What is an online game?

At GDC 2002 (Game Developers Conference) in May this year, there was a seminar on online games. Participants include popular online games such as Genesis Online, Endless Mission, The Dark Age of King Arthur, Paradise, The Sims Online and Star Wars: Galaxies, as well as project leaders of online platforms such as Xbox Live. The theme of the seminar is "Building the Third Generation, Online Persistent World" (creating the third generation online games).

What is the third generation of online games? How are the first two generations of online games defined respectively? What is the definition standard between the three generations of online games? This seminar didn't give us a clear answer.

The general view is that Ultima Online is regarded as the founder of online games, and online games with 2D images or mixed 2D/3D images are collectively referred to as "first generation online games", and all 3D masterpieces such as EverQuest and W.Y.D to be launched in China are regarded as "second generation online games". The definition of "third-generation online games" is still inconclusive, but from the development trend since this year, it can be seen that the third-generation online games are more inclined to get rid of the traditional standards used to measure stand-alone games, such as audio-visual, operability and gameplay, and even get rid of the word "game" and position themselves in the virtual community. In other words, the essence of the third-generation online game lies in its social system, and the role played by the game designer is actually more of a community designer than a game designer. The third generation of online games has no unified model in specific expression techniques. For example, Sims Online emphasizes the virtual social experience, while Majestic emphasizes the diversity of interaction methods.

However, the shortcomings of this division are also obvious. First, there is no uniform standard. The first two generations take the game screen as the boundary, and the last two generations take the game content as the boundary. Second, the standards used are not exclusive, and it is of little practical significance to divide online games according to the pictures. If divided by content, no one can publish Genesis on the Internet yet. In fact, if we look farther, we will find that we have been wandering on the same level since the genesis on the Internet, or more accurately, Meridian 59 published in 1996, and it is inevitable to artificially divide this short six years into three generations.

More importantly, this division completely ignores the pioneers who have contributed to the popularization and development of online games, as if the whole online game industry suddenly jumped out in the summer of 1997. Undoubtedly, the success of Genesis on the Internet is an important watershed in the development history of online games, but we can't ignore what happened before. The qualitative change of anything needs to go through a long process of quantitative change.

The first generation of online games: 1969 to 1977.

BACKGROUND: Because there was no unified technical standard for computer software and hardware at that time, the platforms, operating systems and languages of the first generation of online games were different. Most of them are experiments, running on the mainframes of institutions of higher learning such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Virginia, and University of Essex.

Game features: 1, unsustainable, the relevant information of the game will be lost after restarting the machine, and it is impossible to simulate a sustainable world; 2. The game can only be executed in the same server/terminal system, and cannot be run across systems.

Business model: free.

The first real online game can be traced back to 1969, when Rick Bromi wrote a game called SpaceWar for Plato (programming logic of automatic teaching operation) system. The game is based on the first computer game "Space Wars", which was born in MIT eight years ago. The difference is that it can support two people to connect remotely. Plato is the oldest and most famous distance education system in history. It was developed by the University of Illinois in Urban, Illinois, USA in the late 1960s. Its main function is to provide high-quality distance education for students with different education levels. It has a huge course library, which can provide hundreds of courses at the same time and record each course. Plato is also the first time-sharing system, which runs on a mainframe instead of a microcomputer, so it has stronger processing and storage capabilities, greatly increasing the number of people who can support online at the same time. In 1972, Plato's simultaneous online number has reached more than 1000.

In those years, various types of games appeared on Plato's platform, a small part of which were stand-alone games for students to entertain themselves, and the most popular one was online games that could be played between multiple remote terminals. These online games are the embryonic form of online games. Although the game is only a subsidiary function of Plato, Plato can well support the operation of online games because of its * * * shared memory area, standardized terminal, high-end image processing ability, central processing ability and quick response ability, so in the following years, Plato became a hotbed of early online games.

The most popular games on Plato's system are Avatar and Empire. The former is an online game based on Dungeons and Dragons, and the latter is an online game based on Star Trek. Most of these games are written by programmers in their spare time and released for free. They just want their games to be recognized by everyone. Of course, there are also some developers who make money through their own games, but usually only a few cents per hour, and they have to be distributed among several authors.

Plato didn't get the honor and position he deserved in the game circle, but this can't erase his contribution to online games and the whole game industry. Many games on Plato have been adapted into future console games and PC games. For example, the author of Air Combat developed a flight simulator on the basis of the original game. In the early 1980s, this game was acquired by Microsoft and renamed Microsoft Flight Simulator, which became the best-selling flight simulation game series. Empire, 1974, is the first game that allows 32 people to be online at the same time. This online game mode has become the standard mode of modern real-time strategy games. Oubliette, published in 1975, is a dungeon game, from which the famous role-playing game "Wizard Series" originated.

Interestingly, 1969 is also the year when ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) was born. As we all know, ARPAnet is the world's first packet-switched network developed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the US Department of Defense, and its success directly contributed to the birth of Internet and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP/IP).

Second and second generation online games: 1978 rpm 1995

Background: Some professional game developers and publishers began to set foot in online games, such as Activision, Interplay, Sierra Online, Stormfront Studios, Virgin Interactive, SSI and TSR. It was at this stage that they tentatively entered this emerging industry and cooperated with operators such as GEnie, Prodigy, AOL and CompuServe to launch the first batch of online games with universal significance.

Game features: 1. The concept of "sustainability" has appeared in online games, and the role played by players can last for several years in the same world, unlike Plato's games, which can only play a passerby. 2. The game can run across systems. As long as the player has a computer and a modem and the hardware is compatible, he can connect to any online game at that time.

Business model: The rapid expansion of the online game market stimulated the development of the online service industry, and online games began to enter the charging era. Many consumers are willing to pay high fees to play online games. From the hourly 12 of "Cashmere Island" to the hourly $6 of "Elf", the mainstream charging method of the second-generation online games is hourly charging. Although there has been a special case of monthly fee, it has not formed a climate.

1978, in the University of Essex, England, Roy Trubshaw wrote the world's first MUD game-Mud1with DEC- 10. This is a multi-person world with pure words, with 20 interconnected rooms and 10 instructions. After logging in, users can interact through the database.

After leaving the University of Essex, Trubshaw handed over the maintenance of MUD 1 to Richard Bater. Bater continues to improve the game by using-"muddl-a special language developed by Trubshaw. He increased the number of rooms to 400, further improved the database and chat system, added more tasks, and made a scoring program for each player.

After 1980 connected to ARPAnet, the number of players from abroad increased greatly, which swallowed up a lot of system resources. The university had to limit the login time of users to reduce the load of DEC- 10. In the early 1980s, Bater made a clean break of the source code of MUD 1 for the reference of colleagues and researchers in other universities, and this source code was circulated. By the end of 1983, hundreds of illegal copies had appeared on ARPAnet, and MUD 1 quickly spread all over the world, and many new versions appeared. Today, this oldest MUD system has been authorized to CompuServe, one of the largest online information service organizations in the United States, and it has been renamed as "British Legend", and it is still running today, becoming the longest running MUD system.

MUD 1 is the first real-time multiplayer interactive online game, which can ensure the sustainable development of the whole virtual world. Although this system will be restarted several times every day, the scenes, monsters and puzzles in the game will remain unchanged after the restart, which makes the role played by players can continue to develop. Another important feature of MUD 1 is that it can run on any PDP- 10 computer in the world, not limited to the internal system of the University of Essex.

1982, john tyler and kelton Flynn formed Casmai Company, which left many memorable works in the development history of online games. Kesmai's first contract was signed with CompuServe. At that time, john tyler saw an advertisement called "MegaWars" played by CompuServe-"If you can write such a game, you can get a monthly tax of $30,000", so he sent a handbook of "The Island of Kesmai" developed with kelton Flynn. Camay Island runs on UNIX system, while CompuServe uses DEC-20 computer, so Camay Company redevelops a DEC-20 version for CompuServe. This game has been in operation for about 13 years, and it was officially charged in 1984. The charging standard is $0/2 per hour/kloc. In the same year, MUD 1 also launched its first commercial version on Compunet in the UK.

1984, Mark Jacobs founded AUSI Company (the predecessor of Mythic Entertainment Company, the developer of King Arthur's Dark Age) and launched the game Aradath. Jacobs built a server platform at home and installed eight telephone lines to run this role-playing game. The charging standard of the game is 40 dollars per month, which is the first online game in the history of online games to adopt a monthly subscription system. Monthly subscription system is conducive to accelerating the popularization of online games and will play an important role in the popularization of online games. Unfortunately, the monthly subscription system did not have the conditions for growth at that time. In 1990, AUSI set the price of Longmen at $20 per hour. Although this ratio is surprising, some people are still willing to spend more than 2000 dollars a month to play this game. Therefore, the monthly subscription system did not attract people's attention in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 1985, Bill Lohden persuaded the Information Service Department of General Electric Company (GE) to invest and establish a commercial network service platform based on ASCII text similar to CompuServe, which was called Genie (GE Network for Information Exchange). GEnie was officially listed on June 5438+ 10, and its low charging standard caused great repercussions among users, which also made CompuServe, who has always had a strong sense of superiority, feel the pressure of competition. GEnie system actually uses the server of GE Information Service Department to provide services to users in the free time at night, so the charge is very low, and the price at night is about 6 dollars per hour, almost half that of CompuServe.

In June of the same year, 5438+065438+ 10, Quantum Computer Services (the predecessor of AOL) quietly launched the QuantumLink platform, which is a graphic network platform specially designed for Comandore 64/ 128 gamers, and the rate is only $9.95 per month. This charging standard can be said to be an important milestone in the development history of online games. However, because the Commandore 64/ 128 game machine had entered a recession at that time, this revolutionary charging standard, like Jacobs' "family workshop", failed to attract people's attention, otherwise the revolution of online games would probably come ahead of time.

In any case, the involvement of more operators has intensified the competition in the network service industry, and the rate reduction has become an inevitable trend. The online game industry in the United States at this stage is just like the domestic online game industry at this stage. Operators and gamers have made a lot of money on online games. 1988, Quantum purchased the license of Dungeons and Dragons from TSR. Three years later, the first advertisement &; D's online game "neverwinter nights" was born. This game has been in operation for several years. Although the mirroring technology used is out of date, it only brought $5 million to AOL in the last year of its life cycle, which is 1996.

199 1 year, Serra established the world's first service platform dedicated to online games-Serra Network (later renamed Imagination Network,/kloc-0 was acquired by AOL in 1996), which is somewhat similar to the domestic lianzhong game. Its first version was mainly used to run board games (Bill Gates was an avid bridge player at that time, he had his own account on Sierra Network and frequented it), and the second version added more complicated functions such as the shadow of Yserbius, the Red Baron and Larry Vegas in leisure suit. At that time, the operator of Sierra Network also contacted Richard Galiot, hoping to move the Network Genesis under development to Sierra Network. In the following years, a number of dedicated platforms for online games, such as MPG-Net, TEN, Engage and Mplayer, appeared one after another.

Third, the third generation of online games: 1996 so far.

Background: More and more professional game developers and publishers set foot in online games, eventually forming a large-scale industrial ecological environment with clear division of labor. People began to seriously think about the design and management methods of online games, hoping to summarize a set of systematic theoretical basis, which has been lacking for a long time.

Game features: The concept of "MMOG" surfaced. Online games no longer rely on a single service provider and service platform, but directly access the Internet, forming a unified market on a global scale.

Business model: the monthly subscription system is widely accepted and becomes the mainstream billing method, thus bringing online games into the mass market.

The third generation of online games began with the release of1Meridian 59 in the autumn of 996, and was independently developed by Jimo Company. Archetype was founded by Kames Brothers. Mike Cyrus, the designer of The Sims Online, which will be released soon, and Damon Schubert, the designer of Genesis 2, which was cancelled on the Internet, used to work in this company.

Meridian 59 should have been an epoch-making work. Unfortunately, the publisher, 3DO Company, made a major mistake in the decision-making process and was indecisive in the game pricing. Faced with such a powerful competitor as Genesis Online, it lost the opportunity, and the title of "Online Games First" was finally taken away by Genesis Online. Network Genesis was officially launched on 1997, and the number of users soon exceeded 65438+ million.

Meridian 59 and Network Genesis both pay by the month, while the previous online games mostly charge by the hour or minute (there is usually a period of free use before charging). After adopting the monthly subscription system, the primary business goal of game operators is no longer how to make players spend more time in the game, but how to maintain and expand the user base of the game. Compared with the mentality of many online games in China, payment methods such as monthly card, season card and annual card are undoubtedly more conducive to the long-term development of online games, although some economic benefits may be lost in the near future.

The success of Network Genesis has accelerated the formation of online game industry chain. With the popularity of the Internet and the involvement of more and more professional game companies, the market scale of online games has expanded rapidly. These include the success of Endless Mission, Paradise, The Call of Salon, The Dark Age of King Arthur, and the cancellation of Genesis 2 on the Internet, Galaxy Smuggler Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online. Some traditional stand-alone game developers, such as Maxis, Westwood and Blizzard, have also joined in with their own brand strength. The Sims Online, Away from the Earth, Star Wars: Galaxy and World of Warcraft are all highly anticipated works. More importantly, a group of small and medium-sized developers have emerged, which have created richer and more diversified contents not only for the online game market, but also for the entire game industry.

From the point of view of the game itself, the third-generation online games have evolved a lot in the past six years, and there is no qualitative leap. This evolution is more reflected in the broadening of technology and level, but it failed to break through. Everyone may feel this way. Although the technical level of many online games has been greatly improved, their gameplay has stagnated or even regressed. No one can surpass the milestone achievement of Genesis Online. In this case, the rapid expansion of the online game market makes people feel a bit abnormal.

As mentioned above, a seminar with the theme of "the third generation of online games" was held in GDC 2002 in May this year, but the participants did not clearly define "the third generation of online games". In the author's view, this title is actually just a virtual reference. Judging from the content discussed at the meeting, it is more about how to improve the current generation of online games, without any signs of revolution. After all, this generation of online games has only existed for six short years, and it has not even matured. What about revolution?

Nevertheless, this seminar has given people a lot of useful inspiration. The following two problems will become urgent problems for online games in the next few years:

1. How to give players more freedom and power under the premise of ensuring the order of the online world?

As we all know, the closed small environment can realize the player's self-discipline, but the environment of tens of thousands of people can't form effective self-discipline at all. So someone proposed to build a virtual world of Disneyland, which is a game environment with strict rules and strict control. Players can only play and communicate in the game according to the established rules, and can't make any changes to the world. But this idea is contrary to the openness and interactivity of online games. Many designers believe that the future online games should allow players to create their own, create personalized items that can be permanently preserved or content that can have a meaningful impact on the game world, which is the best way to improve players' loyalty. However, the problems brought by this are also obvious, such as whether players will use their power to produce a lot of garbage, whether it will lead to new cheating methods and so on.

Control and decentralization are a dilemma. How to give players more creativity in a controlled environment? This is the most important issue that online games need to face in the future.

2. How to expand the target consumer groups of online games as much as possible?

From the point of view of the game itself, on the one hand, we should try to reduce the complexity of the operation, on the other hand, we should design the content so that players who play for 20 hours a month can experience the same fun as those who play for 200 hours a month. This needs to give players more creativity and sense of belonging, such as encouraging players to form closer groups, communities or countries.

From the outside of the game, on the one hand, it is necessary to provide players with more convenient ways of purchase, payment and access, on the other hand, it is necessary to provide players with more stable services. Different from stand-alone games, online games sell a service rather than a product, and 90% of the workload actually happens after the game goes on the market, so the quality of service is very important for the survival and development of online games.