MMO Games

A massively multiplayer online game, or MMO, is a game in which thousands of players can play at the same time. The majority of these games are played on a computer because they are social games and it is easier to communicate using a keyboard. One of the first MMOs to hit the computer gaming scene was Never Winter Nights. The game was developed by Strategic Simulations Inc, and supported by AOL. It ran from 1991 till it shut down in 1997. This game helped further MMO games as a genre. It lead to the creation of more successful MMO games. EverQuest came out in 1999 and was developed by Sony Online Entertainment. This game increased the popularity of MMO games. It was not made into an e-sport but set up the model that many MMOs still use today. 

 

Although there are many types of MMOs, there is one particular genre that has become immensely successful in comparison to the others, and is considered the true version of MMOs: combat simulations(McManus 2008). World of Warcraft was developed by Blizzard Entertainment in 2004. This game defined the MMO genre and took them from a niche place in the market to one of the most profitable games to make. World of Warcraft has over 10 million players and made up around 62% of the MMO market. With a game this popular it is not surprising that it has been made an e-sport as well. The Arena system in WoW is a player versus player death-match. Tournaments can be held digitally or in person at Blizzards fan convention they hold annually. At the global invitational championships of the 2010 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament, the winning team will take home the impressive sum of $75,000. The second-place team will win $30,000, and the third-place team will be awarded $15,000.

Another MMO that worked itself into an e-sport for a short time was GuildWars. GuildWars was developed by ArenaNet in 2005. ArenaNet put a lot of focus on making GuildWars a viable e-sport. They held various tournaments and even payed for players to be flown to Germany for the finals. They offered over $100,000 in prize money.

References

1. McManus. (2008). PERFORMANCE WITH A PURPOSE: MEN AND ONLINE GAMES - Commodification of MMORPGs. Retrieved from http://patrickryanmcmanus.com/web1.pdf

2.World of Warcraft. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/tournament/index.xml

3.GuildWars. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.guildwars.com/competitive/gwfc/productpage.php

FPS games

First person shooter (FPS) games made computer gaming what it is today. Before games like Doom, people thought that video games were only on the small box that you hooked up to your television. Doom was created by ID software back in 1993. Doom has been accredited with popularizing not only FPS games, but also promoting gaming on the personal computer. Doom made the way for multiplayer gaming because of its innovative networking. This game standardized the controls that gamers still use today to navigate the online world. Players use the term WASD to describe this control scheme. W moves the player forward, A left, S back, and D right.

 

Following their success with Doom, Id software released Quake. It was released in 1996. Quake like its predecessor became wildly popular which spawned a whole culture. Quake invented bunny hopping and rocket jumping which are terms still used in games today. Games like Valves Team Fortress 2 deliberately copy things like rocket jumping from Quake. Because of the games spastic movement and fast shooting, the game quickly became an e-sport. It is considered the first e-sport and in 1997 tournaments were already underway. Quake has spawned sequel which are still played in the e-sports community today.

Out of the Quake frenzy, came many other games that hoped to emulate it in order to be as successful. Unreal Tournament was created in 1999 by Epic Games. It like Quake became a major game in e-sports. Unreal Tournament has been played in the World Cyber Games starting in 2001.

Now that FPS games have been established as a staple in the e-sports community we can discuss the king of FPS games. Counter-Strike (CS) was originally a modification on a Valve game called Half-Life. The influence of the mod Counter-Strike on other (tactical) FPS games as well as its influence on entertainment industry’s decisions, are significant (Nieborg 2005). This mod became so popular that Valve hired the creators. CS is one of the most popular games still played today. CS was released in 2000 and its sequel Counter-Strike Source was released in 2004. Many gamers argue whether CS or CS:S is better. Both are played at a competitive e-sports level today.

References

Nieborg, David. (2005). Am I Mod or Not? Ultrecht University, Netherlands.

Fighting Games

In the 1987 one of the first fighting games 'Heavyweight Champs' was released by Sega. You played a boxer named 'Kid Crusher' as you fought against AI to become the world heavyweight champion. These early types of fighting games included titles like Karate Champ, Super Punchout, and the many WWE games. Most of these games placed the player against AI controlled fighters. That said, it is a common complaint of gamers that the game AI behaves either in boring ways or is too strong or too weak to provide interesting and entertaining game play (Graepel, Herbrich, & Gold, 2004). This sentiment is the reason newer games such as 'Street Fighter' became the ultimate in e-sports fighting games.

As arcades grew in popularity so did fighting games. But now players wanted to fight each other not the AI. In 1992 'Mortal Kombat' hit the arcade scene. The game was a huge hit. Players had the chance to master more moves than just kick or punch. Secret combos that let your character unleash super moves as finishers caught many peoples attention. Also the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) was created as a response to 'Mortal Kombat'. The games single player allowed you to fight a series of AI that grew in difficulty but the real attraction was the player versus player combat.

Street Fighter is the mainstay of e-sports fighting games. Street Fighter hit it big in it sequel Street Fighter II. This game had blocking, throwing, as well as different combos such as the famous Hadoken. The second game was more noticed by competitive gamers because, in SD I, competitive play was a built in bonus. For II, players turned head-to-head combat into the primary game mode (Rus McLaughlin 2009).

With the newest release of Street Fighter IV, this genre is still thriving in the e-sports community. Many other fighter games are played as well. The Marvel vs Capcom series, Tekken, Super Smash, and Mortal Kombat are still going strong. But Street Fighter is still the most dominant in the e-sports community. 

 

References

Graepel, Herbrich, Gold. (2004). Learning To Fight. Cambridge, UK: Microsoft Research Ltd.

McLaughlin, R. (2009). IGN Presents the History of Street Fighter. Retrieved from http://retro.ign.com/articles/954/954426p1.html