gaming online

[Simon-JG-hr]

Never really done online gaming - gave it a go with Medieval Total War once though.

Play a lot of Total War and tycoon type games on PC; I won't mention that I've got two train simulators as well as a flight simulator... On PS2 (I've never upgraded to the PS3), it's games like the Driver series and Syphon Filter type games that usually get to the top of the pile.

[rokkitsci]

There is only one game.

The game of Go.

Go is an ancient board game that takes simple elements -- line and circle, Black and White, stone and wood and combines them with simple rules and generates subtleties which have enthralled players for millennia. Beyond being merely a game, Go can take on other meanings to enthusiasts: an analogy with life, an intense meditation, a mirror of one's personality, an exercise in abstract reasoning, or -- when played well -- a beautiful art in which Black and White dance across the board in delicate balance. But most important for all who play, Go is challenging and fun!

Go is a fascinating board game that originated in China more than 4,000 years ago. It is played today by millions of people. In Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan, it is far more popular than chess is in the West, and professional players compete for large cash prizes.

It is said that the rules of Go can be learned in minutes, but that it can take a lifetime to master the game. Two players alternate in placing black and white stones on a large (19x19 line) ruled board, with the aim of surrounding territory. Stones are never moved, and only removed if they are completely surrounded. The game rewards patience and balance over aggression and greed; the balance of influence and territory may shift many times in the course of a game, and a strong player must be prepared to be flexible but resolute.

Go can teach concentration, balance, and discipline. The game combines beauty and intellectual challenge. It can be played on a traditional, carved wooden board, with black and white stones made from slate and clamshell, or on a paper board with plastic stones. In either case, the patterns formed by the black and white stones are visually striking and can exercise an almost hypnotic attraction as one "sees" more and more in the constantly evolving positions. The game appeals to many kinds of minds -- to musicians and artists, to mathematicians and computer programmers, to entrepreneurs and options traders. Children learn the game readily and can reach high levels of mastery. Because Go lends itself to a uniquely reliable system of handicaps, players of widely disparate strengths can enjoy relatively even contests.

The game of Go can be a casual pastime for the idle hour -- or a way of life.

Go is the simplest of all games: The object of Go -- to surround and capture -- is also the only rule. There are no arbitrary conventions, special exceptions or other burdensome technicalities.

Go is the most complex of all games: Nearly all known games have been "solved" for the computer; that is, the strongest computer programs can defeat the best human players. Even chess now falls into this category. However, the strongest Go programs, after decades of effort, are routinely trounced by Asian schoolchildren. Why is Go so hard for computers? Because Go is much, much more complicated than chess. There are many more possible games of Go than there are sub-atomic particles in the known universe.

Go is the most popular game in the world today.

Although largely unknown in the West, Go is wildly popular in Asia, where there are more than 100 million active players. Major tournament winners are international celebrities. With daily newspaper coverage, popular weekly and monthly Go magazines 24-hour "All-Go-All-The-Time" cable stations, Go is an incomparably intense part of Asian culture, and its popularity is growing quickly in the West.

Go is the oldest game still played in its original form. Go originated more than 4000 years ago. Confucius advised his readers to avoid frivolous pastimes and learn the virtues of the this already ancient and venerable game. In Japan, the strongest players have been viewed as national heroes for centuries. In China, the birthplace of Go, it was suppressed during the Communist era, but came back stronger than ever in the 1980's. Koreans were playing at least 1200 years ago, even before the Japanese, but began taking their play more seriously in the 1950's. Today, the world's strongest players come from Korea. With hundreds of millions of fans in these three countries and growing popularity in the West, it may be the most popular game in the world today. When you play Go, you are doing something that billions of people have done for thousands of years. Many centuries ago, people were doing the exact same thing, in the exact same way.

Most games require players to be equally skilled in order to enjoy a fair contest. The Go handicapping system, similar to the system used in golf, allows any two players in the world to compare strengths and compete on even terms. Even among equal players, the one to go first gains no advantage because he/she must pay a komi (compensation) to the other player for the advantage of going first. The world of Go is the ultimate meritocracy -- your place in it depends strictly on your ability.

An excellent interactive tutorial on how to play Go may be found here: http://playgo.to/interactive/

Although best enjoyed face-to-face, mano-a-mano, an excellent online Go server can be found at: http://www.gokgs.com/ where friendly and helpful people from all over the world come to play Go using this excellent and robust interface. You may play (or observe) as a guest or register for free to become a member of the Go community. Although you may access the server with your browser, I highly recommend downloading the KGS Client, which presents a much more artistic and fully-featured interface.

I have been playing Go for over 10 years and am president of the local Go club here on the Space Coast of Florida (see: http://www.scaga.org/ from which the description of the game in this post was copied). An avid enthusiast of the game, I couldn't help but take advantage of the opportunity this thread gave me to do a bit of proselytizing.

BTW, should any of you make the effort to check out the KGS Go Server, keep an eye out for "rokkitsci," my user ID there as well.

[Simon-JG-hr]

I've always wondered what that board game was called...

I do enjoy a good board game, though they only ever seem to come out at Christmas... We did have a cracking game of Monopoly last summer though - we didn't finish until about 3am (having started at about 12 hours earlier...) I would think it was a cracking game though as I won, through the 'long game'.

All very interesting these board games, something to be viewed from a strategic studies viewpoint (my academic/professional field). I can view both sides of the argument - I can understand (and sometimes implement) the softly softly approach (sea denial etc), equally I can see the appeal of cruise missiles... Nuclear weapons fall somewhere peculiarly in the middle - their application very softly softly, their potential...

Oops, just got a bit heavy their for an online gaming thread...

[Son of Cigarsmoke]

I used to play pc games a fair bit, mostly Aliens vs Predator 2 and Vietcong 2 but i dont play them anymore, i still play IL2 Sturmovik forgotten battles on my pc as its probably the most realistic WW2 combat flight simulator ever made.
Have got an Xbox 360 now, i play Call of Duty World at War, left 4 dead, call of juarez, halo 3 and a few others. Cant wait for the new avp game to come out next year.
If anyone want a game some time my gamer tag is Wild Goose3
see you on the battlefield

[Cohiba Fan]

I got a PS3 from the States just before they were launched in the UK. I wanted to see what it was like on my HDTV. Really enjoyed a couple of games, but got bored pretty quick due to lack of good games at that point and sold it on ebay.

My plan is to get one around Christmas as there seems to be loads of good games on it now.

[Son of Cigarsmoke]

personaly i think that the xbox has the better games, ps3 is suposed to have better graphics and you can connect to there internet for free aswell but its down to personal choice i guess

[Stevieboy]

I've never tried the add-on MrB....might be time to remedy that

Stalker is the nuts with the Oblivion Lost mod. Replayed it from the start with that and it was great. So many new features and editions it was like someone else re-made the orginal game.

[tonyg]

gaming

Fairly long time gamer here ignoring stuff like the BBC micro elite etc and keeping it too a not too long post ....

id start with Doom that game was a Revelation and bags of fun i guess the bulk of the games iv liked have made a big graphics leap and doom did at the time , it could be argued Id games just repeated its success all the way to quake 3 but anyways after doom came a game that was probably better but never seemed to get out of doom shadow Duke Nukem 3d another big advance better game play and a sense of Humor.

Then came Quake actually online quakeworld the addon that tried to solve the latency problem as we were mostly all on dinky little modems to me quake was the start of modern online gaming ( now that'll start fights and yes i know and played MuD's back in the day but well no i never much enjoyed walking 5 paces and i could see a tree turn e/w/n/s etc ..

At the time online gamers either seemed to play quake or diablo so it was a fairly large community now fractured over 100 different games i guess,
anyway i played way too much quake and never really got on with the new dynamics of Q2 and drifted away from gaming for a bit .

Early 2000's picked up at Planetarion a browser based game with operated in ticks with your little spaceships raiding others for resources , the bulk of the game happened on irc were empires were built and destroyed

Built myself a new pc in 04 and subscribed to eve-online , played Planetside a futuristic war game that was alot of fun with robot suits and all sorts of interesting roles , the thing that made it was the scale , you could be in battles over strategic points that involved hundreds of players fighting for hours , we'd line up and be hot dropped onto towers and a bridge could be battled over all day , its winding down now but it was a good game .

After planetside iv Mostly Played eve-online with the odd holiday in World of Warcraft ( ever seen the south park spoof ? got a druid and rouge there but not visited them for a while .

Now playing eve-online , it has a good xp system were you train over time even offline and iv been in my corporation so long i can play / not play as suits me fitting it around life . Its a good game but not trivial you'd need to train for 6 months to a year for the deep space life ( were all the really big fights are ) less so of course if you want to stay in safe space

This is of course my gaming history as i saw it and not definitive gaming history cos i suck at remembering stuff properly

[Lee Nub]

Played many many mmorgs over the years, from Star Wars Galaxies to eve-online, etc etc I have played WOW since day of release and helped run a top 3 on server guild for the last 18 months but its kind of getting old now.

I have been lucky to beta most games before release, just finished testing Champions online last month which is pretty good, a lot like City of Heroes.

I still have lifetime subscription to Lord of the rings online, but dont tend to play much anymore. I still log in occasionally, and still play my Xbox 360 and PS3.