Those who know me know that when I'm not working or doing the politics/activism thing, I'm usually tinkering with my computer in some way. Usually that's playing online games, though once in a while I'll switch over to an offline game or a old console port. Actual consoles aren't really my thing - for one thing, you can't open up a console and start replacing the parts. But that's a whole other bunch of fun that I can save for another time.
Back to online games.. I've been playing at least one online game or another on a regular basis for about 20 years now. It started out way back in the 90s on dial-up systems.. you know, before the Internet really got going! You could call in and open up a alt-time turn based text game and kill an hour or two, then wait til the next day for everyone else to dial in and take their turns. Here's a shot of a space-trader game I used to frequent:
Kinda reminds you of a buffed-up version of Zork, doesn't it? Things have come a long way since then.. Heck they went pretty far just in the early years of the Internet. Back then I got into this really great free shooter game called Subsapce that had a big fanbase in Europe & Canada.
This game's still around under a different name (Continuum) and it's still free, but for some reason I can't get it to play on my new machine. Frowns! Ah well, by this time the internet was really popular and multi-player games were getting really big. I kinda stayed away from the first real MMO, Asheron's Call, because I really didn't care much for Microsoft stuff. Instead I dug into some web games for a while, got into online poker and downloading old SNES stuff to play on my computer.
Then someone introduced me to Final Fantasy Online. Alwyas was a fan of the series, so I gave it a try and loved it. Great story and awesome fights, just like the rest of the series, plus a good community of other players to have fun with. Also, the game is available for consoles, so if you don't have a computer but you do have a PS2/PS3 or Xbox 360 you can join in too. You can fight other players, but it's very limited and I never tried it personally. It says something that I'm still playing this game after about five years too. I stick with it mainly because I have a great regular group I play with (and on occassion we have gatherings, just like some of us here on DK), and there's still a lotta story that I haven't finished! Here's a video of one of the more epic fights in the game (kinda low-quality video)
I never really had the urge to try other MMOs.. World of Warcraft always seemed like a turn-off to me - didn't like the interface, didn't like how easy people said it was to advance, and also I kinda got used to not fighting other players. And the graphics looked weird. Instead I looked around for a while for something else, then this year I tried out Warhammer Online. (Sorry in advance for the BIG screenshot!)
That's one of my own screenies by the way.. awesome graphics, especially with the new hard-core gaming computer I put together. It's very different from Final Fantasy - for one the interface is more contemporary (Button commands to do stuff instead of text menus) and the look is more cartoon and less anime (if you know what I mean). Also from what I hear it's similar to WoW, except that the game is balanced differently and is focused more towards pitting players against each other. I like it a lot, even though it's still really new and there's a lot of bugs and tinkering with the servers going on.
Eh, we'll see what happens. I'm looking around at some other things as well. There's supposed to be a new Star Wars game coming out based in The Old Republic, hopefully next year?
So anyways, what kind of multi-player gaming are you into? Screenshots & vids are welcome, though try to keep them small if you can manage it without sacrificing details. Who knows - someone may convince me to give WoW a try.