Literature+Review

Online Gaming is today one of the most popular entertainment activities on the World Wide Web. As broadband Internet connectivity becomes cheaper and more accessible with each passing year, the phenomenon of Online Gaming keeps getting more widespread and more creative. The earliest online gaming activities originated around 1969, but they started gaining in popularity only around late 1970s and early 1980s when Dial-up Bulletin Boards became popular, and the users started playing online games over them. These bulletin boards provided a multi-user platform, so they became the earliest base for multi-user games, which have finally transformed into what is today popularly known all over the world as the "MMORPG" (Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games). Commercial Online Services were introduced in the 1980s, and gradually interactive online games started being offered to the users as an added attraction with these services. In the 1990s, with the evolution of advanced Internet technologies such as Flash and Java led to an explosion in the usage of Internet, with millions of new websites created across the World Wide Web, offering great opportunities for interactive computing to the users. This led to a revolution in the field of online gaming as the number of younger web users increased, and they charged up the demand for online games across the Asian, American, and European continents. Many online gaming sites offered services against paid subscription, while many other sites started offering free gaming usage in order to increase their web traffic and earn advertising fees. The global Dot Com bubble bust of 2001 posed a sudden slowdown in the online gaming activities, but the phenomenon proved too real to die out so easily. Eventually, big companies such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo came out with advanced gaming consoles and some fascinating gaming software that changed the face of online gaming forever. The market for online gaming has grown since then all over the world, with millions of new users getting added every year.
 * 2.0 Literature Review**
 * //History of Online Game//**

Here is a brief timeline of the evolution of online gaming: 1969: PLATO Internet Service offers a 2-player "Space War" online game. By 1972, the service was able to host over a thousand users simultaneously. 1970 to 1977: Many more multi-player games appear on the PLATO service. 1979-1980: Essex University, U.K. hosts the first classic "MUD" game on its system. 1982-1983: Kesmai Corporation is established to develop an ASCII role-playing online game. Their first game "Mega Wars" is launched in 1983. 1983-1993: Many new games are launched as the popularity of online gaming picks up momentum. 1994-1995: Sony releases its PlayStation and Nintendo 64 is launched around the same time. 1997: Sony sells its 20 millionth PlayStation. 1998-2008: Sony's PlayStation, Microsoft's X-box Live, and the Japanese company Nintendo create some of the world's most popular online games that attract an unprecedented number of new users to the world of online gaming. SUMMARY: Online Gaming, like any other new technology, took off to a slow start with very few early adopters who experimented with it. But its true power came to be seen as the gaming technology advanced and the Broadband Internet usage costs reduced. Today it is a leading pastime among the young generations across cultures and across geographical boundaries.
 * //Chronology of Online Gaming Industry//**

In his study, Smyth randomly assigned 100 college student volunteers to play one of four types of video games: traditional, arcade-style games (such as those found in the local mall); console games like the Sony PlayStation; single player computer games; and fantasy-themed persistent online multiplayer games. Computer networking—linking players from across the world together in a single game—has dramatically changed the nature of video game play from a solitary activity into a large, thriving social experience. Multiplayer online role-play gaming, one type of social gaming, can involve thousands of players in persistent virtual worlds. All students taking part in the study reported decreased health and sleep and interference with real-life socializing and academic work. In contrast to these costs, participants experienced benefits, most notably by those taking part in online multiplayer game play. Online multiplayer gamers enjoyed their play far more than those assigned to more traditional game types, creating new friendships in their online environments. “Video game play does interfere in some aspects of real-life — such as academic performance, health and social life — but game play can also foster strong feelings of virtual support and new friendships,” Smyth says. The study is published in the October 2007 issue of the bimonthly peer-reviewed journal CyberPyschology & Behavior (Vol. 10, No. 5: 717–721). Joshua Smyth, associate professor of psychology in The College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University,
 * //Effects of Online Games//**