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Online gaming: Action unlimited

Gaming on the Net is interactive and action oriented and that excites the browsers

FULLY ENGROSSED From the word go the players tend to get into the skin of the characters PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK

How about facing a Bret Lee express-delivery and smashing him for a straight six? Does it sound a bit too atrocious? Well, one can actually do it, apart from dreaming. All one has to do is to visit an Internet gaming centre and try one among the many online games on cricket.

The Reliance World over here has got one such game where one could not only be able to pick on the bowlers but also bowl a swinging yorker to uproot Ponting's or Younis Khan's middle stump.

"It is full-fledged one day international game. Wherein one can choose the opposition, pick his or her own side, set the ground and pitch condition, select the stadium, elect to field or bat, set the field positions, change the batting order, make bowling changes, modify the batting stance, make a diving stop or come down the track and hoist `Warnie' or the `Rawalpindi Express' over the sight screen.

This comes with a regular commentary and expert comments from the gurus of the game itself. It gives a feel of a real one- day international in progress," says an employee of the Reliance World.

Internet games or web games is the in-thing today. The owner of an Internet café says that gaming is slowly taking over chatting. "It is interactive and action oriented and that excites the browsers," says he.

Internet games

The concept of networked Internet games first came into vogue in the early 1980s at the Essex University as an experimental venture and within a decade it became a hot selling concept world over. Though it is still in its nascent stage in India, service providers like Reliance World has plans to make it big in the next couple of years.

Broadly Internet games can be classified into segments like games for children, strategy games and action games. While puzzles, brain teasers, cartoon games and sports make up the children section; the strategy and the action games are for the dudes who love action and likes to shoot straight from the hips.

Multi-player concept

Initially the concept of Internet gaming was confined between the browser and the personal terminal. Then slowly it spread to groups within a local area network (LAN). Today the in-thing is massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG).

According to Raju, an engineering student and a regular at the Reliance World, the multi-player concept is the ultimate in gaming. "I can play with a group not only within this centre but with anybody across the country and the world.

My partner or opposition may be in Toronto, Tokyo or Ahmedabad and it can be played at the same time. The group may be as large as 20 members depending on the game."

Games like Counter Strike, Rag no Rock or Unreal Tournament are a big hit among the city youth.

They get so engrossed that the time flies by. "Counter Strike is an anti-terrorist game and it is action packed from the word go.

It is so engrossing that when we sit to play, we just forget about everything including our lunch. Just log on and get hooked," says he.

Getting into these games means total personification of the character. One may choose to be a marine from the kilo company of the US marine posted in Iraq, who is on mission to eliminate a group of Al Qaida terrorists at an undisclosed location in a hot spot like Karbala. The guns, the ammo and the lingo combined with the multimedia effects with sound makes it look so real that one just becomes part of the action.

Similar are the games associated with racing, space adventure, karate and sports like football or NBA.

"By the click of the mouse you are thrown into the ring with Tyson throwing punches or accepting a pass from Shaquille O' Neal for the basket.

It is action unlimited and the high speed broadband at the Reliance reduces the reaction time to a split second," says Ravi, a gaming enthusiast.

While online gaming is on the rise, a few parents feel that it could be a bane for the younger generation.

They feel it would wean away youngsters from playing games physically on the field and it could turn out to be a sort of addiction, which might hamper studies. A few are also of the opinion that some of the games are violent and could psyche the young minds.

Pros and cons set aside, the gaming culture is here, and it is here to stay. A cyber café operator says, "Pick up intelligent games that can nourish the brains. There are tons of them on the World Wide Web."

SUMIT BHATTACHARJEE

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