processors allow gamers to experience games in a way never seen before. 3D gaming has allowed players to put themselves inside a game world. A great example of a revolutionary multiplayer game is 007 Golden Eye. I remember as a child playing 007 multiplayer. (Yes it was T for teens and I was about 5 or 6 when I played, but this was the 90's.) In Golden Eye, split screen mode was huge, the use of split screen would become major for multiplayer gaming. In the coming weeks, this blog will entail examples of some games that revolutionized the multiplayer world and also explain the impact of certain features in games that have expanded and bettered the multiplayer gaming experience.