Computer game

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

A computer game is any sort of game that is played using a computer.

General

Although often associated, computer games are not necessarily video games although all but the earliest video games (such as Pong, which used dedicated analogue circuitry) are computer games. Computer games encompass a broader range of games that do not depend primarily on video display, including text-based adventure games and other interactive fiction.

The generally accepted distinction between a computer game and a video game today is simple: a game will be a "computer game" if it is played on a personal computer (such as Apple Mac, PC, Amiga or Commodore 64), and will be a "video game" if it is played on a computer that is specialized for game playing, called a video game console. Because of hardware differences, a game played on a computer will have some fundamental differences than the same game played on a video game console. One such difference is that on the computer the game player has a wider assortment of direct controls exploiting the full computer keyboard, while video games tend to use more layers of sub-menus, or button combinations via the game controller. The keyboard however does not lend itself to certain gameplay types that are common on consoles, such as fighting games.

Another distinction between computer and video games arises from the fact that computers tend to have small, high-resolution monitors — they are optimized for viewing at close range by one person — while home video game consoles use a much lower-resolution commercial television as their output device: optimized for viewing at a greater distance with a larger audience. As a result, most computer games are intended for single-player or networked multiplayer play, while many video games are designed for local multiplayer play, with all players viewing the same TV set.

Video games have generally had access to less computing power, less flexible computing power, and lower resolution monitors, than computer games. Before the arrival of 3D graphics cards however, dedicated consoles were more advanced graphically then computer games of the time, especially in animation. This is because video game consoles had dedicated graphics hardware, were able to load things instantly from ROM, and a low resolution output would look better on a television because it naturally blurs the pixels. Since the arrival of dedicated graphics accelerators on PCs, the trend has been reversed with PCs having an edge in the very high end. Modern computer games can handle a wide range of hardware, and since the needed display resoultion is so low on consoles, even their limited capabilites in terms of CPU power and RAM doesn't stop computer games from being ported.

Supporting a wide range of hardware is not all roses though. Computer game developers have, especially in the past, spent significant effort towards supporting additional hardware and testing their implementations only to find players whose systems should be able to run a game yet cannot. Indeed, "minimum requirements" specification on computer games is more complex than that of a console where, for example, a PlayStation 2 game is guaranteed to run on a PS2 (in the same territory).

Game types

Video game manufacturers usually exercise tight control over the games that are made available on their systems, so unusual or special-interest games are more likely to appear on general-purpose computers. Free, casual, and browser-based games are usually played on available computers, mobile phones, or PDAs.

Several genres implemented on both consoles and PCs are dominated by the computer game market. Games that demand keyboard input favor PC implementations, including MUDs and other text-based games. Some games are more workable with a mouse, such as real-time strategy games and first-person shooters. Halo: Combat Evolved for the Xbox made long strides in breaking this mold, yet still Halo players using a mouse might not be evenly matched against those using a joypad.

Mods

Running on a PC allows modern computer games to be modified without much difficulty. These mods (short for "modifications") can add an extra dimension of replayability and interest. The Internet provided an inexpensive medium to promote and distribute mods, and they became an increasingly important factor in the commercial success of some games. Developers such as id, Valve, and Epic provide extensive tools and documentation to assist mod makers, leveraging the potential success brought in by a popular mod like Counter-Strike.

Recently, computer games have also been used as a digital-art medium. See artistic computer game modification.

Criticisms

Modern PC games have come under attack by gamers who perceive a trend whereby computer game companies release games that are knowingly buggy or incomplete with the intention of patching them later — something only possible on a PC. This is called by some "buyer beta testing", and these critics say that this system destroys the overall quality of games being released on PCs.

Popularity

One way to judge the popularity of computer games is by looking at sales figures. The three biggest markets for computer and video games in 2003 were the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom [1] and each indicated that dedicated video game hardware made up the bulk of the industry.

According to the NPD Group, sales of computer games in the US have been declining since the late 1990s and are only a fraction of market. This is despite the findings that the US entertainment software industry as a whole is growing. Computer game sales were strong as recently as the mid 1990s and appeared to be growing at that time.

Japanese computer gaming was overrun in the mid 1980s with the release of the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicon, or Nintendo Entertainment System elsewhere) and Super Mario Bros.. Nearly all the gaming killer apps, such as games in the Dragon Quest series and Final Fantasy series, there have been released for video game consoles. Many Japanese gamers view personal computers as a business tool, that games are meant to be played on dedicated hardware.

Looking at computer game sales alone can be a misleading, because there are many free computer games and ones that make money through other means, such as subscription-based MMOGs and shareware games. DFC estimated that global MMOG revenues in 2003 would be over $1 billion USD. Sales of games distributed by download are often not tracked by traditional methods. According to the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), Half-Life 2 debuted at #3 in UK sales, which some commentators said was below forecasts and attributed the discrepancy to unknown sales made through Valve Software's Steam distribution system.

Computer games are still big business in South Korea. Developers there boast MMORPGs such as Lineage and Ragnarok Online with millions of subscribers and a third of the world's MMOG revenue. StarCraft gosi (expert players) are celebrities in a game that some have dared to call the country's national sport. The success of computer and online gaming there is usually credited to South Korea's push for broadband Internet connections in the home and earlier bans on Japanese products (these restrictions were removed by the late 1990s).

See also

• Internet game
• list of computer and video games by name
• list of computer and video games by category
• timeline of video games and computer games
• list of free game software
• flight simulator
• submarine simulator

References

• Lieu, Tina (August 1997). "Where have all the PC games gone?". Computing Japan.

External links

News, reviews, downloads

• MobyGames: a computer and video game documentation and review site
• GameSpy: a computer, and video game review site
• IGN PC: computer game news, reviews, and previews for the Windows PC platform
• GameSpot: a large, corporately-owned database of gaming reviews, news, downloads, and forums
• Gamersreborn: a news site concerning only about games and things relative.
• GameRankings: a site with game rankings based on the average mark from indexed reviews
• GameFAQs: a popular site for game walkthroughs, FAQs, and discussion
• CyberLore.net: a site with recommendations on the greatest games
• Open Source Gaming: a database of gaming reviews, news, downloads, forums, image galleries, more specifically focused on games released under an open source license
• Linux Games: a news site with coverage of Linux game ports and releases
• EuroGamer: a European news site with relevant news for any videogamer

Specific download sites

• PC Gaming: Many freeware Windows and DOS games
• Download Free Games: a large freeware and shareware game download site
• Free Games Zone: a freeware game download site
• Gamehippo: another free game download site
• Home of the Underdogs: a great site about older games
• Reflexive Arcade: many of the newer shareware games
• Games Download: a site with shareware computer games
• Windows Games Download: a site with shareware and Freeware games for windows computers
• EAGER Amiga game database containing links to all legal Amiga game downloads

Directories

• Open Directory - Video Games category
• Zeal.com - Computer & Video Games category - Over 40,000 subcategorised site profiles

da:Computerspil de:Computerspiel eo:Komputilludo fa:بازی‌های رایانه‌ای ja:コンピューターゲーム he:משחק מחשב lt:Kompiuterinis žaidimas nl:computerspel no:Dataspill pl:Gry komputerowe fi:Tietokonepeli ru:Компьютерная игра sv:Datorspel zh:电脑游戏