Slashdot Mirror
Up, Up, Down, Down: Part Four
A new report by PC Data says that 35% of Net users are going to buy console or PC console games this Christmas, and that PC and console gaming is no longer a male-dominated activity. The study found that while men make up 55% of gamers overall, for the first time women comprise a a majority of online gamers -- 50.4%. Women, according to the study, favor online gambling, card gones and quiz and trivia contests.
PC Data says men prefer war - and sports-themed games, and that men are three times as likely as women to participate in first-person shooter games (38% vs. 10%). "Solitaire," "Free Cell" and similiar bundled games are the most frequently played of all online and offline games. The top PC game categories are strategy real-time/turn-based, world building, and flight simulation.
Christmas is perhaps the best indicator of what mainstream America is buying and thinking about. The PC Data survey greatly underscores the idea that gaming has become a mainstream form of culture, if not the single most pervasive form of culture, in America.
There used to be an online gaming company in Vancouver BC known as Ice Online, they were offering Internet access long before anyone even knew what the Internet was. They also offerd BBS and online gaming services, gaming was their biggest asset.
Unfortunately, ICE found maintaining all the modems necessary to be too much of a hassle, so around 1994 or 1995 they outsourced that and made their services accessible by telnet only. They could have jumped on this Internet thing if they had seen its potential, but they went the gaming route.
Today ICE is no longer around, the company was purchased by EA, from which some of its employees were a part.
The biggest game ICE had was the Majic Realm - an online text-based RPG in the Dungeons & Dragons genre. For the early 1990s it was huge - over 200 regular players, a complete online and offline community of people from all walks of life that would meet regularly, have Christmas parties, exchange terrain maps and tips and otherwise strategize about gaining power in the game. And the sysops were an integral part of the community... they were the equivalent to Norm from Cheers... everyone knew them, and knew them well, because they usually were the drunkest people at all the parties.
The game was essentially Everquest without the graphics, and I frankly think that the text aspect made it a lot better because it was quick, simple and made players use their minds far more to visualize the game and problem solve. Some of the quests and traps in the game were amazingly difficult to complete and took some people as much as 4 years to solve, although questing wasn't the full-time purpose of the game.
People used to play Majic Realm for massive quantities of time. Some people, if questing or doing P2P combat, would play over 24 hours, going without sleep, just to wait for their enemies to come online. That usually happened when a group of players made a well-planned strategy to go kill another character, or when there was a gang war that would break out between two or more gangs.
People would play long hours, or wake up at 4 AM to play when none of their enemies would be on, or they would miss every meal of the day just to play the game. There are people that played MR actively for over five years and amassed great power, wealth and stories that were practically legend.
Example - one character once discovered a bug that became an outright legend for everyone who played the game. There was a Red Dragon in one dungeon (most powerful evil creature in the game at the time) and in another dungeon there was a wand that was intended to be used to teleport away players that were attacking you. The third part of the story was the social room in the Realm, where huge numbers of players would gather in a place where they could chat in real-time in the game.
The story went like this - the character completed the one quest to get the wand, entered into the second dungeon where the Red Dragon Lair was, ran into the room and used the wand to teleport the Red Dragon into the social room.
The Red Dragon had magic offensive spells, and one of them was Fireball, an area-effect spell that did up to 50 points of damage. It was enough to kill every character up to about Level 5, but it would cast one Fireball every round. So the Red Dragon shows up and immediately begins to do what it was programmed to - Fireball every character in the room.
The net result was that it became a story of legend told and retold and handed down as new generations of people got into the game. It was always a story that garnered huge amounts of laughter from players, because they understood the dynamics of the game and just how much of a challenge it was to get the wand and teleport the Dragon - not to mention the obvious fact that the sysops had overlooked a very subtle bug that had monumental consequences, mostly beneficial because it became such a great part of the Majic Realm culture. Seeing as it was a bug, the sysops compensated everyone.
The game would draw out great emotions in people, from anger to the satisfaction of a quest solved, to total adrenaline rushes in tense situations, and the situations were ALWAYS tense because people were always gathering experience points in areas that were either at their limits, or slightly above.
I have entire CD's of song melodies memorized, and some CD's bring me right back to my old computer and the hours I spent playing MR - the music and the game have become entirely associated with each other, as has my living situation, room mates, and the stage of education I was at when I played.
All in all, it was a tremendous game that is no longer around, but some people are still trying to revive it. Four years after Majic Realm went offline, there is still a message board that is nearly as active today as the game was 4 years ago, and people would still willingly shell out money to play the game, despite all of the advances of computer gaming.
I've reached one conclusion about MajicRealm - it offered significantly greater entertainment than Everquest, judging by the feedback of someone who used to be more addicted to the Realm than I was who is now some Level 40 guy in EQ.
MajicRealm was a far more mentally engaging game, and it had a strong and devoted community of players in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island.
MR is the most addictive game I have ever heard of.
By now this has turned into quite a rant - it should be obvious that even the memories of the game still conjure up great emotions of good times.
Sorry to point the obvious finger here, folks, but every hour you spend in front of a video game is an hour that you *aren't* spending interacting with other humans. Multi-player games are something of an exception - although I find it ridiculous to compare the "interaction" of hunting down and shooting each other to the interaction of simple conversation.
I used to be a hardcore gamer. I entered competitions, I owned a Street Fighter II machine - my first real goal was to become a video game programmer. I did. And, thats all over now. I haven't seriously played a video game on my computer in years, and only occasionally will I sit down in front of the TV to play games with lots of other people (multiplayer Tetris, Street Fighter, etc). Playing against the machine got boring long ago.
My advice to everyone taking this thread seriously and postulating about which games were most addictive, which games were most this or that: stop. Involve yourself with people.
Yes, yes, I know, 90% of people are ignorant and calous morons. Maybe thats why you're hiding in your room playing games all day in the first place. But think if you were to go out on a crowded street (don't try this on frat row) - every 10th person you walk past is actually worth knowing. Imagine that! Meet people, learn from them. Its a wonderful thing. Do it often enough and you'll realize some day down the road that you don't even give two shits about the new Sony Playstation - and you'll be proud of it, in an odd but fufilling way.
first of all, it's Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A. the people who use B, A, B, A, were too stupid to have entered it right the first time. oh, and it's called the "Konami code". you probably don't even know that the first game to have a secret code was Road Runner for the Atari 2600, which was also the first game bigger than 40k. Justin Bailey was a good code, but don't forget the other games based off the same engine. Kid Icarus had a similar code: "Icarus Defeat Medusa Angels". these passwords totally contradict what you said in your post about passwords totally ruining new games... they've been in games for ages. anyone remember "IDKFA" for doom? oh, and by using a name from a movie that most of us hate with a passion, mixed with an email address that would incite half of us to slap you repeatedly doesn't help your case much.
At university, muds (MIST then Abermud) were the most addictive, but Nethack, Lemmings and Tetris all took their toll.
Through the years my time fell foul to many series: Civ, Doom-Quake, Diablo, Ultima, etc.
In the end, though, I've realised that there are only three elements that create addiction:
This is where you no longer have to think explicitly about the actual key strokes, moves or where you are on a map. Games such as Tetris and Quake can induce a zen-like altered mental state.
Whether by conquering new areas, developing character powers, or discovering new secrets. The skill tree in Diablo II is a good example.
Telling a story. Developing a personality for your character. Being recognised. Getting onto a high score board. Fitting into a team or a community. Winning respect.
One day someone will design a game that has the simple twitch potential of Doom, the community strength of Everquest, and the ability growth potential of Civilisation.
On that day, Television dies.
Mod this up! this is the most insightful comment I've heard today. you are not being creative and revolutionary when you play video games. you are being entertained. a true test of strategic might was perfected 2000 years ago when Go was invented. no one has ever beaten this game. it is the perfect abstraction of strategy and competition.
If you think you are exercising your analytic skills by playing Civilization (which i loved), you're kidding yourself. Its a pleasant distraction, and very engaging.
Video games are a step up from movies as entertainment goes. And Katz, you're right, people enjoy talking about movies they've seen just like they enjoy discussing the video games they've played. This doesn't make you a war hero, and it DEFINITELY doesn't make you Don Juan! (Usually quite the opposite).
Stop being such a pretentious fop.
And as for pursuing romantic relationships, I question the validity of a truly loving relationship fostered soely on-line or with few RL encounters. It can't happen. Certainly people can meet online, maybe even become infatuated on-line. But love on-line? No way.
--
After having played for several years I got a little tired of some of the adventures (to name a few, slackware and redhat come to mind) and I'm still playing the debian one. I've passed the hamm, slink and potato levels but don't feel quite confident with the woody level yet.
I've played both the 1.2 2.0 and 2.2 characters... still haven't tried the new 2.4 (sounds like great fun, though :)
Seriously, anybody who's not telling you he/she has great fun (mmhh.. err err...) using linux is just plain lying ;-)
---
"Hasta la victoria siempre!" El Comandante
Empire, the multiplayer Unix game. I lost a month of my life to that thing, and I know others who lost far more. PC games just don't compare, because you can almost always save and come back to it.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Everyone knows that everquest was the most addictive. Or at least it was for me. Asheron's call was a cheap knockoff.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
Wizardry was the BEST! I played for days during college. A few of my buddies would get together, we'd each mentor a character and the game, and the hours would slip past.
I still have my Apple II diskettes somewhere, but no functional Apple II to play them on! Is there an emulated version of Wizardry (the ORIGINAL version, clunky graphics an all) available somewhere?
TILTOWAIT!
Apart from being one of the earlier internet games, Netrek remains one of the few true team-strategy games. Pitting up to eight players against eight (thought I believe there can be 32 in it these days) for three or four hour long battles, Netrek demands the most from it's players. The playing curve is even longer than Quake - it can take 30 hours of practice, before you can even remotely hold your own against good players...but two poor players can sometimes beat one good one. Over the years, the game has been rebalanced to perfection. I urge everyone to download it, and give it a go!
ToiletDuk
Protector of the Wastes
Agreed. Civilization and Civ 2 were the most addicting games I've ever played. Hell, I still play Civ 2...and Civ 2 Multi-player came along and you got to play against real people. That was the pinnacle. I would spend entire days playing. I just need to capture this one city...then I'll stop...yeah, right.
:-) But you just couldn't stop.
...ahhhh memories :-)
Lemmings is also another fond memory from days gone by. Getting all of those little bastards to the exit was damn frustrating at times....to the point of just maxing out the release rate and then just nuking them
And finally, I was a HUGE AD&D player back in the early to mid 80's. The moment I played Ultima III back on my Atari 800XL, I was hooked on the Ultima series. I would play until I couldn't stay awake anymore. While the most recent Ultima's were nice, there was something to the more simple graphics that almost made it more enjoyable. I think my favorite was Ultima IV (VI was a close second). They all had fabulous theme music and the stories were engrossing. Sometimes too much flash takes away from the real experience.
- Rick Alther
Well, lets start way way back and work our way up.
64 days.
Bards Tale series, Ultima and Wasteland, and of course Gauntlet and Gauntlet expansion..
And Borderbund Battleship (I think that was it)
Amiga days.
SuperFrog, Zool series, bouncey and Barbarian.
Early PC days
Duke Nukem, Command and Conquer, Warcraft, Q1, Heretic, Blood
Today.
Tribes, Half-life, Solider of Fortune, Q2, Q3A
Vampire Masquerade single player..
(Waiting for Tribes2 and Halo in 2001)
My first ipx lan game was Duke Nukem. The detail on the battles where simply amazing. You could plant laser trip wires, first BFG rockets!
Tribes.. What can I saw about this intense multiplayer, team combat game.
I freaking LOVE it. Been playing 10+ hours a week for 2 years! The gfx are damn good on 3dfx cards. (yes kicks the geforce's ass)
The ability to use sound packs. My current soundpack is over 700 megs now.
Last night, this guy grabs the flag, I'm in a heavy, flip to mortar, wait for the guy to just about go over the mountain, and launch a big green smoke trail mortar over it.
Almost 6 seconds later.
"Your Flag was dropped"
DAMN, 1 in a million shot. Was soo sweet.
The game just can not compare with other FPS games. The freedom of movement, the weapons, the team play. THE pure evilness you can pull on people. Sneak up behind them, and mine-disc em.
Snipe from a mountain top, making sure flag grabbers dont make it too far with your flag.
Ive been to Tribescon 1999 (2nd place, thanks dynanmix for the pocketwatch)
And Tribescon 2000 - First place! (Thanks Colosus for setting it up, and the 101 bux first prize!)
Check out these sites for some cool screen shots and forums.
www.planetstarsiege.com
www.tribalwar.com
BTW. You can find me as IronWolve on your buddy list in Tribes.
-Brook Harty
aka IronWolve
-
vav
gg
Most Addictive Game: Minesweeper
For every PC around the world there was a person who just couldn't go to bed until they'd got the expert level out... it took four bombs in a row on the first square for you to realise that forces were against you solving it, at which point you'd turn the PC off in discust.
Solitaire's up there too... but I think Minesweeper has it in the bag.
Consecutive hours: Networked Quake
Networked Quake wins hands down for the game most likely to keep you in your seat for more than 8 hours straight. But only because of the level changes. You'd finally give up after getting creamed on a frag count and bam! Next Level. Current Frag count: 0 - Time for redemption.
I used to worry about my driving after some of our Quake sessions.
'sapientia potestas est'
It took Blizzard long enough to push Diablo 2 out.
As for Diablo I was never much of a fan, even when it first came out it was too boring and tedious to play. Here's something with REAL replay value: ADOM.
There's nothing wrong with EverQuest or being addicted to it. I have a cable modem and that means people can phone me up on the voice phone line and badger me instead of talking to me on IRC like all my friends do.
Am I addicted to IRC?
And is there anything wrong with that?
CS is horrible, absolutely horrible. I prefer Tactical Ops for UT because it depends more on a player's skill than the server's random number generator.
/dev/random is nice to me and sometimes it's a bitch.
Sometimes
Alioth wrote:
I think the follow-ons are better, particularly Frontier: First Encounters.
Frontier: First Encounters was let down IMO by the fact it was particularly buggy and unreliable. It did boast some good features, but it was not a revolutionary game in the sense the first Elite was.
Thank you for pointing me to Shades - I'll give it a whirl.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Goldeneye: Yes, but its just another FP shooter.
Sonic the Hedgehog: Yes, but I never got addicted to collecting golden rings.
Final Fantasy VI: Nope, not played.
None of the above IMO qualify for the title of truly addictive, and also I don't regard any of the above as revolutionary in any sense of the term. To be honest I haven't seen anything on a console that's made me want to go out and buy one, although I may be tempted into buying a Playstation 2 if I can ever lay my hands on one.
I also missed out arcade games too, and then I would have to include Space Invaders, BattleZone, PacMan, and Dragons Lair in the role of honor.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Just to echo the above poster's comments.
A few years back I had the following conversation with my grandmother. "Gran, you really should get a computer and get on the internet" She couldn't see a reason to so she did not (this was back in 1995 or so.
Then about 2 years ago she heard about the iMac and decided that that would be a good computer for her to get (she asked me and I agreed).
Last year, she ordered a cable modem from @home so she now has faster connections at home than I do (and I own an Internet Software company).
Her reason for getting a cable modem, so she could be online without tying up her phone (she lives in the Mountains of CA, getting a second phone line would cost her $1000's, since she already had cable it was the logical route.
What does she do online now?
Play bridge. Most evenings.
So, in her late 70's my grandmother is joining the Internet community to play bridge, exchange emails with friends, and sometimes do some research online. She still has problems with certain things like opening up attachments (just as well most of the time) but all in all an amazing journey from "no reason to have a computer, to having high speed access and using it every night".
-- Join us in Chicago May 1-4th for MeshForum -- writer, historian, tech geek, entrepreneur, internet junky since '91 --
Damnit!
And who here plays VO:OT? The docs don't explain the 5 different control configurations, and I can't get the goddamn thing to spin my robot. The Saturn controls worked much better.
Blar.
I was never coordinated enough.
Blar.
Alot of the carriers I had to use did not have adapters in coach, where I usually had to fly when travelling inside the United States.
Blar.
I used to fly alot for my job, so I bought a color gameboy. Got Pokemon, Mario Bros and Tetris. It's all you need.
Blar.
It's a good thing I work during the day or I'd have the same problem.
What [server], johnburton? I'm on Innoruuk.
der dee der.
Sig is taking a break!
EverQuest is the most addictive game ever. I've lost count of the total number of days I've spent playing this in the last year.
Don't need to say any more, any other players will know what I mean already.
Sig is taking a break!
... and the everquest servers are down for a patch, why else do you think I'm here instead of there?
Sig is taking a break!
You're silly. My granny lives 2000 miles away from my mom. I'm not speaking for the poster, but this attitude that RL communities are going to somehow "go away" is just stupid. I now have the OPTION (say it with me...it's a good thing) of playing games, chatting, or pursuing a romantic relationship (I do all three) online.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
People will continue to seek out the environments that provide them with rich interaction with others. For some, that's a chess table in a park. For others, it's a chat room after a three hour Quake deathmatch. It's axiomatic: For a given number of people, an increased number of activities means a decreased number of people per activity. This is not a new phenomenon, and it's not harmful. I bet people cried when we stopped having to be hunter gatherers, too. Oh well...life goes on.
As for on-line relationships, you're entitled to your opinion, but I vehemently disagree. I met my girlfriend in RL, but we've fostered our relationship online, with occasional RL weekends together. It's not for everybody, but it can and does work.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Chester, please drop me an email.
-----
nuclear iraq bioweapon encryption cocaine korea terrorist
the other day i realized i remember the old nintendo hint line from the mid 80's
206-885-7539
don't think i've called that since master blaster came out
Diablo II is THE most addictive game I've played in a WHILE. MUCH more addicive than Evercrack is/was.
Fawking Trolls!
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." - Jed Babbin
That's sort of an extra-venemous reply for a fairly innocuous topic, isn't it? I mean, for ME, U-U-D-D-L-R-L-R-B-A-Start is a symbol of my wasted hours of childhood. Most cheat codes don't mean a thing (though tell me you don't feel a pang of nostalgia from the pseudo-words "idspispopd" or "idkfa"), but that particular code is definitely folklore. Just about everyone who had a NES knew the code - heck, just about everyone who PLAYED a NES new the code. Contra itself didn't generate stories, but the code is certainly a concise symbol for a bygone age.
Heck, maybe ol' John himself played a couple games of Contra. Regardless, we shouldn't knee-jerk at topics that, as journalistically worthless as they may be, give us an opportunity to wax nostalgic. Peace.
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Get back to me when my brain starts working.
The most addictive game has to be Slashdot.org - a massively multiplayer world where like-minded individuals struggle for surpremacy. Character classes such as the Troll, the Karma Whore, and the rare, revered Plus Five engage in savage flame wars, contesting the very basis of each others existence to gain philisophical leverage and wrest the precious Karma for themselves! But beware, your target could be a Moderator, whose eerie power can suck your hard earned points away!
Definitely the most addictive... see how hard I have to work just to get ahead here?
---------
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Get back to me when my brain starts working.
Have you guys never played MUD?
Now thats an adictive online game....
-H
shouldnt that be heroin?
;)
and me, personally, I like meth.. 4 day programming binges... cleanest code in the world, tho
Justin
"Short, tall, fat, skinny, from the highest king to the lowest man, everyone uses the potty." - Brak
Or better yet, try Subspace. Same basic idea as xpilot, but taken to a whole new level. And it looks much better too. Yeah, yeah, so it only runs on Windows... Trust me, when you get addicted to this game, you'll keep a windows partition around just to play it. I know I do.
There never has been, nor will there ever be, a more addictive game.
When you take away all that's Right, all you have is what's Left.
this little game we had back in the day called wastelands, was the most addictive game ever
peace
snerfu
What you miss is that the media can define culture. Katz is a journalist, and often journalists create self-fulfilling prophecies. This increases their accuracy.
Pacman.
I don't care who you are or how long you've been gaming, you've played it. You liked it.. and you tried to be the best at it. However, there can only be one. Till someone removes the machine from this pizzeria that has been around since I was 8. I will always!! Always!! be the champion at Pacman.
There will never be another pacman because its the past, present and future.
Good day
There were of course millions of games in between, on a dozen different platforms. But these are the games that have inspired me to go without sleep the longest.
-- Mojo Tooth : exploring our world as only an idiot can.
FREAKY! That exact same thing happened to me... It was kind of disturbing trying to sleep and seeing more DOOM.
--
Peace, education, prosperity, and a clean environment:
find out how the free market does it right.
Best game for programmers?
Anyone for Core War?
Brief summary for the unwary: The core, as all know, is the memory. You write little programs in a dialect of assembler which try to kill each other by overwriting critical sections of the enemy's code.
...if your program can find it. Since all you really know is that the other warriors are lurking in the core, somewhere...
--
Repton.
--
Repton.
Repton.
They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
This is probly too arcane for most of you: Avatar and Ouliette caused people to drop out of college way back then. Items were sold for real life $$. I sold a mithril shield for $15. Any othere players out there?
You don't understand: I am not locked up in here with you, you are locked up in here with ME!
i guess im a bit deprived for games (i have a mac), but the most addictive games i remember were escape velocity and snood. and quake 3. and reckless drivin'. and xpilot. err.... yea those games.
--- Hey, Jesus is coming! Everyone look busy
I would like to ask this: If there are two people, one who watches four hours of television a day and another who plays Asheron's Call for the same amount of time, who is being more (or less) social?
Capt. Ron
crazy dynamite monkey
I would definitely have to agree that Solitaire / Minesweeper / Free Cell have to be the most addictive games. For the sole reason that they addict non-gamers. I have seen a large number of people who would not classify themselves as gamers get addicted to the above games.
Even my grandma, who had not touched a computer in her life up until two weeks ago finds Solitaire addictive. My guess is there is a comibination of the addictiveness of the game and the fact that they can feel like mastering a computer.
Not first person shooters, but the quest for high FPS.
I know more people addicted to their frame rate count than to the game itself.
"I'm gonna add just *one* more piece of hardware, I promise"
Anyone remember the rumor about this game having a secret chocolate factory level? I saw it published in several different "Hints and Strategies" guides as a rumor only, but never learned if it was legit or not. Always wondered about that...
My vote is for Counter-Strike. Once you've purchased HalfLife (a great solo FPS), Counter-Strike is free.
For me, it's all de_dust, all the time. Except for occasional visits to cs_office.. or cs_italy. cs_militia isn't too bad, if I have some _friggin'_back-up_ for the long run to the house. And the fun of 'sniper`s alley' in de_railroad rocked. God, I miss that level.
So many games I've been addicted to. I think Civ wins though, since I'd play it and think "Oh, I've only been playing for 1000 years, not that long." instead of "Wow, I've been playing since I got up, and it's 4pm, maybe I should have some breakfast..."
--
Seeing is believing; You wouldn't have seen it if you didn't believe it.
I remeber one summer, when I didn't have a job and told myself that I was gonna teach myself Java (back when it was new and strange and on the cover of Time and the like). Little did I know that my brother-in-law would give me a copy of Diablo, which he didn't want, and my plans would go down the tubes. I played night and day all summer. Most addicting game I ever played, bar none.
-- From my Best Friend (Written to me over ICQ): "i was gonna go to a party...but i had to reinstall windows"
tetris? sextris is much more addictive...
but then again, the logic of the game can be improved because i've come up with positions that just aren't recognized by the game...
Mallrats cost more than Dogma? I don't believe it!
-Vercingetorix
-Vercingetorix
"Necessitas non habet legem." -St. Augustine
There are games that I've spent many more hours playing...for example, Final Fantasy 3 (US) and Vandal Hearts. For whatever reason, I've beaten those two games so many times, I'm embarassed to tell the number. But there has only been one game that no matter how hard I tried, I absolutely could not tear myself from: Civilization II. I would say that I'm only gonna play 10 more minutes, because I need to start on that paper. But when the ten minutes was up, I'd say to myself, "Well, let me just finish building Leonardo's Workshop." After I was done building that, I'd look at my watch and say, "Ok, I'll quit after I build up my forces enough to defend against those Mongol bastards on the top continent." But how much is enough? This brutal cycle would countinue until I could no longer hold my eyes open, and my body begged for sleep. Then I'd start my paper. But where it would normally take my 5 hours to do a paper like that, I would get it done in about two, because it's never too late to do a bad job. =)
The only things I do anymore is video games, books, and movies. I'm seriously not into TV at all, if it wasn't for the porn channels I would turn off the satellite service.
Sigs are awesome huh?
Me thinks Wasteland was the best and most addictive game ever devised in the history of mankind! Where else could you mow down a pack of wolves with an UZI?
Now that is a game that was truly innovative and I believe still stands the test of time.
Well i would say without a doubt the best game I ever played was coincidentally the first game EGM ever game 3 10's to a game.. now a days gaming magazines give em out all the time.. but ages ago it was an extreme rarity. The game you ask? Why it was Wanders from Y'S... for the turbo graph-x CD player.. I've still never played a game that has kept me up and excited for the next scene as much as this one has.... wish i could find a copy again these days and old Turbo graphx... way ahead of its time....
Aye, Deus Ex is incredibly addicting. My name is Matt, and I'm addicted to Deus Ex. I played for three days straight. For multiplayer, it'd be Tribes. The mods for tribes too... Renegades is calling me at this moment...
The most addictive game I've played in a _LONG_ time has to be Pokemon... While most people my age would never touch it, or admit to playing it anyway ;), this game has insane replay value. Satoshi Tajiri and the rest of the Pokemon design team are pure geniuses for coming up with a game that is not only extremely fun to play, but for one that has reached such market saturation...
>>Voltaire did not actually say that, but while you're up, say "disagree", which makes a sronger statement than MAY not agree with.
Quoteland.com gives "disapprove":
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Fixed.. thanks for the info.
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
PK = PlayerKiller = Someone who kills other players rather than limiting themselves to killing NPCs or monsters.
The was a certain manufaturer, who I can't remember at the moment (Komani?), that had a habit of putting the 'cheat' up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-B-A in their games. This was back in Nintendo land (not N64, not Super Nintendo, NINTENDO) It's been so long, I can't even remember any examples of what the damn thing did...Something with Super ...something... aw hell..
My only real memory is a whole sheet full of 'cheat codes' my best friend and I discovered in Bubble Bobble...
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
There was also a Mac program-the-robot game that had a visual programming system for which it was impossible to write a syntactically incorrect program. It sounds almost identical to what you're describing (drag and drop icons into a 2D grid), but my aging brain can't quite remember its title. Kind of sad, since I believe I reviewed it for Macworld. Sigh. ..bruce..
(has-been game designer, SunDog: Frozen Legacy)
Bruce F. Webster (brucefwebster.com)
There has never, ever been anything that I've played as long or as intensely. I almost got sucked in again recently. It took a tremendous effort to pull myself away--in fact it took my wife saying "I'm not going to put up with this again" to do it. (This after I had put in several entire days at work and hours at home playing.)
Nothing else comes close.
Was the most addictive game I've ever played, at least until I won it. Of course, I've never had a PC with enough horsepower to play any of the new games.
the "select" was only to select two player mode as opposed to single player mode. And it gave you both 30 lives. Normal operation was just ... b a start :)
I'd vote for the Ultimas as among the most addictive, so much that when you're done playing, you can spend even more time reverse-engineering them.
This part was less than 1/3 the length of any of the other 3 parts. It had almost nothing to do with the original intent of "up,up,down,down...". I thought this was all about the indepth gaming culture and the effects of it. Must be a mid-martini lunch post!
Oh- my vote for most addictive is evercrack... It's named that for a good reason.
sig
They may be very involved and addictive, but they're just games. I guarantee you that there are people who are gamers who also brag about their sexual exploits, and having been in a combat zone myself, I can tell you I'd much rather tell war stories than describe cheats I came up with for Myth II.
Why is it that because they're so technology-intensive, computer/console games are suddenly some new form of amazing expression to you?
I know people who watch movies continuously. I know people who play pencil and paper role playing games for hours on end. Are they also taking part in some kind of hitherto never witnessed revolution in creativity?
Maybe.. just maybe.. they're simply engaged in diversions. And maybe, just maybe, that's all there is to it.
>> Other generations told war stories or bragged about their sexual exploits. Gamers trade techniques and other lore -- early experiences, confrontations, conflicts, great exploits, cheats, tricks, myths, and legends.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
And this is suprising how? Granted movie ticket prices are starting to get way out of hand, but still, compare say a $5 movie ticket with a $40 video game. Even with some big blockbuster movies if there are any flashy new games I bet they will sell enough to surpass movie sales.
And of course the trend will continue since some games are costing more and until movie tickets increase a lot in price I imagine games sales will make more money.
I'm glad you didn't try to interpret having to slam down on a big mushroom head.
If you disagree then it must be overrated, redundant or trolling.
"up up down down left right left right b a start" was/is the code to get 30 lives in various Konami games on the old NES, including Contra and Life Force, among others.
full firepower
full missiles
full shields
two Options
For those who don't remember, Options are those pulsating blobs of energy that mimic your ship's actions, essentially doubling or tripling your firepower and shielding.
Or Pac-Man... how many video games are there that had a song written about them? Yeah, it's old school, but anyone who was cognizant in the early 80s remembers when arcades had to stock multiple Pac-Man machines to meet the demand.
I'd throw Tetris on that list, too. It's been remade about six-thousand times, and people are still buying it.
Oh, yes, you've got me pegged. I'm old school. Those darned whippersnappers and their new-fangled games. Since you are unfamiliar with sarcasm, I will close the cash register at this point.
I find it odd that because I mentioned Pac-Man as being addictive, you assume that I'm this nostalgia freak who hates everything new. I like a lot of new games. Chrono Cross might be the best game I've ever played. Quake 2 is outstanding when you've got a bunch of friends with low ping counts. But what I don't like is game companies pushing polys and polishing CG video in order to put a pretty package around a big box of crap (which was the case with FF8). And that seems to be happening more and more.
I've played Mario Kart... and I'm sorry, but unless you're about five years old, it gets real boring real quick (and that's pretty much the story for most games on N64). Chrono Trigger was awesome... so was Xenogears, and Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasies 3, 7, and 9, but role-playing games (for me anyway) lack immediate replayability. Chrono Trigger was a bit of an exception because of New Game+, but still... when you've logged fifty hours to beat a game, how much incentive is there to log another fifty hours into a game to reveal the same storyline, the same characters, the same ending?
Pac-Man was, in my opinion, only popular because there was almost no competition at the time.
True. Outside of Pac-Man, there was really only Asteroids, Battlezone, Missile Command, Warrior, Lunar Lander, Breakout, Football, Defender, Berzerk, Gunfight, Space Invaders, and God knows how many other games. There were plenty of gamers (and games) in arcades before Pac-Man. Pac-Man just brought them out in droves - it caused a Yen shortage in Japan! As you can see, I tend to consider your opinion an uninformed one.
But who plays Pac-Man these days?
I played Pac-Man last night at Jillian's. Well, OK, it was Ms. Pac-Man. In the back corner, by the restrooms, they've got Ms. Pac Man, Centipede, Galaga, Arkenoid, and Tetris, and there's always someone there playing something. Because often times it's more fun to pay a quarter to play for as long as you can than to pay a dollar fifty to race for a minute and a half.
Please, Julius, old games aren't good simply because they're old.
That's true: games suck because they suck, not because of their date of release. I always thought Target Fun sucked, and E.T. was horrible, too. By the same token, Star Wars Demolition is a waste of CD space, and Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball was as poor a baseball game as you'll find (except maybe RBI 2 & 3 on NES, or Home Run on the 2600).
The point is, I still stand by Pac-Man and Tetris. And that's fine if you disagree. Just don't come at me with this "Oh, you're just obsessed with nostalgia" crap. Spare me.
psxndc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
psxndc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
psxndc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
I used to help run a mud, and the average on-line times of some of our players were incredible- people averaging 6-8 on the mud every day. Looking back at the amount of time I spent doing it is not frankly embarassing, but it was great fun and also the very thing that prompted me to learn programming.
Its possible that we may have some younger geeks who don't know the significance of the konomi kode or "JUSTIN BAILEY" etc. -
The Konomi Kode is up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A. It was used primarily on "8bit Nintendo" (a.k.a. real nentendo) games made by konomi, the most popular of which was Contra. Another legendary code was JUSTIN BAILEY (enter the seccond row as "-"'s) for metroid.
Games today take the fun out of such things by using memory cards instead of passwords and so forth. I've found that we've traded off gameplay for graphics
Which brings me to my next point: Games that have given me enjoyment:
Sim City 2000: I have probably spent more time on this game than any other in existance
Final Fantasy 3: This is a close seccond.
Tribes: My current favorite.
Tribes is a good example of regaining what we've lost in games: I'm going to get flamed for this, but QuakeIII is boring. I've played it, and you wont convince me otherwise. The Graphics on Q3 are nothing short of breathtaking, esp on my coppermine 800EB w/ voodoo5 5500. But the game leaves something to be desired. The Graphics in Tribes SUCK hardcore in comparason. But the gameplay is there. You enjoy yourself when you play. It takes 20 minutes to learn to play and months to get good. Damn what a game.
zero
insert clever line here
sig?
I recently obtained a copy of Princess Maker 2 (which runs in DOS). I have spent hours and hours trying to raise a daughter who can catch the prince, become a world-renowned dancer, the best little housewife in the world, the court magician, a whore, a general, etc...
I'm not claiming that this game is terribly addictive in the long term, but for a week or so, you'll be obsessed....
Barring Doom, I'd pick Dynamix's Aces of the Pacific. Dedicated? I racked up 762 kills as a USAAF pilot from 1941 in the Philippines to December 1946 (official add-on pack), at 78% difficulty. The P-38 was the shit.
Other favorites? TIE Fighter CD-ROM, Worms 2, Thief Gold, Final Fantasy III (SNES), Civilization II, and Wings of Fury (Apple IIc).
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Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
That was the 30 continues in contra! Ahh - memories...
Check out http://bioinfo.mshri.on.ca/people/feldman/vgmuseum /index.html for a neat computer game museum with nice hi-res pictures of the various games. Mostly stuff from the 70's and 80's
Up Up, Down Down, Left Right, Left Right, A B I wonder if this is gonna work on the up and coming Metal Gear Solid II... Konami should keep up the tradition. At least give us old-timers an easter egg, for old times sake... ;)
so here goes: my journey through Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Calibur. Great, great game! Eh, but I'm lazy, so you have to read it from the bottom up. And it might not work too well in Netscape 4.x, but it works ok in Netscape 6.
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Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057
[o]_O
Dude, this is self-limiting. He quits his job to play for no reward, he runs out of money, he can't pay the phone bills, end of story. If he quits his job to play and build up a char which someone else is fool enough to buy though, then more power to him. The rule is that anything is worth what someone is prepared to pay for it, so if he makes money off it then great. At one time some quite smart folks were saying that software wasn't really worth anything ("what's the inherent value in a floppy disk?") but M$ still got billions in spite of them, and even quite recently website design was a hobby rather than a job.
And why should this be wrong? Some guys devote months or years on end to writing software without ever knowing if anyone'll use it. Many work more than 12 hours a day (whether that be work at a company, or work on a private project at home) and have little contact with other ppl. Some other guys devote themselves to playing music, or to sport (how much d'you reckon a professional sportsperson or musician sees their family?). How's this different?
The difference isn't in the time you spend on it, or in the usefulness of the result. The difference is merely that they're doing something non-traditional.
Grab.
It was known as the Konami code, and your version gets thirty lives, for two players in Contra. Take out select, and you've got the one player version. In an SNES "R-Type" game, pausing, and puting in the old code would just blow your ship up, no questions asked. But with "Up, up, down, down, L, R, L, R, B, A, unpause would make you immortal.
It wasn't R-Type, it was Gradius, Foo'! You don't remember the difference? ;)
Gradius was Konami, R-Type was Irem.(haven't heard of them in a while eh?)But it really was a cool code - the only way I beat Gradius I on the 8-bit nes.
-raph
They are not the true gamer. They are not HARDCORE. The HARDCORE gamer plays at least 20 hours a day when he has a game he hasn't beat. I remember when I played Final Fantasy Tactics for two days without sleeping. I beat it at 5:00 am the second day. That was a fun game. haha
-raph
While I agree with you about FF8 and Tetris (FF8 = really crap, Tetris = really fun), you claim that Pac-Man is the one of the most addictive games ever?
Allow me to disagree. Pac-Man was, in my opinion, only popular because there was almost no competition at the time. Frankly, you sound like one of those old-school gamers who always complain that new games aren't as good as the old ones. Have you ever played Super Mario Kart? Or Chrono Trigger, or Xenogears? Most games today are very high quality, simply because they have to be, to pop out of the crowd. Ever tried Tetris Attack? I highly recommend it. Pac-man requires nowhere near the amount of quick thinking needed to win at Tetris Attack. Please, Julius, old games aren't good simply because they're old.
Nothing should have to have said for it "it was stunning for its time". Tetris, which is still going strong, obviously shows its own merits. But who plays Pac-Man these days?
-raph
Uhmm.
:)
What about console games? Have you ever played Goldeneye for Nintendo 64? Sonic the Hedgehog? Final Fantasy VI? While I'll agree that the games you mentioned were fun, you're skipping the most sizable portion of the video gaming world in your comment.
Console games want equal rights too!
-raph
And to answer the question in the article, what do I feel is the most addictive game? Well, I am torn between two particular genres: First Person Shooters and Role Playing Games. By RPGs I mean the Final Fantasy, Lunar, Chrono Cross type, generally the popular PlayStation Square RPGs. Since I do not own a PlayStation, I have often just found myself involved in a friend's game(s), watching him play through, and only helping him out with details that I've picked up by paying attention to the story. Note that I do not consider Zelda (N64) an RPG. As for FPSs, I specifically mean Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, The World Is Not Enough on the N64 (Turok 1-3 are okay, but not exactly for me) or Half-Life and Tribes (my first PC game) on the PC.
If I had to pick one of those games as my all-time favorite and most addictive, it would easily be Perfect Dark. Never did I involve myself so much in the story of a game and in figuring out every single little detail on my own. I rarely have the capacity to dedicate myself to a game such as the way I did Perfect Dark - I nearly always look through a guide for tips here and there - not in Perfect Dark. I honestly enjoyed every last drop of this game, and I still enjoy it now that I have earned every possible extra. I continue to enjoy it now through Game Shark codes that allow me to modify the way the game is played, such as weapons modifications.... Oh, man. I'm rambling. I told you it was addictive. :-)
- Matt
When I was six or so I got my first Nintendo with Super Mario Brothers. At that tender age, the game is very tough, and so I destroyed about five controllers in the process of beating it. What usually caused contoller death was when the plastic hit the wall at just the right angle to make the entire controller shatter.
In todays games, you get life, but not so in the old days. One touch by a mushroom and you were caput. It was that need to overcome such a game, a game where one mistake actually kills you, that made Super Mario Brothers the most addictive game I ever played. Another one that came close what Ghosts n' Goblins, but that was just psychotic.
Civ, Civ2, Dune2, Star Control 2. These are all games that kept you addicted, and had some "replay value."
I remember coming home from school every day to play CIV until bed time - there was no end to it!......
Until I started MUDing.
I recently wrote an essay on the addictive nature of the Internet, and specifically of MUDs. The fact that people can play more than you and become stronger gives you an urge to play more; to become stronger. You became proud of your objects, you guarded them fiercely. I remember once being a weaker character and being "grouped" with a more powerful character (a dragon). This person wasn't exactly the nicest person, and ended up locking me in a room, killing me, and destroying me items. The emotional rush, the anger, the desire for revenge I felt at that point could not be replicated by games of today's standards.
Another interesting link I found was that of MUDs and Maslow's triangle. Safety and Phisiological needs can be easily kept, but MUDs can fulfill the need for goals and the need for self-esteem. So right there - if you're "physical" needs are met, MUDs (and other games alike) can supply you with the next two steps.
I quite cold turkey when I realised I needed marks to get into university =)
Yeah, it seems unlikely that there are even 5% of female PC users playing Quake. A couple of points things I noticed though: After some thought it does make sense that women make up the majority of on-line gamers. I never would have considered my girlfriend a gamer, but she does indeed go to people.com and do the crossword now and then. I think they count that sort of thing in this survey. Also, if you were a quake gamer chick, wouldn't you just act like one of the guys? How would anyone know? And if you did use a female skin, a feminine name, and claimed to be a girl, would anyone believe you? ;)
"Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness." -Robert A. Heinlen
I agree; that grappling hook was so cool. The translocator in UT is pretty cool, but no-one has ever really equaleed that hook. -Brian
"Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness." -Robert A. Heinlen
Here are some aspects of popular culture that are and probably will always be more popular than computer gaming: Going to church
Heh... Can't argue with that. Religion will be around for a long time.
Watching Sports
Agreed. Passive entertainment is easy and the emotional involvement with one's favorite team is strong.
Playing Sports Listening to the radio Reading popular fiction (ditto)
I'm not convinced. I don't think any of these things will disappear, but video games will in our lifetime become as or more popular. For radio, books, and tv, people will crave something more custom and interactive. For playing sports, this will absolutely stick around, but it will be so much easier to get a bunch of people together and organized without geographic restrictions.
Reading newspapers/magazines (even if they are online) Politics Complaining about politics
I hope you are right. It is frightening even today, though, how little people are paying attention to events outside their own little world. 1/4th of our registered voters chose George Bush.
"Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness." -Robert A. Heinlen
We wont reveal exact stats on order levels, but we can say that the majority of purchasers were male, but that the US for the first month since we started trading, comprised less than 50% of our orders. North America was responsible for 52% of our sales, Europe 40%, while the rest lagged well behind with Asia at 3%, Australia 2%, South America 2% and Africa 1% (rounded figures).
The rush is starting to die down now, with people realising that games will now be unlikely to arrive befrore the 25th.
Tux Games. Your complete source for native Linux games.
Even before that, does anyone remember an old Apple II game that involved programming battle robots using a simple assembly language? Can't even remember the name of that one.
"Rub her feet." -- L.L.
Beyond Quake 1's multiplayer madness, this was easily the most addictive game I've ever played. When I was a kid, Super Tecmo Bowl brought me hours upon hours of stat building insanity and what seemed like infinite amount of multiplayer seasons with friends. I must have played around 50 or so _full_ seasons of this game before I finally got a bit weary of it. It seems like a total waste of time now, but it was fun, so oh well :>.
Bo Jackson owns.
- music for the masses...
The game that always comes to mind when I reminisce about my childhood is Pirates for the C64. I remember spending something like half an hour real-time trying to sail my ship from one end of the map to the other, directly into the wind -- that's addiction! Apparently, I was never meant to be a seafaring type.
Civilization is both the most addictive and best game ever created...though I prefer the second incarnation of it better than the first. Civ.2 updated what needed to be updated, but left the core of the game the same: the desire to conquer the world and wipe out your enemies (Yes, I know you could ostensibly win by having centuries of peace...but everyone knows that you just let your opponents build up their railroads so you can nuke all of their cities in one turn and take over all cities with only one unit...Mutually assured Destruction only works in non-turn based reality). As addictive as Asheron's Call was for me last year, and as addictive as Half-Life and Counter-Strike are for me right now, nothing compares to the raving crack fiend I was on Civ. 2. In fact, this is inspiring me to want to go play right now. Screw the crack of the AWP or the howl of a flame bolt in AC. I want to hear the canned "We Love the King" cheering right now. Bye all. -Loki
Admittedly, I never owned a SNES, but I'd never heard of this universal cheat code until this series of articles.
Other generations told war stories or bragged about their sexual exploits
Umm, I don't think I'd like to go drinking with someone drooling over his/her latest console game. Give me sex any day!
A new report by PC Data says that 35% of Net users are going to buy console or PC console games this Christmas
I find nothing surprising in that figure. It's like 35% of car owners saying they're going to buy an air freshener.
"Solitaire," "Free Cell" and similiar bundled games are the most frequently played of all online and offline games. The top PC game categories are strategy real-time/turn-based, world building, and flight simulation.
This is now making no sense. I'm unaware of online Solitaire and Free Cell (or any other bundled PC game), and how does strategy real-time/turn-based become the top category when the previous sentence mentioned solo games?
Has JK been indulging in the Christmas spirits just a little too heavily before posting?
There were a lot of aspects that made the game fun but for most players, a notable feature was the reward you got when you cleared a level. You scooted down a little tunnel and heard what sounded like a woman having an orgasm. The "woman" was Patrick Buckland, the game's author, using a sound editor to kick his voice up an octave.
Who is Steve Bobker? He was the MacUser Editor-in-Chief who lost his job shortly after the February issue came out.
I am surprised noone else listed this one. I was the MIS director at my college's business school right after Starcraft came out. After we closed the labs. Me and all the assistants (and some of my friends and even my cousin) would congregate in one of the instructional labs (stadium style in a semi-circle, nothing quite like spanking the tar out of someone and seeing the look on their face when a Sh**load of 'goons descended on their last base) and we would spend hours playing Starcraft sometimes on the weekend we would start at 6pm (after working since 10am) and stagger out at 3am in the morning cause we were dehydrated, hungry and sore. Even after we discovered Tribes, we kept going back to Starcraft and at one point my addiction was so bad I spent about 3 months learning how the computer played and reacted enough beat 6 computers on melee (using the Hunters map if you must know). I am still recovering from what StarCraft Broodwar did to me. I had to break the CD's and undelete it from my machine....
I rember "back in the day" I used to play a lot of NES games. I even at one time kept a record of all the games I had beaten. It was roughly around ~120 games. Most of which were games I rented for two days and then beat before they had to be returned.
This was around the time "Nintendo Power" was the coolest magizine. I still remember the code to play Mike Tyson!
It's goes like this -> up up down down left right left right B A start.
Its a code for "Contra" (NES). Though I don't remember exactly what it does...something like all guns or god mode?
I played starmaze on my apple ][e every day for 17 years and never got tired of it. I never beat it. I doubt anyone ever has. I can honestly say I am the best starmaze player ever. No one could have possibly put as much time into ANY computer game as I put into starmaze. Somewhere out there is a programmer by the name of Gordon Eastman. I salute him for creating such a brilliant game.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
How could everyone forget this game? Nethack is, by far, the most addictive game I have ever had the pleasure of playing for eight hours straight. I've been playing for at least three years and I've only ascended once! AARRRGGG!!
!sirE liaH ->- Hail Eris!
But to answer your statement, games are Not a niche market now. They don't fit in the kids demographic, or the weirdos(us) demographic, or whatever. Anybody these days now has a reason to play a videogame. This is evident from any the statistics you care to research.
So when you say that its all about 'a few pimply-faced geeks' you are either a troll or off your rocker, because this market is huge. This means as much culturally to us as much as movies mean to us culturally. No more, no less, which is where Katz and I disagree most likely.
One thing that I find really interesting is how games are becoming more and more like movies. I don't mean that playing games is like watching a movie, I'm talking about movie development. Games for the Playstation2 that look decent and play decent are requiring humungous development teams to bear fruit. People like Square decided to make their Final Fantasy movie because they already had so much money invested in tools that could be used for movie development, and the other tools that they acquire making the movie can now be used to make games! Even if the movie completely flops, they still win, because suddenly they have the world's best tech demo, and the machines to make the prettiest damn games you've ever seen.
This is synergy!
If you want to know what the game industry will look like in 5-10 years, just review a history book of the movie industry.
---------------
It is easy to control all that you see,
If you go back to the main story though, you'll see that there are really large numbers of adults playing video games. They're playing solitaire online. Or canasta online, or whatever. You can't get much money from these people yet, they're happy playing with things that are 'Free with Windows', but this is a trend that could change if something catches their eye.
As for artistic growth, well, it sounds like you're not a game developer, but don't take that the wrong way. The story is only one of many things that is the art. I have alluded that the game industry is growing like the movie industry, but games != movies, and the games that think they are movies have a tendency to flop. And some games do have decent plots anyway, but you won't find them in FPS games.
---------
It is easy to control all that you see,
Worms Armageddon is definitely the most addictive game ever made.
That's more then just a little hyperbole, don't you think? When one considers the ammount of time that people watch television, I doubt very much that gaming comes anywhere near.
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man sig
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the pen is mightier then the sword. the sword is mightier then the court. the court is mightier then the pen.
Counter-Strike a Mod for HALF-Life is by far the most addictive game i have ever played in my life.. it incorporates strategy, 3rd person shooter..and in the off times of the game chatting and getting to know people. and its free, yes free... I know some people say how can the NUMBER 1 most played Online game be Free!!!?? because its f@#king sweet and well made thats why go get it counter-strike.net oh and I am also number one player in the game :-)
[SAB]Smoke
We spend our lives learning, if you like learning life is hard. it can never be only the ups the downs will always co
QuakeWorld TeamFortress. I tried it after deathmatch and CTF, and never went back. I played it almost every day for 2 years. TeamFortress under the Half-Life engine is OK but falls short of the original. Counterstrike is a specialized TF by another name with it's own merits. I remember early morning skirmishes on 2fort23 and smallforts as the best of times. What has followed is just an imitation of what was...
I had thought that TinyTim was (I believe) the oldest but in browsing their webpage they seem to have come around in 1990 or so. Oh well. It is an interesting place to get lost in......
my fav's in no particular order: Nemesis MUD: Man this was my home away from home for years. There was a test server up and running it a while ago. anyone know where it is? jump man junior: enough said. civilization: yup that one too! wolfenstein, spear of destiny, doom, quake..... snow brothers nick & tom (god i love mame!) enough for now. anyone with nemesis info please email me. thanks deliverator@nospam.the-deliverator.net
Is Katz writing another book (about gaming?). Katz = Pussy
Typo: *required* gameplay = *required* teamplay
Sorry bout that
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Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
CS used to be popular until version 1.0 came out. Its been dying ever since.
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Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Check out the ClassicCTF mod for Quake 3. It implements the grapple quite nicely as well as the other weapons in the lovely q3a engine.
www.captured.com/cctf I think, otherwise search planetquake.com
No, I did not read the f***ing article!
YES! I've spent more time in Tribes than any other game ever.
Bring on Tribes 2!
No, I did not read the f***ing article!
I've learned to do with only 5 hours of sleep a night now. It's easy. But I gotta remain disciplined! Bed at 2am, Mister, no more games, and that's final!
StarCraft, my addiction. *sigh*
SDMI: Finally! Music that won't rip or burn! Brought to you by the fine folks at RIAA.
John, you ignorant slut.
Gaming cheats are nothing like folklore. They are tiny little factoids that are only of interest to anybody for the two months it takes for a typical game to become obsolete (or for the players to get bored with it, whichever comes first).
As with many of your articles, it needs to be emphasized that this is nothing new. For as long as there have been problem-solving past-times, people have cheated at them. As an example, people in the 80's were taking apart their Rubics Cubes (or buying instruction books) instead of solving them.
Stop treating every little thing that geeks spend more than a few minutes a day on as if it was some kind of dramatic cultural shift. Is it really any surprise at all that kids who were playing weekend-long sessions of Dungeons & Dragons back in the late 70's would grow up to spend 20 hours a week playing Everquest or Diablo? Are they really all that different from the old ladies who spend their final years on earth playing BINGO and card games? Or people from 50 years agao playing Marbles and Dominos? The only real difference about recreation today is that we have more time for it.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
But he did eat mushrooms to get big... and had a flute that took him to a far away land...
I am a bad speler. Please ignore speling meestakes in me poast.
Civillization... no doubt about it... many a hour was spent bleary eyed desperately trying to get my civ. up to manhatten project advancement.
those were the days...
E.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
Heh, that reminds me that Warcraft 2 was the enabler that enabled me to lose my scholarship by .01 of gpa point =(
I take full responsibility, I chose "zug zug" over Calc I, 9 times out of 10.
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
You might wanna pick up a copy of Robo-Rally. I know, it's a board game from Wizards Of The Coast, and may be hard to find. The premise is about the same as Carnage Heart, but it's on a robot factory floor, and you play cards giving the robots movement orders. Plus there are conveyer belts, weapons, damage, and save points.
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Katz, kids definitely have not stopped bragging about their sexual exploits. And I'm not even talking about beating Leisure Suit Larry, either. The implication that video games somehow became the be-all, end-all of life for Gen-Y and geekier Gen-X-ers is simply erroneous.
Ok, so sexual exploits weren't on the list, but the point still stands that there was more to life than the NES and Atari 2600.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
It absolutely has to be Starcraft!!! This game was fun to learn and play against the computer but gained a new dimension when played on line. My roommates banned me from playing before 11pm because I would tie up the phone line. This late start did nothing to quell my enthusiasm and I soon evolved into a nocturnal beast. I played 11pm to 5 am and then tried to function at school with obviously little sucess. I still find myself dreaming of strategies and I have been clean for about 6 months (I had to quit cold turkey when I started work - the first 2 weeks I could not sleep). Call me a loser, call me what you will, but the word addicted is a very accurate description.
Solaristrum: One who has spent way too long staring at the Sun
This is a definite antique.
It was a simple 2D shooter, although in a rectangular Pac-Man Style Maze. You had four keys for moving, and 4 keys for directional shooting, Monsters coming from all directions.
The music was an endless loop of a simplified "Peter Gunn Theme".
Since the difficulty reset after 4 or 5 levels, one could get into an endless playing loop, with the music enhancing the hypnotic effect.
Shutting the game down after 2-3 hours was kinda like coming down off
Not confused enough? http://translate.google.com/translate?u=www.slashdot.jp&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sl=ja&tl=en
How many secretaries have you disrupted from their important "work"? How long did your parents feverishly click the little squares when they first started using a Wintel machine?
science is a religion
I HATE sim games, but I borrowed a copy of THE SIMS and I played it for hours without a thought of time...
As for my FAVORITE game, it would be Diablo, and now Diablo2.
CS majors, we are the geeks that run it all. Without us things die.
This is true! My fiance' Tabitha (23 yrs. old) will whip your a$$ in Tekken. She also rocks on Starcraft, Age of Empires etc, etc, ad inf.
There is a war going on for your mind.
Yeah, but playing with 2 players is what made if fun. ;)
karma is for the weak >)
true enough.
i could live a little longer in this prison
i could live a little longer in this prison
Frankly, I find roller-coaster Tycoon to be one of the most addictive games I've ever played. I have both expansion packs, and have playd most of the scenereos (and am still going). Talk about a time-sink!
StarCraft comes in second for me.
- Spryguy
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
I think you have a rather valid point.
My brag: I got all 120 stars in Mario 64. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done in my life. Some of the stars were so hard won, I wept tears of frustration trying to get them. It was only sheer bloody-mindedness that got me through to the end. What a great game.
Even though he's produced a few duds, Shigeru Miyamoto is a genius. (Another game by him that I consider to be perfectly executed is 1080 Snowboarding. Much better than SSX on the PS2.)
"Other generations told war stories or bragged about their sexual exploits."
Does playing 'Leisure Suit Larry' count?
Heroes III is the most addictive game ever. This game is the culmination of all that is good about board games and computer games. My girlfriend and I have logged hundreds of hours. If your into strategy games / RPG this game is a must-have.
Heroes takes a turn based approach to play that leaves time to go to the fridge and refresh that can of pop. Turns comprise three types of action divided between exploration, building, and fighting. Single player games against the computer AI are fun, but the multiplayer games absolutely rock. Be sure to set aside about 6 hours for any decent sized map, though!
std::disclaimer<std::legalese> sig=new std::disclaimer; sig->dump(); delete sig;
When most of the /. readership already know what he's trying to tell them?
This article would be better off in a mainstream magazine where parents, teachers etc could read it and learn something. I wonder why it isn't...
Oh yes, because no editor in his/her right mind would publish this crap.
Recently, there was a period of my life where I did nothing for weeks but sleep, work, and play counterstrike. Play on the lan after work if 6 or more people, or play on the internet if not. Internet play was best.
And I'm female.
Loved every aspect of the game. Still do.
What do women want, Mel?
A headshot with a Desert Eagle
I agree the original statement was too extreme. Gaming is certainly not "the single most pervasive form of culture, in America". on this we agree. it is easlily eclipsed by tv culture, radio culture etc.
but deer hunting?! no. i believe your perspective is equally skewed. yes, its a popular sport mostly in rural areas, city folk usually don't do much hunting and women are rarely inclined to take an interest in this type of sport.
but thats a bit beside the point and i don't want to stray from the topic. i agree that Jon Katz seems to be lacking a bit of perspective in regards to gaming but i find his thoughts on the subject interesting none the less.
Sid is God. Civ 2 is over four years old and I STILL play four hours of so a week. The game design is so subtle and rich that I still havent figured out how all the pieces interact. How many games are still in your collections that are four years old?
I have a theory that whenever a braincell dies, it sends out a last signal that transmit its data. (I have proof from days-long gaming sessions.)
This must be such an incident for Jon.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
How about mario taking magic mushrooms to "power up", or eating a plant to get "fire power"?
.sig: Open Source, Open Mind
Diablo II and current games may be addictive, but will you be playing them in a year? A true addictive game you keep playing and playing over and over again. Solitaire and Mahjongg are good examples, but think multiplayer. Goldeneye for the N64 or Bomberman for any system. Those are games that you just keep going back to for more, especially with 4 people.
- gtaluvit (prnc. GOT-tuh-LUV-it)
For me the most addictive game would have to be Grand Theft Auto 2. I can play that game for hours and still end up with bad karma from the Krisna. Even with a multitude of GOURANGA cheats in place its still fun. The army hack that gives you your own personal stash of tanks, jeeps and trucks will turn you into a "Cop Killa" in no time.
[ ]
Gemstone is still the most addictive game I've ever played. UO is a close second.
50 is too many. suck my points, moderators
Does my bum look big in this?
i rarely ever complete a game normally i get bored with a game after a week or so. but Deus ex changed all of that. i lost a job and almost my girl friend because of this game,but that's beside the point
my main point is this. it's been about a year or so since i have played it. but i can remember events in the game as if they were my acutely memories for instance sniping Unatco troops from a bride in Paris. fighting Agent Nervaro talking to Tracer Tong, and so on (man do I sound crazy) I have played other role playing games before Final Fantasy, Zelda, Baldurs gate but i really can't remember jack shit from them. the creators of this game did a great job immersing (sucking) the player into the game. i think this is due to the freer environment and story line. there were always multiple ways of solving a problem and dealing with people in the game, and the story revolved around conspiracies and land marks that we have all heard about. unlike Baldurs gate which was set in a fantasy world. This is why I call it a Quasi Reality, there were things in the game that we were already familiar with.
it's a good thing the graphics where not 3D photo realistic other wise i would probably have a Schizoid Embolism like in Total Recall.
Quoteland.com gives "disapprove":
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Of course, once we may edit, I should think it more powerful to say:
"I disagree vehemently with what you say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it."
The text parser was crappy, there were tons of bugs, and (of course) there were no shiny graphics, but it was in my opinion BY FAR a better game than (e.g.) Diablo II, and tons more addictive. I spent literally days on end working on my character, and when she would die (costing a quarter of my experience) I swear it felt like I died - my blood pressure would shoot up, and I would have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach...
And the whole MUD would be in shock, and there would follow a long procession of comfort and condolences. And I would swear off the MUD, only to return a few days later galvanized to regain the lost experience, and then some...I really cared about completing those quests, and advancing in level, whereas in (e.g.) Diablo II, I could not possibly care less.
The best thing about these MUDs - still unduplicated as far as I can tell - was the real sense of community that was created. The same people knew they would find each other almost every day, and consequently there were long histories and emnities that develop, hell there were full out feuds that lasted years. I've heard of people getting married to people they met on MUDs, for crying out loud ! And there was really room for people to take on different personas...there were helpful people, aloof people, stupid people, and evil, dangerous people.
The only thing that would stop me from playing was when I would come down with weakness in the forearm from banging out the same key combination for hours straight. Then I would have to take a break for a few days. And what finally stopped me was when I left college, and thereby lost my free Net access. I just couldn't play the same way anymore when all those hourse would cost me big-time.
Ahh, the old days.
- Wizardry, an amazing step forward in computer RPGs
- Snake Byte, too simple and clever for my good
- Lode Runner, excellent gameplay
In each case, the gameplay was extremely well done. Wizardry, in particular, with its own spell names which are still stuck in my head only about 15 years later (Mahalito, anyone?)It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
Speaking of Apple IIs, did anyone here ever play a game called Centauri Alliance? It was the first computer RPG I ever played, and it is still on my top ten list (of course the two may have something to do with each other). I played that game off and on for almost 5 years, and I still never beat it. Then again, I was a really little kid at the time. Ok, I'll stop reminescing(sp?) now.
TFC is one of the most addicting games ive seen yet. I cant tell how much sleep ive lost playing this game, lol.
Ok, i play games since the dawn of time, i.e. Fort Apocalypse on C64, i was 14 and played it till 6 in the dawn for a week. Then there was Bards Tales, Pirates, Paradroid etc.
Then i entered the world of Unix, and there it was nethack. In my college there was a room with 24 Terminals. One night at 2 AM 23 students played nethack and the mainframe crashed. Luckyliy root was in the room (He lost an Lvl 24 human mage :-)).
I started to dream in ASCII, so i aquit nethack. But there was another vice, angband or at first it was called moria...
I got older but Diablo got me hooked again. So I tried to get some even harder Stuff: Zangband. And one day i will get a WINNER ...
... whenever a text is transmitted, variation occurs. This is because human beings are careless, fallible, and occasiona
Ha ha ha ha ha! I loved the time I tried that as a sadist bastard! One of my friends gave a guy nothing but a trailer and an outdoor toilet and hot-tub. He kept inviting chicks over, and they'd get in the hottub, but whenever he tried to get some, they'd smack him. Also, he wouldn't let his guy sleep or eat. It got to the point where the guy would be walking to get the mail and would collapse on the ground for a couple of hours. Ha ha ha ha!
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams
Most of the actual memorable games that strike me were carts for the original NES.. namely Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda and Metroid. A few honorable mentions are Phantasy Star (can't remember the version, the one with the generations of characters) for the Genesis. Also, Night Stalker for the Intellivision really kept me playing (damned robots).
Succumb to natural tendencies. Be hateful and boring.
Sorry, bud, but the hunters rule. Nothing like a good ol' critical hit to take out the nastiest of nasties.
Klute 'Fear Of People' if you're into introspective DnB and breakbeat --- Ed Rush & Optical 'Creeps LP' if you're into sci-fi DrumnBass --- There's a few new things on a German label called Intergroove, a v/a mixed by Sven Vath and a NAMLOOK, Pete/DJ DAG downtempo thing--both look interesting --- Ritchie Hawtin's 'Decks Effects & 909's" if you've not gotten it already get it although it's far from new
Quote from ???: "There are lies; there are damn lies; and there are benchmarks."
Ten percent of female Net users play first person shooters? That would be a lot of girls. Am I reading that correctly? Maybe if you count the guys using the "Crackwhore" skin :P
This is the first part of what is called the "Konami Code", a cheat code used for some games on the Nintendo console. If you pressed Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, and then Start, you would get 30 lives in Contra and Lifeforce...possibly other games too, I dunno.
Well that was surely a value add to the forum. Thanks for posting that, Anonymous Coward.
JonKatz: thanks as always for you unending stream of interesting social commentary.
I, too, support the first amendment which gives me the right to tell you that you have no idea what you're talking about and that your whole statement is circular logic.
First of all, why would someone who aparently feels his time is wasted by reading JonKatz's posts still have enough time free to type up a reply in the forum?
As you said, the articles are titled "Part X of Y" they are not titled "Article One" "Article Two" etc etc. Nowhere are there claims that his articles are more numerous than they are. Too bad, though... if he padded the numbers enough he could win a set of steak knives. Oh, wait, no he couldn't - come to think of it, there is no reason at all that anyone would do that.
Overall, i feel that JonKatz offers a remarkable series of social views that make reading material on the slashdot site more diverse and informative. often you can learn more listening to a person who didn't grow up with the techy generation that you could by listening to an uber-nerd. It is my hope that JonKatz's material never stops.
Best regards,
Dixieland
P.S. - you may be happy to know that you don't actually have to go out and but a new and larger monitor each time there is an article that won't fit on your screen. use the scroll bar on the right side of your browser... see? it makes the page go up and down, thus turning even the longest article into something easily read, skimmed, or even skipped.
you mean there's actually an arcade that still has this game?? they haven't cleared it out to make room for all the "blood and guts" games??
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"That government is best which governs
Nah...Bards Tale II or was it 3...the damn destiny wand puzzles drove me nuts
God may be on your side, but Lady Luck is MY bitch
I don't know about them being THE MOST addictive but I know that I spent months of my life wasted over those games. It has no graphics and you are represented by the "@" symbol but for a one player fantasy game based on tolkien/D&D, I have not known any better (and it is open source FWIW).
I miss the Karma Whores.
I would have to say that Final Fantasy one through three(in the US) are some of the best games ever. I could play them over and over again and still go back for more. I remember renting the first one weekend after weekend and having to start at the beginning every time because it only had one save and keeping large amounts of caffeine and water on hand so we could stay awake to beat it. (This is back when rentals were one day) Another great game was Dune. I played that on my old 25 MHZ IBM and it took at least three hours to beat the simplest of levels. But that didn't stop me from playing two or three levels in a row, or at least switching out command with my best friend. There was also Contra and Super Tecmo Bowl(best football game ever, even if it was on NES). Even though I like the pretty graphics of most games today, I would give it up for some innovative games. I have a few games I play nowadays but nothing that rivals the time and fun I used to get out of the games I named above. My friends and I still break out Super Tecmo Bowl from time to time and as soon as I get my NES fixed I am going back to try four white wizards on Final Fantasy. Oh well, enough rambling, back to work.
We have certainly come a long way, and there is probably a long way to go.
As for the most addictive game(s) I would have to say either Diablo 2 or that total time killer Half-Life: Counter-Strike. People seem to united under these games, be it in Clans, Guilds, or just as a player, jumping into a game, and bantering with the other players.
One thing to remember though, is that games are just that: games, meant for fun and recreation. People who start to take it more seriously than games ruin it for the rest of the players. Those are my two cents worth.
Cogito, ergo sum.
Hmmm, on second thoughts, I'd sooner hear a Slashsdot news story about Linux Torvalds wife's new kid (I wonder who the father is?)
Gary
"Making linux GPL was the best thing I ever did" - Torvalds. I'd hate to see the worst thing...
What about Dune2? Much better subject matter than RA2. Can anyone agree?
Talk about a mental thrill. I LOVED that game, and was excited when I finally took it down. Simple game, elegant.
83 Days Played in 8 months That means 1992 Hours Out of 5952 hours in those 8 months That means 1/3 of my time alive during those 8 months was spent playing EverQuest Thats more time than i spent sleeping!!
Obviously the most addictive will be different for everyone. Quake One was (and still is) perhaps #1 on my all time list. I got this game my sophomore year in high school. Online gaming was just coming of age but I knew little about it. I played the one player Quake for a bit of time and liked it but didn't think it was too revolutionary.
One night I found some Quake web sites (planetquake I think) and found a list of IP addresses with active games. At this time I barely knew what an IP address was, but I typed it into the Quake multiplayer game.
The first thing I remember is spawning in a hall and getting blown up by a rocket launcher, seeing the culprit jump over me and frag another guy into a hundred pieces.
This is when (for better or worse) my life changed. I just couldn't get it through my head that these were REAL people playing. Well, years later (6 years now?) and I am STILL playing Quake. I never moved on to the sequels, I just didn't find them as interesting.
On the console front, it's all Mario Kart 64.
Thank you.
Even though it has some of the worst networking code I've ever seen (if not THE worst) I think it's pretty much the best game ever. Realism is cool, not to mention all the stuff you can mod in the game.
Palaces, barricades, threats, meet promises
I never used the Konami code much, but an even more remeberable code was the street fighter. Down, R, UP, L, Y, B, the campionship code for street fighter. And What about IDKFA, who does not know that one. In a non-ID FPS, if you used it it would kill you for cheating, codes were great, now a days nobody memorizes and talks
starcon 2 is the best game ever created. No ifs and or butts.
Video games were one of the most profound influences on my childhood. Sitting in front of my Atari 2600 I was utterly fascinated with the idea of *me* controlling the images on the TV. That curiosity prompted me to ask questions and look up anything I could find in the Library relating to video games (and not just strategies either, how they worked). That prompted me to start taking programming classes in Junior High and High School and being none too shy about taking various things apart. That led to entering college as a Hardware / Software major. Today I'm working in the computers field.
My point (if you couldn't guess it) is that even though video games may seem to be a simple distraction, they can inspire the imagination in so many ways. If they hadn't piqued my curiosity at a young age, I probably would have gone into Accounting or some other detail oriented profession.
But they're not limited to inspiring programmers and computer geeks. People with a writer's bend may sharpen their skills by writing fanfics. Or someone who enjoys music may compose midis. They provide an avenue for expressing natural talents that may have otherwise gone unexplored.
Just to get my $0.02 in:
Best Atari: Pitfall
Best NES: Mega Man 2
Best SNES: Final Fantasy 6
Best PSX: Final Fantasy 8
I have fond memories of all of these games and they weren't solo journeys. My friends and I challenged each other, cheered each other on, and had our friendships grow all the stronger by sharing an activity that we all enjoyed.
Somebody's gonna have to write an RTS that's programmable like that - then there'd be so much less frantic clicking
pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory7
...and that was such constructive criticism . . .
~~~~~~~~~ "I must create my own system, or be enslav'd by another man's." William Blake, Jerusalem.
Elite gets my vote too - the original BBC micro version which had better graphics than anything else around at the time. I spent a whole summer holiday playing six or seven hours a day. It reached the point where my thumb was painfully sore from pressing the fire button on my cheapo joystick. I can still visualise the docking manoever where you braked your ship exactly on the axis of rotation for the space station, then flipped over and brought your rotation up to match before edging in. Pretty much impossible on a keyboard but easy on a joystick after a week or two practicing. KD
Well, for what it's worth....kudos for knowing the difference and acknowledging it.
has got to be the best console multiplayer first person shooter. Perfect Dark is good, but it doesn't match the addictiveness of GE. "No Oddjob or Moonraker Elite!"
I tend to go in "spurts" with games. I'll start playing one, play it nonstop (as in work/sleep/game, over and over) until I burn out, take a break for a few months, then come back and do a different game. The end result is that I end up playing only two or threes title per year at most, but when I play, I get totally into it.
The game that I keep coming back and getting addicted to over and over again is Half-Life. The single-player game is fun to replay, but it's the multiplayer that really gets me. It must be the combination of the weapons, balance, and excellent level design... no other FPS affects me so much. I can spend hours alone in Gasworks.
You would naturally assume that Half-Life's extensive mod community has something to do with this replay value, but in my case, it doesn't. For instance, I never even played Team Fortress until this past summer! That's right, I spent half a dozen addiction periods just playing a handful of deathmatch levels -- mostly Gasworks, Doublecross, Crossfire, Boot Camp. God, just thinking about Gasworks makes me want to reinstall the game (recently did an hardware upgrade and haven't restored everything yet), get some coffee and a few cans of Coke, forget about the ultra-urgent development project at work which is due the day after Xmas, and just waste the night playing Half-Life.
Naturally, once I started playing Team Fortress Classic, it bit me just as badly. I'd always enjoyed teamplay deathmatch in Half-Life, but Team Fortress just 0wNz me. I can't wait until TF2 comes out, if it ever does...
I still haven't tried Counterstrike. Maybe when things cool off at work I'll consider it.
My list of most recent new and revisted addictions include: Quake, Quake II, Q3A, Diablo, Diablo II, UT, SoF, SimCity 2000, Nethack, FFVII, FFVIII, Gran Turismo, the first Zelda64, and the pinball game that comes with NT5.
I've never played EverQuest. I thought it sounded cool, but after years of playing FPSs online for free, the thought of paying for the monthly service turned me off. Now, after hearing how it's actually destroyed people's lives, I think I'm glad I stayed away. I've never let a game addiction interfere with work, but it's probably best to not push my luck.
I found the discussion this article has generated to be surprisingly interesting, considering that JonKatz is a boner-biting bastard.
See you in hell,
Bill Fuckin' Gates®.
See you in hell,
Bill Fuckin' Gates®.
(This post is ©2001 Microsoft(TM) Corporation.)
The idea of media defining culture is ridiculous. Such an idea could only come from the US (yes I live there), a land whose original cultures were wiped out by a psuedo-European copy-off which has, in the last fifty years, degenerated into a cesspool of psychologically programmed selfishness and mass-consumption. The US is a cultural vacuum. What you perceive as culture is actually advertising. You're a victim. Get used to it.
Yes, I'm bitter.
Finally, the fact that you refer to Katz as a "journalist" proves you're an idiot. As much as I hate most "journalists", I don't have enough negative feelings toward them to put them in the same group as fucking Katz, for God's sake. I wish Katz would get a real job and spare us such garbage. No, I'm not going to block him in my preferences -- that would be admitting defeat. Katz's employment here is YASTSID (yet another sign that Slashdot is dead).
See you in hell,
Bill Fuckin' Gates®.
See you in hell,
Bill Fuckin' Gates®.
(This post is ©2001 Microsoft(TM) Corporation.)
However, Gore was an unabashed establishment Socialist, and the Democratic party just disgusts me. I'd rather some have Jesus-fucking Southener in office than Gore, that's for sure. Just listening to the "average person's" ignorance over US politics in these past few months has convinced me that the US is completely fucked. It has also convinced me that the "US liberal media conspiracy" -- an idea I found laughable six months ago -- actually exists. God, I hate this country.
See you in hell,
Bill Fuckin' Gates®.
See you in hell,
Bill Fuckin' Gates®.
(This post is ©2001 Microsoft(TM) Corporation.)
I would have to say Robotron 2084 is the most addictive game. I always liked the two joystick control, one to move while the other to shoot.
Quake 3? Everquest? Wow, I've played these games and many more of the "newer" games out there today. All I can say is they don't come close to anything in the way of addiction to the early games of the 80's. Playing on the early Atari systems, there were no multiplayer games to help change the flow of a game. There were no frills added to the games. You sat down in front of your tv which probably had big dials on it, popped in a cartridge, grabbed a "real" joystick with one little red button and played till you couldn't feel your thumb. Games like Pacman and Space Invaders are games that you can call addictive. Nothing ever changed in them, but you kept coming back for more....hour after hour.
Anyone remember the old Amiga game Moria? Ancient now - and considering it was amiga - real crappy graphics (mind you the PC port was ascii based). And whatever anyone else tells you, this was the most addictive game of all time. It was so good that when I only recently played Diablo for the first time I was pissed off - because D is a direct rip of Moria, and they'd killed it with some crappy game play, slick sound/graphics and 3d view! Moria might have been lofi, but the amount of terror that a tiny block of 20-odd pixels can instill in a person has to be experienced. Mind you, the one thing everyone was longing for in Moria was multiplayer support, so there you go. Diablo was certainly not ground-breaking, etc, etc, etc. Moria was the instigator of countless high-school relationship problems. Some dinosaur out there will probably remember the name of the original unix version of Moria. Just letting all you kiddies know that there was life before 386-era humans. And gameplay :)
lemonade was a popular drink and it still is
am i the only one who doesn't know what it means? i've read other people saying they know what's next but i haven't a clue. i have never owned a console. and the only cheat i remember is up down left right (until you hear a ring), A, start. that's for sonic the hedghog on the megadrive.
so could someone fill me in on the up up down down gubbins please.
wray
---
hello this is bruno brooks, umm, err, cunt.
Modern day life is a prison. Our freedom of doing what we want to do is controlled by our schedules and responsibilities. Working at a job, day in a day out can make you feel that you haven't made any progress at all. We are trapped in our animal cells, by the physical limitations of our bodies. Society's socially idealistic and stereotypic walls categorize us it to groups and suppress our original ideas. With all this psychological torture and repetitive torment of everyday life, people are always looking for new ways of escaping. This was the reason that video games were made. To let you break out of the prison of the real world and enter a virtual world. You have the freedom to do anything you want in your own private world. Here you know your moving up the levels, going some where, and making a difference. In video games, the physical size and strength of your body do not trap you. So you have the ability to do things that that you could not to in real life. Unfortunately there are side effects to escaping in to a virtual private world. While your mind is active and thinking, your body is not. Which might contribute to the fact that the average American is over weight. When you're in the imaginary world of video games, all the progress you think you have made does not translate it to progress in the real world. Therefore the people of the real world look it at as wasted time. With it being a private world, your social interaction will also suffer. This will make it harder to have a normal life in the real world, and, in turn, make you want to go back into your imaginary world. So we are trapped in the dungeon of real life and the consequences of escaping into video games. You either wait out your sentence and dream of retirement, or, when no ones looking, escape for a short time. Just remember, the longer you have escaped, the harder it will be to come back.
The most addicting game I've ever played was Legends of the Red Dragon on the local BBS. Me and my friends would log on to the server for our 20 minutes of time and play. We played it all the way until the registration cap. I must've scored with Violet 1000 times. Second to LORD's gotta be Team Fortress. It's the only game that crosses all types of engine bounderies.
I dont know if anyone remembers this game, I know some people DEFINITLY do. ShadowRun was the only game I beat over 75+ times each version. I believe that I found every element possible in that game, I lived, breathed and died ShadowRun. It had a feel to it that no other game could bring at that time. Zelda 3 was really awesome.. but ShadowRun was the best. Guns, The Matrix, hacking corp comps, mercenaries for hire, selling data files, firefights with LoneStar - i could go on for hours. The combination of Magic, Hacking, and Fighting was the best mix for a game. In the Sega version, i basically discovered every cheat except the ABBACAB menu trick, i was selling light combat armor before most www sites even existed. FASA + SEGA _MUST_ release ShadowRun for DreamCast!! Anyone else who was into this game - if you have any cool tricks, experiences, etc - throw down on a reply.
And here is the problem with the .net. Why doesn't your mom just go over to see granny?
I understand the power to bring people physically far apart close together through communication, and this is a wonderful thing. But I also think there's a danger of destroying community IRL. I have similar problems with folks stuck in "Gaming culture," "Hacker culture" and "Literary culture," just to name a few.
--
Is it possible that you are mistaken? If you are not mistaken, if neither community media access or mandated government censorship are so significant to a generation as communal game tweaks and shared game experiences- is this not a pretty scathing indictment?
If so, what do you propose to do about it, and where do you wish to try and draw people's attention in your capacity as a journalist?
It's clear that the online multiplayer games are the most addictive -- but that's usually not because they're good games, but rather because they're fun communities.
;-), Rogue itself, and so on. Civilization is at least a close second (it's an easier habit to break).
It's clear to me that the most addictive games are the Roguelikes: Nethack, Angband, ADOM, Omega (my game
It's amazing how the Roguelikes keep drawing me (and many others) back; they're not well designed, their UI sucks, and they have zero graphics. But they have a depth of gameplay which is just astounding, and INCREDIBLE replayability. Oh, and a very large amount of challenge.
And no, they're not changing America, nor any of the other countries (yes, Mr. Katz, there are other countries). What a blowhard.
-Billy
Just remember, monks rule! :)
--
At first glance, Nethack appears to be quite primitive. But, it's superbly "Gamed." Addictive in the extreme, it has amazing replay value, and has much depth of immersion. One of
the few games that will make you think the AI
of your computer is mocking you. What nethack
lacks in UI (arguable, since the UI is elegant if
not pretty), it makes up for in gameplay.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
For days after that point, if I even closed my eyes for a second, I would be in another Doom level, lobbing all sorts of artillery at various heinous creatures coming after me. It wouldn't stop.
:) Realising what I'd just done was pretty disturbing, too. :)
:)
Yeah, this reminds me of one time I'd been playing 1-1 deathmatch (over modem) until about 3 or 4 in the morning. I turned off the light to go to bed, but as I lay down into bed, a blurry red LED caught my eyes (which were having trouble focusing after the 6 or so hours of staring at the screen). I instantly recognised it as a rocket, hurtling directly towards me. I physically strafed out of its way, nearly falling out of bed!
The best thing is that I can still usually convince people to play an hour or two of DoomGL at LAN parties, which is a nice refreshing retro hit.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
At least it gives Slashdot something fun to read this morning.
People don't read Slashdot, Slashdot reads Slashdot.
-- By pressing down a special key it plays a little melody
I don't really know. Most addictive sorta implies that you can't stop playing 'em even thought they kinda suck graphically or whatever, so I'll just list my childhood favorites instead:
- Star Control II (my first RPG!)
- Wing Commander Privateer
- the original Duke Nukem
- Commander Keen 4-6
- Monkey Island
I also remember playing Wing Commander 1 a lot. I remember the first time I saw a dralthi, and just going "whoa.." : )
Without doubt the most addictive game of all time would have to be: Tetris, in all its incarnations. I have yet to find a game that continually enthralls me, no other games has made me forget all other things like tetris. 'nuff said.
---
if you can't figure out how to email me, tough.
---
>>Sig under construction
My favorites were:
nethack, hack, rogue played over a 1200 baud modem link to the local community access SCO system
Ultima V
the DOS version of Spacewar on a Victor 9000
Old school Apple ][ educational games like Rocky's Boots and Snooper Troopers.
However, in terms of total addictiveness and true timewasting, Civilization wins, hands-down. I could get stuck for hours with that game. There was a time during the summer of 1994 when there was always (and I stress always, it was indeed 24/7) somebody in the house I hung out at playing Civilization or DOOM, but Civ was just a bit more interesting for other people to sit around and watch, too. Someone learned the buy-as-building-switch-to-military-unit trick, we all learned the trick. Someone decided it'd be cool to use the Great Wall (and later the UN) to mercilessly spank the computer and still make peace every other turn, we all tried it. It was pretty interesting, to say the least. Civ 2 had the same tenacious addictiveness, but somehow it just didn't feel the same as the VGA graphics of Civ 1. Even just building your castle was more fun than watching your 'throne room' go up.
I wonder why Katz is requesting "such archives be created" when there are probably quite a bit of web sites and Usenet groups and BBSes with at least one portion of their gaming content devoted to older games or, at the very least, sporadic nostalgia threads. Shrug. At least it gives Slashdot something fun to read this morning.
Tetris. Not only the most addictive, but the most pervasive game ever.
Agreed. I would bet that more people identify deer hunting as far more a mainstream cultural activity than gaming.
I think this navel-gazing has gone on long enough. Gamers are fun people who enjoy their activities, and the rise of gaming may be part of a neat cultural shift in America, but it certainly isn't the most prominent representative of that shift, nor is it the cause.
-schussat
The hour of noon has passed. Let us go and get some Kentucky Fried Chicken.
I'd like to see some sources for that? I find it hard to believe that computer/console game sales are higher than that of the movie industry. When you take into consideration the multiple venues that a movie makes money in, I don't think your statement could possibly be accurate.
It's got to be Civilization... I lost MONTHS of my life to that game.. God games 0wn simple namby pamby shooters ;)
So when you say that its all about 'a few pimply-faced geeks' you are either a troll or off your rocker, because this market is huge. This means as much culturally to us as much as movies mean to us culturally.
I'd disagree with that. Over half of video game sales are during the Christmas season. I've heard figures as high as 80%. Video games as entertainment for kids 15 and under is a huge, huge market, just as Nickelodeon (a cable channel, for those outside the US), and Barbie dolls are. Outside of that market, I would hardly call video games larger than movies. They may make more money--as does the toy industry--but the cultural impact isn't there. Remembering "up, up, down, down" is similar to remembering a cartoon you used to watch when you came home from school in the fourth grade (for me it was Speed Racer), or a toy that it seemed all the other kids had, like Gobots.
Compared to movies and books, I can't help but find video games as shallow. I like them, sure, but even the games that are touted for their plots--like Half Life--just seem like so much bubblegum fluff from the fifties. "Bad aliens have invaded and you, the last hope of mankind, must exterminate them!" There's a funny backlash against kiddie games that's resulted in a plethora of Blade Runner-esque post-apocalyptic games set in dark futures. But the gaming experience hasn't advanced much. Sure, you can pay with action figures when you're 30, but is it really all that appealling?
The video game industry has expanded like crazy, but it hasn't shown any artistic growth.
I can't help but agree. My best friend and roomate tried to get me into this game for a long time. I sat there and watched both him and all his friends get sucked into this mealstrom of digital Heroin. I have nothing against the games, per se; but I do take issue to doing absolutly nothing else with one's life.
I listened to him talk about it all day and all night. He took time off from work at least a few times every couiple of weeks to get a 23 hour day in on the servers. His friends would get on Ebay to buy and sell characters and items for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars... Don't get me wrong, I love capitalism. However, I just can't imagine how one would (and this was the case with one of them) quit a job to be a full time EQ player. Thats right. He quit his job to amass power and glory on the servers to sell it on Ebay before they banned it.
Back in the day, we used to play a lot of D&D. We played all day and night, but we still went to school, to work, and out with friends. When we left the gaming table, we left the game. Now I see these people getting together and doing nothing but talk about EQ, or Diablo, or whatever the game might be. I get tired of it. His fiance is tired of it. Her complaint is that she's engaged to him, but he's already married to his computer. I don't blame her for being angry, and thank God she's tolerant of his exploits on the net.
The games aren't bad, but this is a real addiction out there. I won't say 'Get a life.' I'll just remind some 'Everything in moderation.'
I disagree, love can happen online. I've seen it happen to my friends. What's the difference between meeting in a chat room, and meeting through a dear abby letters-to-soldiers thing? Nothing. Love and marriage and all that crap can and does blossom from both.
/."
I do have to add my $.02 to the previous topic, though...I have been in IRC many a night chatting with friends in CO, Canada, and Europe, while boyfriend sat 3 feet away in the same room, chatting in the same channel, and we would more likely type than talk. It's sick, kinda. And I can't count the number of times I've run into someone and said "Oh I just sent you an email, I can't talk to you until you read it." That's disturbing!
"I'm not a bitch, I just play one on
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
1. Quake .. been playing that every weekend since '96 (The day QTest came out ;-)
2. Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1 & 2 ! (Normally I HATE sports games, but these skater games just have the all the right magic!)
3. Ultima Online, again, 2.5 years. (Allthough others swear by EverCrack, er EverQuest.)
--
Pffft. It's only karma.
It's posted below, but I have to re-iterate, Empire was the most addictive game I can remember. I ran the single player version on a VAX 11/780 at work, and dialed in on an 1200 baud modem with a dumb terminal to play it at home. It was very playable at 1200 baud. Included on many of the DECUS tapes. Simple text display/ interface, and it would seem like forever when the computer would take its turn, especially getting near to the end of the game, when there was a lot of enemy left. I was able to find a version I could run on a PC (8088), but it was never the same.
Give me a nice simple interface, that's playable without having to remember too many keystrokes... that's where I can get sucked in really easy.
Wolfenstien 3D and Doom were much the same for me, I got addicted quickly, but I was able to kick the habit eventually. The 2nd game I've ever played in a genre is never quite the same- I lose some of the wonder at the great artifical world that's been created for me.
My current gaming addiction is Counter-Strike - undoubtedly the most popular and IMHO the best online FPS in existence.
For sheer time wasting I would probably nominate Warcraft in its various incarnations, and before that Doom.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
According to the August 30, 1999 issue of Newsweek, videogame revenues exceeded box-office revenues in 1999, and that trend is expected to continue. Video games most definately are supplanting film as the entertainment choice of Americans.
-Vercingetorix
-Vercingetorix
"Necessitas non habet legem." -St. Augustine
According to this Wired article: "Tetris significantly raises cerebral glucose metabolic rates (GMRs), meaning brain energy consumption soars. Yet, after four to eight weeks of daily doses, GMRs sink to normal, while performance increases seven-fold, on average."
Not only that, it's been ported darn near everywhere, for example the Atari 2600!
I dont know.. define "addictive".. is there a difference between "addiction" and "stubborness"?
.02 frags
I'll play Q3 if I have nothing better to do, but I dont think there are any games that just *call* me to the PC.. well.. except possibly "same gnome".. marbles is worse than Tetris used to be.
(does that count as an online game?)
But yeah.. I think that gaming is a great diversion, its *cheap* comparitively, when you figure what a lot of us used to pump into pinballs and pacman machines, now that most out of the box machines come with kickass video cards and processors. So what if Quake costs 40 bucks? thats only 160 games of pacman.. a cheap price to pay for a full game like that.
*sigh*
my
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
Due to the anonymous nature of the new they must rely on self-reporting.
If this study actually has a methodology that can create results that mean something, that woudl be bigger news then their supposed results.
"gaming has become a mainstream form of culture, if not the single most pervasive form of culture, in America."
Man, those are some heavy drugs Jon must be taking. Even in the Excited States, I don't see this as being anything less than outrageous exaggeration. What planet is he from anyways?
Oh yes, that's right--the planet where the only people who matter are the few hardcore nerds who were "victimised" in school, don't read, don't go out, don't socialise, and don't care. The other 90% of the population is irrelevant, and all bullies anyways.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Just a small correction. UO didn't get you kicked out of college--YOU got you kicked out of college!
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Well, wasn't that the original poster's point? That not EVERYBODY lives and breathes computer games? Sure gaming is mainstream--it has been since the original Atari VCS (before the called it the 2600 even!) came out. It's even a relatively significant demographic, although doesn't touch TV yet. The point still remains that Jon DESPERATELY needs to get out more, and see that games (or even computing in general) are not the lynchpin of The Free World(tm).
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Oh, I don't know about that, Mr. Katz. We old fogeys had our games too...
My favorite was one called "strip poker".
This cycle was repeated almost every day for three months. We finished I and II, and most of III by then. Our characters were about 130th level and could do about 1500 points of damage to everbody we faced using mangar's mind mallet. We were gods.
Due to the constraints of having a real life, I've never had the chance to do anything like that since, but I haven't had the addiction too often either. Anything by Blizzard is about as close as it has come.
ahh C64, I still remember ye.
free online diet tracking.
i've been playing q3a a bit recently and was suprised at what happened maybe two weeks ago.
i was moving stuff off a counter in my house, and it made a "swish-click" sound exactly like the one in quake you hear just before you get fragged from behind.
the fingers on my left hand twitched just so, and i felt my eyes dart.
then i blinked and realized i was just in the kitchen...it was actually a little scary there for a second.
Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
See my user info for links.
> What, for example, is the most addictive game, now or ever: Asheron's Call? Quake? Final Fantasy 8? Red Alert2?
Lode Runner of course !
Cheers,
--fred
1 reply beneath your current threshold.
For me its WarCraft II. God I love that game. Sure StarCraft is technically superior, but WarCraft has more personality. If I wasn't at work I would go play it now. Zug Zug.
- WeaselGod
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet turbines
I agree that gaming isn't "the single most pervasive form of culture in America", but you cannot deny that gaming has started to become mainstream. The proof for me was when CNN.com had PS2 on their front page that day in October, but there are many more signs and examples. Walk into any Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or whatever, and compare their video-game section to their magazine/book section. Drop into Barnes and Noble, and count the number of gaming-related books. People are into this stuff.
Not everyone is married and has kids, just like not everyone watches TV often or reads many books. There are a lot of people out there spending a lot of money on a lot of video games: and these people do represent a significant demographic. Don't dismiss it just because it's not what your predomitely into.
Those "most frequently played games" Solitaire, Free Cell, Harts and Mindsweeper are bundled with Windows so even your middle aged, balding with a spare tire in the middle, boss can find them under Start>Programs>Accessories>Games.
That isn't insightful Jon, just reality.
This is another view of the world.
I missed a lot of the "proper" Ultimas, as I didn't own a computer till well after the release of U8 (which was one of the first games I bought when I did get one). My introduction to the series was Exodus on NES. Let's put it this way: my parents finally realized that it would be cheaper to just buy me the damn game than rent it for me every week. That was thirteen years ago.
Skip ahead to about two months or so ago. I got the Ultima Collection off eBay and ended up not leaving the dude feedback for two days because I got sucked into U7. Not just with the actual quest either...no, it was all the side shit that got me, and all the neat stuff you could do in the world (anyone else take time out to clean Iolo's nasty-ass house? Or go to the nursery in Lord British's castle for the sole purpose of getting dirty diapers to gross people out with?). That weekend I stayed awake for 26 hours straight playing the damn thing.
And then after that, Serpent Isle. I cannot remember another game, except maybe Xenogears, that made me laugh (killing poor defenseless worms with a claw hammer for one, Frigidazzi's little dance--for a female Avatar no less--for another), cry (if you've played it, you know the scene...sniff), and mutter darkly about killing this motherfucker or that (name of savegame prior to entering Spinebreaker: "Death to the fat fuck"), to the extent that SI did.
But now that I've finished those two, I am finding a major timesuck in the old U4. That was another game I first played on the NES, and while the NES graphics were better, the game play doesn't hold a candle to the real thing. All I need now are the Underworlds. And U9, five years or so from now when I have a computer that will run it. Jeezis.
This is a Chao. A Chao says "Mu."
I have to admit my favorite and most addictive game is tribes. I started with pong, and went through Wolfenstein all the way to todays popular games. Tribes was the first On-line only game which *required* gameplay which made the game unique and a ton of fun.
Close second would be anything by Warren Spector (System Shock, Deus Ex). He made games that broke the genre boarder (RPG FPS, for example).
--
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
I am still hooked on Bubble Bobble! Everytime I am in an Arcade, that game calls to me!
um.. I done, you can stop reading...
I am become Troll, destroyer of threads
But now...telnet to games.world.co.uk (yes, it runs on port 23) and you can get back into Shades again! Quite a few people play it. And it's still lots of fun!
Elite - I think the follow-ons are better, particularly Frontier: First Encounters. However, the learning curve is a little steeper (it uses Newtownian physics, not 'airplane in space' physics). And it inspires people: see all the FEU-fanfiction that's around. You might be interested to know that (hopefully) the Elite Club will be forming soon.
Doom - I agree with your comments entirely. The atmosphere was amazing. It actually made you feel kind of anxious as you could hear all the monsters shuffling around. I played it with the lights off and the headphones on. One day, a friend of mine scared the tar out of me by throwing a little bean-bag frog at my back whilst I was playing the game. I think I jumped about five feet! We still play Doom at lan parties today.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
dear slashdot,
is this sole joke of mine now dull and tiring?
thanks
j0sh
Does my bum look big in this?
I have. It's impossible.
I mean, come on, it's a simple game, fly around and shoot down your opponents. But I just can't stop playing it. I tried it first back in -92 or -93 when it was really basic, and I still play it from time to time.
Anyone else played it and had the same experience? Or knows of a good cure?
A good advice, try it!
A better advice, don't! You won't be able to stop...
/HG
I don't have one
Apparently, men prefer war games ..
including 'strategy' games. Where is one
I can play on my PC? [NT, Win98 or Linux]
Strategy games exist: Chess and Go are strategy
games. There are lots of military board games
in the 'strategy' class.
While they also depend on tactics,
that is, short term planning and response,
the key feature of these games is the need
for long term planning. That's what strategy
is about: supply, logistics, finance,
production, technology...
I've never seen even ONE such game on a computer.
Perhaps there is an element of strategy in
Advanced Civilisation, but if you think
Starcraft is a strategy game, you don't know
what strategy is. (Starcraft is an arcade game,
it doesn't rate in the tactics category either)
Modern games have superb production quality,
excellent graphics, generally poor interfaces,
occasionally interesting tactics, but
not a one has any serious strategic content.
And this is a great pity, because it is almost
impossible to build a serious strategy game
on a board: you really need a computer
to manage the complexity.
John Skaller mailto:skaller@users.sf.net
You youngsters. Don't you see it? Tetris is the most addictive game _ever_. And there are millions of versions of it! And don't complain about lack of cool graphics - there is even several 3D-tetris-versions...
All these new games are just a lot of nice graphics and no new ideas behind.
And for multiuser-games: MUD just rox!
--The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.
...as computers have become more sophisticated and graphics have got flashier, yesterdays super-addictive game simply fades away into obscurity.
However, a pick of three of high points in my experience of computing would be
MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) A text only multi player adventure played at University of Essex (UK). I believe that this was the first MUD ever (pre-1982); does anyone know better ? This was so addictive that I dedicated all my allocated mainframe time to playing this and I had to buy a BBC Micro to do my real computing projects... which leads to...
Elite for the BBC micro; one of the first wire frame 3D graphic space trading games. As you gained experience and graduated from "Harmless" through to the ultimate accolade of "Elite", you could send off to Acorn for badges to prove your prowess. Despite playing this once for 72 hours with only meal breaks I only got as far as Dangerous.... unfortunately the follow-ons to this game simply didn't deliver.
Doom I still believe that despite its age, Doom is the best 1st person shooter ever. I still play it occassionally and the sound combined with the graphics still have the power to make me leap out of my seat when something unexpected happens. Whilst Quake et al bought undeniably better effects, the magic atmosphere seems to be somewhat lacking in these games. One can only hope that the promised Doom 3 brings them back.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Well as a still active gamer I must say with a lot of this discussion about Diablo II, Everquest and games of this ilk, I find that I have to compare my gaming habits of the last few years pale in comparison to my old days of gaming.
I remember when I got my TRS-80 Mod III staying up for days on end playing Zork and Scott adams Adventures. Then again I was 10 years old, lived in a very rural area where my nearest friend was like 10 miles away. (Yeah it sounds like that old granpa school story) But my "addiction" to those games started my love of programming/debugging/etc.. as far as FPS' go. anyone remember Labyrith or bedlam??? They were out LOOOONG before Duke Nukem or Castle Wolfenstein.
I also remember inviting friends over to play Wizardy. We used put 3 or four computers together on the table and simulate multiplayer. Of course we weren't a true LAN party, but it was definately a premonition of things to come. Starting after school on a friday, and surviving on coffee, pizza and doritos till Sunday when we finally slept.
Hell, I met the manager for my company when I was 14 through a love of BTIII. We used to take turns with one person "driving" while the other one mapped, allowing the mapper the occasional nap whilst the "driver" went aroung grabbing experience before embarking down the next dungeon. I still have the maps that I drew on hex/graph paper. The 3 dimensional mazes for those bad boys were quite complex for their time.
So while I have spent some time doing the on-line multiplayer games from cards to "The Realm" to "Everquest",QIII,UT, whatever, for some reason they all seem to pale in comparison to the days I spent with the older games.
I agree with the above posters that to lose school/work/whatever for a game can be detrimental. The same goes for ANYTHING that takes ones time away from your "real-world" responsibilities. I remember getting in school trouble because I was out playing in bars with my band during finals week. Is that any different than playing games??. I don't believe so. The addiction has always been there for some of us, it's just are you responsible enough to know when it's time to quit. Well that and the carpal tunnel that starts kicking in after 8-10 hours of playing Quake or even programming would cause me to stop
-- Life: Hate the Game... Love the cereal
You're absolutely right. However, if you added up the number of people who watched "Survivor" or "Who Wants to Look Even Stupider than Regis Philbin is Annoying?" I bet every game published in the last year doesn't come close to that number. And let's not forget the Bush/Gore Celebrity Death Match in Florida. This was Real History (TM) happening.
Also, while computer games are very pervasive, even my Mom plays FreeCell, there's a big difference between the casual gamers (like my Mom) and the hardcore people who had a reason to coin the term "Evercrack".
Here are some aspects of popular culture that are and probably will always be more popular than computer gaming:
Going to church
Watching Sports
Playing Sports
Listening to the radio
Reading newspapers/magazines (even if they are online)
Reading popular fiction (ditto)
Politics
Complaining about politics
Watching TV (OK, this one will probably go down over time)
Also, I do frequent stores like Wal-Mart, etc, and the book sections are always bigger than the game sections, and the local bookstores generally have about 10 times as much space devoted to such esoteric subjects as history, popular fiction, science or any of a number of other subjects than they do about gaming.
I'm not bashing gaming. I love it. I encourage my kids to play computer games (but not to excess, my wife will reel us in when necessary) and have a number of games for Christmas presents for them. Even my two-year-old is an avid computer user (her favorites are "Thomas the Tank Engine" and "Fisher-Price Toddler", but she loves to watch her older brothers play things like Roller Coaster Tycoon or Lode Runner.) So don't get me wrong, but any view that gaming is the (or even a) predominant element of culture is just a little skewed.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
That number would not not surprise me at all. I host LAN parties from time to time, and almost every female I know has either tried playing them, or does play them (except for one gal who hasn't bothered trying them.) However, it is a bit different between playing online, and playing at a LAN party - a LAN party isn't anonymous, and people are yelling and cursing at each other, and generally having a good time. Online, well, it's a bit different - I don't know how many of those same females play online. But they sure have a blast at the local LAN parties! (Which makes me think - it's time for another one soon!)
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
"The PC Data survey greatly underscores the idea that gaming has become a mainstream form of culture, if not the single most pervasive form of culture, in America."
Yes, even the homeless love a good video game! Get a clue. Video games are a cultural niche. There are many things which reach across age and economic barriers much more -- books, movies, TV, McDonald's, Wal-Mart, turkey on Thanksgiving, watching sports, e-mail (to a lesser extent), and so on. You can throw it against the wall, Jon, but it don't stick...
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If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, forget 'em, because man, they're gone. -- Jack
Hm. You know, when I was a teenager, I used to covertly berate my friends and somewhat lose respect for them over the quantity of their lives they spent on what I could argue as a significant underutilization of their free time via obsessively playing console games. [It saddened me, I knew someone who would play super mario brothers for over two hours a day, but never got around to reading].
...until one day I had the foolishness to install quake. Oh my.
;)
Anyway, I never really understood gaming obsession, although I had [as a youngster] quite enjoyed some infocom offerings, such as starcrossed, infidel [and of -course- zork].
I became completely immersed in the game; my psyche simplified down to an exclusive focus on the reward and happiness of getting the hard to find ammo units, the special armour, the medi-packs. Nothing else mattered. I would sit in the dark, face up against the screen, all of my emotional energy and self focused entirely into the world of the game. And it intellectually challenging at all. I'm kind of ashamed of myself in retrospect.
I was no better then those I had once used to berate for becoming obsessed with super mario [Which, BTW, has some -strange- symbolism. I did always like the fact that you had to slam your head into brick walls constantly to earn happy money coins. I'm not even going to go into a freudian intrepetation of the mushrooms you had to squash...]
Moderators::Note(humor)
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man sig
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the pen is mightier then the sword. the sword is mightier then the court. the court is mightier then the pen.
The game was a mixture of simple turn-based strategy and tactical cobat between two teams of competing robots. The robots were the typical "mechs" in several different varieties, two legged, four legged, tank treaded and flying. The innovative part of the game was that instead of controlling a mech, like a FPS, the player coded the software that dictated how the mechs reacted to their environments.
The programming system was simple and brilliant. Starting with a blank "card", the player placed and configured "chips" that created a sort of flowchart. The chips did all sorts of things like checking environmental conditions (presence of enemies, presence of friendlies, presence of ordinance, fuel remaining, weapons remaining), branching the program logic, moving the mech, firing the weapons and communicating with friendlies. The strategic part of the game was setting up factories, building the mechs, putting together squads and directing their movements on the battle maps.
I spent hours and hours of my free time playing the game (which was fascinating to watch, the game, not me playing it), but what's worse, I spent plenty of time away from the console diagramming new software configurations to try out later. Fortunately, my boss at the time was incapable of distinguishing my stacks of graph-paper flow charts from the work I was supposed to be doing.
At one point in my Doom days, I had been playing it for many hours a day for the past week. Suddenly one night, when I was trying to get to sleep, the instant I closed my eyes all I saw were various Doom levels, either real, made-up, or both, and I was playing them. For days after that point, if I even closed my eyes for a second, I would be in another Doom level, lobbing all sorts of artillery at various heinous creatures coming after me. It wouldn't stop.
Eventually, I stopped playing for a while, and my shut-eye time once again went dark. But Doom was very addictive. It paved the way for Duke Nukem, Quake, and all the billions of other FPS games out there. Hail to the King, baby.
Mr. Ska
> The PC Data survey greatly underscores the idea that gaming has become a mainstream form of culture, if not the single most pervasive form of culture, in America.
Jon, I don't know what your idea of culture is, but you have GOT to get out and see RealLife (TM, Pat. Pend.) just a little bit more.
You've got this bizarre idea that the whole world revolves around computer gaming and the Internet. Believe it or not, some people still watch TV, read books (gasp!) or even go outside and take a walk.
You've got to stop gauging the experience of 270,000,000 Americans on the poorly-spelled comments of a few pimply-faced geeks and those stupid PlayStation 2 commercials.
I am an avid gamer and Internet user, but I still spend more time reading books or playing with my kids than doing either. I'm even so radical as to have conversations with my wife. I guess I'm just a cultural throwback mired in the low-tech past.
Rick
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
I'm not really surprised. While I was growing up my Mom and Grandma would play all sorts of board and crad games (backgammon, hearts, canasta, etc.) At holidays it would always be aunts and female cousins that would play the more social games.
Well now it's almost 2001 and even my grandma has cable modem and one of the first things she did was get on the MSN Game Zone to play with my Mom. It's the same as it's always been it's just going over packets now.
I actually think that it's really good that this is happening. It's easier for everyone to at least stay in touch and do the things that they would have done if they were actuall there in person. If my Mom lived more than a few blocks from my grandma I would think that it is even cooler.
This is going back to some of the things brought up during the "Voices from the Hellmouth" series about the net "alienating" youth. It can only alienate you if you want it to. I'm sure that there are people that this does happen to, but I also know a lot of people that have a richer social life from the net, either clubs (LUGs are good), chatting, emailing, or (on topic) online gaming.
it's open-ended games like this, with no story other than the one you make for yourself, that are often the most addictive. how many times can i kill Diablo before i get bored? "Not even death" .. can save me from you, Diablo, yeah yeah, i know. especially since i'll respawn in town and come back to try to kill you again.
but see, in UO, if you were killed, any random newbie or PK wandering by could take from you what it took months of hard labor to accumulate. today's MMORPGs are so wimpy by those standards .. there's no risk, nothing to lose of any real value.
that, among other things, is what made UO so compelling. i don't think a game will ever match that level of sheer EMOTION involved. other UO players will remember hacking trees in the woods, making logs into shields to sell in town, every UO player remembers the SHEER DREAD they felt the first time a PK appeared out of nowhere and began attacking them. or the RAGE at being stabbed in the back by some low life while you were fighting a lich .. standing there screaming "ooOoOOooOoO" in your death shroud as he looted your corpse of everything that was important to you...
nope, today, you lose a little experience, oh well, whatever. off to fetch my stuff off of my corpse. UO players didn't have that luxury .. they're stuff was GONE. today, it's a much safer gaming world, much tamer, more mature. i miss the old days.
i could live a little longer in this prison
i could live a little longer in this prison