Paul Brislen: There's much more to gaming than knocking down aliens

COMMENT

Word processors haven't changed that much in five years. The same can be said for web browsers or spreadsheet software, so why do we keep upgrading our PCs?

The answer's simple: games. Nothing drives uptake of hardware like a rip-snorting new game, and there's a lot of talk about how online games will also drive demand for broadband connections.

Some estimates put the computer game industry ahead of the music industry worldwide and it's starting to be taken seriously as a business. Games are developed as tie-in merchandising with movies, with TV series, as part of marketing just about any sporting event.

However, it's the online games market which is stirring up most discussion. Games traditionally have been stand-alone, single player efforts that pit users against the hardware. The only real challenge has been downloading the occasional expansion pack.

That all changed several years ago when the Doom series of games was launched, quickly followed by Quake, Duke Nukem and the rest of the so-called "first-person shooters". Many included multi-player options allowing users to duke it out against other human players in a number of scenarios like "capture the flag" or the perennial favourite "kill anything that moves" mode of play.

That changed with the arrival of Half Life, a first-person shooter with a difference: it had a plot.

Half Life put the player in the shoes of a mild-mannered scientist caught in the middle of an accidental dimensional rift and pitted him against aliens, marines, security guards and assassins of all kinds. The game was a runaway success among players and critics alike, but what happened next turned the industry on its head.

The creators of Half Life allowed players to create their own maps to continue playing the multi-player version of the game in new environments. They also allowed the players to freely download a developer's kit that let them create their own modifications of the game. One of these mods, as they're known, became a hit in its own right - CounterStrike forced players to work together in groups to achieve several goals and became a sensation among game players worldwide.

Sales of Half Life increased long after they were supposed to decline as players sought out the original game so they could play the free mod version.

Other game manufacturers followed suit in releasing developer's kits and the online game world has changed dramatically. Half Life II will hopefully be out in time for Christmas but already it faces stiff competition from other wildly successful games, like the recently released Doom III, which sold 8000 copies in New Zealand in less than six months. A stand-alone version of CounterStrike will also be released in New Zealand, probably before Christmas.

Online games aren't restricted to PCs, however. Sony's Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox consoles both allow players to pit their skills and wits against other console players locally and world wide.

Telecom's move to increase the basic speed of its broadband connection to 256 kbps (kilobits per second) means more players are able to use their consoles online.

And if first-person shooters leave you cold, there are plenty of alternatives. Massively multiple online role-playing games (MMORPGs in the trade) allow thousands of players to adopt online identities and meet and interact with one another. EverQuest or Asheron's Call attract millions of players each month, each paying a fee to participate.

Dozens more online communities are springing up as different games are launched. EverQuest II is testing at the moment, Microsoft is about to launch Halo II, the sequel to its Xbox launching game, and Ultima Online goes from strength to strength.

Of course, to play some of the newer games you'll need a new graphics card, a larger hard drive, some more RAM and a faster chipset. Why not go for a DVD burner as well, maybe a flat screen monitor and some of those nice new surround-sound speakers. Christmas lists should be started at once.

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