The Internet market has exploded in recent years in our country. The arrival of ADSL has completely transformed the habits of French households. Where people used the net only a few minutes a day to send two or three emails or to conduct a search a bit more thorough than with a simple dictionary, today they do not hesitate to stay connected for hours without worrying about their consumption.
Apart from the well-known reflex of downloading, legal or not, which we are not here to debate, a new trend is emerging from Internet usage: online gaming.
First, it’s important to clarify what online games are. These are games that require no downloading, no purchase, and are free (except for the cost of connection). They are called MMORPGs (which actually stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). They have already attracted more than 10 million people worldwide. These games allow players, which is popular among gamers, to evolve in continuous temporal universes—what connoisseurs call persistent worlds—where adventures continue 24 hours a day. This detail is significant because it offers an almost infinite lifespan to the game. The player and their character evolve over the days until they take a real place in real life. This is what Nicolas, a 24-year-old Internet user who plays Ogame and a few other simulations, our witness, says. On this subject, he explains that he has “already gotten up in the middle of the night to see what was happening in the game.” Is it a way to pass time, occupy oneself, clear one’s mind after a day of work, or a real addiction? All definitions are valid. Especially since there is no sector that is spared by this trend.
A breeding of… penguins!!
There are different types of games, and there is something for everyone. This ranges from raising a baby, to breeding a dog, managing a farm, a football club, creating an interstellar empire, and even breeding… penguins!!!
Beyond the simple fun that can stem from practicing this activity, some people also use this tool to expand their circle of acquaintances. Indeed, the Internet offers a multitude of platforms that allow players to communicate with each other. Discussion forums, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, all means are good for meeting up with allies or fans of the same game. Relationships are completely transformed because a completely virtual “friendship” is then created. Participants in these games do not necessarily want to meet other people concretely, but they act “as if.”
In their various fictitious lives, there can be help, betrayals, and reconciliations. In short, as Nicolas says, “it’s an opportunity to test strategies and see the reaction of other people who don’t really matter to us. We test and see the consequences to not make the same mistakes in real life.” One way or another of learning about life, you might say? Perhaps, but it seems to me that there’s nothing like a small restaurant or a cafe terrace to get to know someone.
In any case, this new form of entertainment has not finished evolving, if recent news is anything to go by. Nintendo has created, via its new portable console, a game where you can play online with players from around the world…
100,000 dollars for a virtual island
To prove that some are ready to do anything for these “relaxation” virtual spaces, David Storey, a 22-year-old Australian, spent $26,500 (19,450 euros) to acquire a territory that doesn’t exist, or rather, only exists within the digital universe of the network game “Project Entropia”. It seems unbelievable but the prize goes to another player of this game who offered himself at auction a virtual space station, for the modest sum of… 100,000 dollars. Besides the station, Jon Jacobs, a famous player whose nickname is “Neverdie,” owns all the rights related to hunting or mining on his space station, as well as the deeds for 1000 housing units, a shopping center, and a market with about a hundred stalls. One can only hope for him that the inhabitants will be numerous!!!
For information, here is a non-exhaustive list of some games that are all the rage online:
www.ogame.fr: This is a space conquest game. You are an intergalactic emperor, who extends his influence over several galaxies through different strategies.
