Brian Moriarty on Text RPG's and Skotos Tech by Ernest Adams [04.09.01] Recently a new company called Skotos Tech was founded with the explicit aim of making text roleplaying commercial again, while bringing it to a wider audience than the MUD community alone. That's a tall order, but last October they had the good fortune to sign up one of the world's most famous game designers, Brian ("Professor") Moriarty. Here, Ernest Adams asks Brian how Skotos Tech is going about it.

How to Hurt the Hackers: The Scoop on Internet Cheating and How You Can Combat It. by Matt Pritchard [07.24.00] Ever wonder how to confront the never-ending struggle with cheaters who are determined to hack your game? Ensemble Studios' Matt Pritchard defines the rules of the cheating game and shares his insight on the methods and motivations of hackers, based largely on his experience with the Age of Empires franchise.

Using Groupings for Networked Gaming by Jesse Aronson [06.21.00] Networked computer games present new data distribution challenges to the developer. With stand-alone games, all game information is available in one place, on one computer, all the time. When designing networked games, however, the developer has to consider what information the other players on the network need, when they need it, and how to deliver it to them.

Online Justice Systems by Derek Sanderson [03.21.00] .As soon as Ultima Online went live, its online universe was immediately infested with homicidal player killers, illustrating one of the biggest challenges to successful community building in online role-playing games: tempering the problems caused by players killing or stealing from other players. Derek Sanderson tackles the problem of how to create a fair and unobtrusive online system of justice.

Cyberspace in the 21st Century: Cyberspace and Twelve Monkeys by Crosbie Fitch [03.13.00] If there were any doubts about the inevitability of the Internet's potential, Crosbie has set out to undermine them in this essay about building "cyberspace." (Did you know that term is still around?)

Constructive Politics in a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game by Matthew Mihaly [03.09.00] Thus far, major Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games (MMORPGs) have been slow to implement any politics besides very rudimentary. Micheal Mihaly lays out the basic reasons why an MMORPG should want a political system, and guidelines for designing and implementing a system to provide constructive politics in a massively multi-player online world.

Rising from the Ranks: Rating for Multiplayer Games by Bernd Kreimeier [02.09.00] Scores and ranks have been used in arcade and single player games from the early days on. Players itch to compare their performance, and they want to know where their peers and equals are. Now, with games like Quake3: Arena and Unreal Tournament, geared towards one-on-one and free-for-all deathmatch, the question of proper rating and ranking is bound to return with a vengeance. Bernd Kreimeier is out to settle this once and for all.

Cyberspace in the 21st Century: Mapping the Future of Multiplayer Games by Crosbie Fitch [01.20.00] In the first article of a new column from Crosbie Fitch, Crosbie describes the way he sees interactive entertainment developing over the next century, with particular emphasis on scalable, networked interactive entertainment. And his vision for the future stops at nothing short of a world full of massive, multiplayer games, for everyone, at the same time.

Glory and Shame: Powerful Psychology in Multiplayer Online Games by Jonathan Baron [11.10.99] Conventional interactive gaming lacks the ability to make a player feel shame or glory, because single player gaming lacks the prime ingredient to elicit these emotions -- an audence. But the rise of multi-player on-line gaming has factored the audience back into the equation. In this article, Jonathan Baron takes a look at the psychology behind multiplayer on-line games.

The Internet Sucks: Or, What I Learned Coding X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter by Peter Lincroft [09.03.99] Want to make a multiplayer space combat simulator run over the Internet? It may not be as easy as you think. Read on to find out why it's not your programmers's fault - it's that darn Internet.

The Rules of the Game: Multi-Player Lobbying by Ben Calica. Ben wants everyone, even newbies, to be able to stay in the game. Here he looks at the art of gathering the right players together for some multiplayer fun. [09.04.98]

The Designer's Notebook: Implementing God in the On-Line World by Ernest Adams. Has the anarchic arena of online gaming gotten so bad that it needs an all-seeing, vengeful Old Testament-type God to punish the predators and protect the weak? Ernest Adams delves into "that old time religion" for answers. [04.24.98]

Online Gaming: Why Won't They Come? by Jessica Mulligan
The potential audience is high yet why are so many online ventures struggling? The problem, according to Ms. Mulligan, is not so much high monthly rates, but the observation that some ventures don't know "diddley" about customer service. What follows is an argument for Sysops as well as illustrations of how some ventures have successfully earned player loyalty. [02.27.98]

The Internet's Outer Limits by Gloria Stern. In this interview with Digital Arcana's Jeffrey Sullivan, Gamasutra examines multiplayer online worlds, their characters and the people who build them. [12.19.97]

The Storm Speaks: An interview with Ion Storm's Mike Wilson by Barbara Walter The lowdown on the "corporate-culture" underlying Ion Storm's mission to bring revolutionary game design to the Quake-addicted masses. [10.31.97]

Postmortem: Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands by André Vrignaud. Porting a stand-alone, DOS-based RPG to a 32-bit Windows-based online network can be... challenging. Here's what happened to SSI along the way. [10.24.97]

Where We Should be Going with Online Games by Sean Patrick Fannon. Merciless masters, frustrated newbies, and the increase in "flex and twitch" gaming in RPGs creates a problem. A game designer offers some ideas for maturing the genre. [09.12.97]

Designing Fast-Action for the Internet by Yu-Shen Ng [09.05.97] Given careful design (or redesign), your fast-twitch game may be playable over the Net. Discovering where the bottlenecks are and how to construct solutions is the key.

Multiplayer Math by Larry O'Brien [08.29.97]  O'Brien examines the implication of creating a turn-based vs. a real-time game, and shows how to calculate optimal time and space granularities.  

Has Origin Created the First True Online Game World?
by Dave Greely and Ben Sawyer Another installment of the Online Supplement. See how Origin has sculpted its universe into a dynamic, fluid brand of entertainment. [08.19.97]

Internet Game Design by Yu-Shen Ng. A checklist of what you should know before diving into development of that multiplayer, Internet-based game. This article was originally published in the Game Developer Magazine Online Supplement. [08.01.97]

Security in Online Games by Andrew and Chris Kirmse. Incorporating security into the very beginning of game design lessens cheating and helps ensure subscriber respect. [07.07.97]

Looking Ahead: 10 Challenges for Designing Online Games and Communities by Michael Sellers. The future of online games has kept Mr. Sellars up for many, many nights. At last, some answers. [06.19.97]

join | contact us | advertise | write | my profile
news | features | contract work | jobs | resumes | product guide | store



Copyright © 2001 CMP Media LLC. All rights reserved.
privacy policy | terms of service