Wow, with the spread of broadband connections, the online
gaming community has grown by leaps and bounds. While we still
play the standard board games like Scrabble, Monopoly, Risk, Stock
Market and the like, we have also started playing many RPG and FPS
games on-line.Our on-line games consist of some of the
following:
Battlefield 1942, Medal of Honor, Unreal Tournament 2004, Call
of Duty, Call of Duty - United Offensive, Call of Duty 2,
NeverWinter Nights, NeverWinter Nights 2, Half-Life, Half-Life 2 along with MODS for all of the above
and many more.
We spend a lot of time in the late evenings playing on-line
games as a way to wind down from a busy hectic day. I
currently participate with a Clan called
~CTR~.
A clan consists of people who play together and with the diversification of
the internet, members can be located around the world. We have a
dedicated server for practice and matches. We try and have
practice on Thursday evenings, but since we all
work for a living, we don't always make them. We have
matches fairly often (4v4 team death match - Call of Duty 2).
We enjoy winning, but we also enjoy playing together for fun.
Some clans are sponsored and play professionally for money.
We occasionally have local LAN parties. For those who do not know what a LAN Party is, It is an
organized event held at a local establishment or location with
enough room and power to support anywhere from 50 to 500 computers
all in one big room and playing nothing but on-line games like
those mentioned above. If the event is well organized like Stompfest here is in Indianapolis, the event will have multiple
sponsors and will also have some very nice prizes to give away for
gaming contests as well as for door prizes. Some of these
'LAN Parties' are held in the basement of someone's home where
we have anywhere from 6-12 players, eating, playing and having a
fragging good time until the wee hours of the morning.
Having grown up during the beginning of paper RPG games
(Dungeons & Dragons) but never having played, we have started a
D&D group to force us to use our minds one day a week. Early on
the churches were totally against D&D and other games of the same
genre, and in their way, maybe rightly so. What I see happening
more then anything is interactive discussion, co-operation, and
meaningful decisions on how to handle the task at hand. This in
some ways mirrors the corporate world when decisions have to be
made which not only affect the individual but also the entire
company. All in all any game can be so time consuming to such a
point it will still away from other important values, but each
individual will have to determine where the borderline is between
real life and make believe and then never cross the line.
