Aviva Directory » Computers & Internet » Computer & Video Games » Online Games

The focus of this guide is on online games, which are video games designed to be played on the Internet or on another computer network.

Although online games span many game genres, for the purpose of categorization within Aviva Directory, we have opted to list them here, rather than by genre, for the convenience of our visitors, who may be looking for games that they can play online, and the genres categories include games that have to be downloaded to a computer.

Common game genres that are played online include first-person shooters, strategy games, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). When the number of sites warrants subdividing this category by genre, subcategories will be created.

Online games can run the gamut of complexity, from simple text-based gameplay to the incorporation of graphics and complex virtual worlds.

Some online games have created their own online communities, while others are designed to be played alone or against one other opponent.

Early online games were known as MUDs, which originally stood for Multi-User Dungeons, but which have alternatively been referred to as Multi-User Dimensions or Multi-User Domains. A MUD is a multiplayer, real-time virtual world, generally text-based, and includes features from text-based adventure games, role-playing games, player-versus-player games, hack-and-slash games, interactive fiction, and online chat. Still popular among a cult following, traditional MUDs were set in a fantasy world populated by fictional beings and monsters, the objectives being to explore the fantasy world while completing quests and slaying monsters.

The evolution of MUDs led to the modern MMORPGs, such as EverQuest and Ultima Online, and virtual world genres like Second Life. In fact, MMORPGs were originally known as graphical MUDs, and early MMORPG designers began as MUD developers and players.

One of the earliest first-person shooter games was Doom, which was developed for MS-DOS in 1993, then played as a BBS game before it came to the Internet.

The first real-time strategy games played online allowed multiple players to compete over a modem or local network. By the late 1990s, most RTS games had native Internet support, which permitted players in one part of the world to play against those in another. Popular RTS games, such as Age of Empires, have developed online communities.

Developed in the 2010s, multiplayer online battle arena games (MOBAs) are a type of strategy game in which a player controls a single character in a team who compete against another team of players. This genre includes Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends, and Heroes of the Storm.

As Mentioned earlier, massively multiplayer online games came about with the availability of broadband Internet access, allowing hundreds of thousands of players to play the same game together. MMORPG refers to role-playing games within this genre. Others include real-time strategy games and first-person shooter games involving large numbers of players.

Browser games use a web browser as a client, using HTML and HTML scriptings, such as JavaScript, ASP, PHP, and MySQL, as well as web-based graphics using Flash and Java. Other browser games use Ajax or WebGL to allow for multiplayer interactions.

Although console games have developed to use the Internet to allow for gameplay against real, versus computer-generated, opponents, because they require the use of a proprietary console, such as Xbox, Playstation, or Nintendo, they will be listed in a separate category as a console game.

The focus of this category is on games that can be played online, keeping in mind the exceptions stated here. Single-player online games are listed in this category, while online multiplayer games have been separated into a subcategory. Further subcategorization will be created as necessary.

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Multiplayer Games

Single-Player Games

 

 

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