What Is A Game, Really?

What is a game, really? In the German language a game is any activity which is executed only for pleasure and without conscious purpose.

Some Definitions: A game is defined as “every activity that brings pleasure is a game”. For example, people dance, play musical instruments, act in plays, and play with dolls and model trains. This definition people use today comes from the works of Johan Huizinga (Homo Ludens, 1938) and Friedrich Georg Jünger (Die Spiele, 1959). Manfred Eigen's and Ruthild Winkler's sees game as a natural phenomenon: half necessity and half coincidence (Das Spiel, 1975). Their definition of games comes closer to Adornos' definition, who set himself apart from Huizinga by identifying games as an art form. But in our sense these definitions are too wide, we define game more succinctly. Thus, we see games which belong to the class that includes Chess, 9 Man's Morris, Checkers, Halma, Go, Parchisi, Monopoly, Scrabble, Skat, Rummy, Bridge, Memory, Jack Straws, Dominoes, and so on. Unfortunately, our language does not have a good term to call these games. Terms like table games, society games, tournament games are too narrow. In our opinion, the best term would be "rulegames" = "games with rules". Kevin Maroney defined game in his Games Journal article, My Entire Waking Life. Scott Kim defined puzzle in his Games Cafe article "What Is a Puzzle?" as separate from a game. Kate Jones writes about less aggressive games in her Games Journal article Non Predatory Games. My definition is a further attempt to explore the nature of games.

A game always has components and rules. In most games, the rules are more significant than the components. But there are games where these roles are reversed: where the components are significant and the rules not very important at all. Usually, these are action games like Looping Louie.

The components are the hardware, the rules are the software. Both define the game. Both can exist independently from each other, but separately are not a game. Archeology finds ancient game boards and game pieces, but no one knows what rules these ancients used to play their games. We will never know how these games were played.

Components and rules can be combined: Ð A set of components may be used with different rules. Ð A set of rules can be used with different components.

Suppose we just had the rules for Halma, but not the board and pieces and had to reconstruct the game. Ð What should the board look like? Ð How many spaces should it have? Ð What shape do the spaces have: square, hexagonal, or round? Ð How are the spaces laid out? Ð Are all the spaces the same size or are they of different sizes? Ð How many pieces are there? Ð What do the pieces look like? Does a piece take more than one space when played?

The rules are not sufficient to define a game, unless the rules have pictures of the components and game situations…!!!

The history of games span to the ancient past. Games are in integral part of all societies. Like work and relationships, they are an expression of some basic part of the human nature. Just as humans have an internal need to work, they have an internal need to play. Games are formalized expressions of play which allow people to go beyond immediate imagination and direct physical activity. Games also allow forms of play to be packaged and

communicated to other people in a social group or geographically far away. This is demonstrated in the evolution and transformation of the games leading up to the European version of chess. The roots of the game can be traced across India, Arabia, and Japan over a period of more than 1,000 years. Games capture the ideas and behaviors of people at one period of time and carry that through time to their ancestors. Games like Liubo, Xiangqi, and Shogi illustrate the thinking of the military leaders who employed those centuries ago. When archaeologists excavate an ancient society they find artifacts related to living, working, family and social activities. Games often become an archival record of how individuals and groups played in earlier times. Game pieces from Senet and the Royal Game of Ur were part of the archeological record of Egypt.

2) Board games , 3000 BC Ancient games. , 3000 BC , 3000 BC , 2600 BC , 2500 BC , 1500 BC

, 2300 BC , 500 BC , 200 BC , 500 AD , 570 AD

, 1400 BC

, 1600 AD

, 800 AD

, 1760 AD

, 1920 , 1936 , 1938 , 1954 , 1959 , 1973 , 1993

3) Military games Koenigspiel, 1664 War Chess, 1780 Military School Wargame, 1797 , 1811 The American Kriegsspiel, 1879 Games, 1886 The Naval Wargame, 1903 , 1912 , 1913 German Schlactenspiel, 1920 Political-Military Gaming, 1929 Soviet , 1933 Japanese Wargaming, 1941 , 1943 , 1949 (), 1952 Firefight (), 1974 Strategic Analysis Simulation, 1980

4) Electronic entertainment games , 1871 , 1961 , 1972 , 1972 , 1978 , 1983 , 1984 Arcade, 1990 , 1991 , 1992 , 1993 , 1996 , 1996 , 1996 , 1997 , 1997 , 1999

RSAS (RAND), 1954? IDAHEX, 1976

, 1999 , 2004

McClintic Theater Model, 1977

, 2006

Janus, 1978 Joint Exercise Simulation System, 1982

5) Electronic games

6) Entertainment computer games Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, 1985 , 1986

Perfection

, 1994

Simon

, 1996

Operation

Algebra II Expert

Electronic Football 7) Serious games SGI Flight, 1983 Leapfrog

SGI Dogfight, 1985 , 1989 , 1996 , 1998 Spearhead, 1998 , 2002 Ambush!, 2003 Tactical Iraqi, 2003 , 2004

, 2006 There are criteria which apply to all games: , 2009

1) Game Rules As already discussed, the rules and the components define the game. Everything that is in the rules is part of the game. Everything that is not in the rules does not belong in the game. The rules are the borders and the heart of the game. They only refer to the game and never exist outside of the game. Although the game has rules which are like laws, playing a game is voluntary and cannot be forced on the players. Whoever plays a game, voluntarily binds him to the rules. Where force is involved, there is no game. All games without rules are not "games with rules".

2) Goal Every game has a goal. Thus, there are two definitions: •

The victory condition or requirement.

•

The strategy needed to win the game.

The difference between the two definitions can be explained with an example. In the game Go, the victory condition is to earn the most points. In order to achieve this, a player must win space. Thus, the strategy, which players use during the game, is to win space. Therefore, I define the game goal as the strategy, which the players work on to win. There are thousands of games, but only a small number of game goals. That means that most games have the same game goal. At first this seems surprising. But when we look at it closely and see that every game has a winner and a loser, the goal of the game must be something measurable, relatively simple to measure, and depicted in a game.

1) The course of the game is never the same - chance This attribute, of all entertainment media, is only found in a game. Someone who reads a book, watches a movie, or listens to music, can repeat the experience at any time, but the course and the content is always the same. You can play a game any number of times, however, and the course will always be different. Also, with each game, the course is unknown and it is uncertain who will win the game. Uncertainty and unknown, that is what make games so exciting and delightful. The reason for this is in the game rules and the chance, which play a larger or smaller role in each game.

Playing is experimenting with chance (Novalis). Chance will be experienced in a game by luck (or bad luck). Games, which are mostly based on chance, offer little development possibilities for a player and are usually boring. On the other hand, chance makes games unpredictable and interesting, and causes the game's course to develop differently each time. How does chance get into a game: •

with a random generator (e.g. dice)

•

with different start-up situations (e.g. dealing cards)

•

with incomplete information (e.g. moving at the same time, unknown strategy of your fellow players)

•

with a very high number of move options

Pure strategy games have some chance elements. If that were not so, the game's course would be too deterministic, and we wouldn't like a game whose result was known at the beginning. In strategy games, chance is shown in the large number of possible moves. Because of the many moves, no player knows the winning strategy, which leads to victory. All games which have the same course, by definition, do not belong to "games with rules". For example, this would be puzzles, quizlets, and brain teasers, which lose their attraction when they have been solved. Solitaire games which follow a different course each time belongs, for me, to "games with rules". For example the card game Patience. Very interesting and informative in this connection is the Games Cafe article What Is a Puzzle? by Scott Kim.

1) Competition Each game demonstrates competition. Players compete in a game. There are winners and losers. Even in cooperative games or when players work as a team, competition exists. In this case, the players compete against one of the predetermined situations that mean the players play cooperatively against the game system. The same applies to solitaire games (e.g. Patience, Solitaire). A competition needs a system, in which the game results can be compared. The competition and the measurement of the game results are criteria which limit the game and the cause that certain feelings won't be fulfilled throughout the game as in books, movies, and music. For example, love, freedom, harmony, pain, sorrow, etc. The criteria "competition" is also the reason why it is

so difficult to develop games which are not aggressive. Please see the Games Journal article Non Predatory Games by Kate Jones.

Basic Criteria For judging what is or is not a game, the basic criteria, which not only apply to "games with rules", but to all games, is as important as the special criteria for "games with rules". Here are the criteria which all games have. •

Common experience

•

Equality

•

Freedom

•

Activity

•

Diving into the world of the game

Common experience Games bring people together, regardless of gender, generation, and race. Most games are multiplayer games which lead to group experiences, which linger after the game is over. But there are groups of games which are played alone. These are the so-called solitaire games and most computer games. Equality In a game, all players are equal and have the same chance to win. Where else in this does absolute equality exist? I think that is one of the reasons that children love to play games, because in a game with adults, they are equal partners. Freedom Whoever plays a game, does it from his freedom of choice. He is not forced or coerced by anyone to play. Playing games is not work, not commitment, nothing you have to do. Therefore, we can say that playing games means being free. This freedom is basic to all games. Here the embracing game term has its value.

Whoever reads a book, watches a movie, or listens to music, consumes or acquires, but does not act. While nowadays most leisure activities seduce people into passivity, the game makes people act. Depending on the game, the following activities may be undertaken:

Spiritual Area •

thinking, combining

•

planning

•

making decisions

•

concentrating

•

training your mind

•

receiving knowledge

•

understand the impact of systems

Emotional Area •

rules, accepting laws

•

to learn how to work with others

•

to learn how to lose

•

to learn more about yourself and others

•

to use fantasy and creativity

Motor Area •

practice skillfulness

•

practice reactions

Not everyone knows the different types of games that are out there, so in an effort to form a common language that we can all use; let’s run through each game type and look at history of them.

1)

Arcade style

Although arcade games had their heydey in the 80's, they are nonetheless very popular. Nothing will ever replace walking into a dark, crowded and noisy arcade gallery, popping a quarter into your favorite machine and playing an old fashioned game of Space Invaders. Arcade style games attempt to simulate the arcade games themselves. There is such a vast number of these things that it's nearly impossible to enumerate them all, but they include clones of Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Missile Command and Galaxian.

2)

Card, logic and board games

Computer based card games simulate a card game like poker or solitaire. The program can simulate your opponent(s). Logic games usually simulate some well known logic puzzle like Master Mind or the game where you have put sliding numbered tiles in order inside a box. Computer based board games simulate some kind of board game you'd play on a table top with friends, like monopoly, Mille Bourne, chess or checkers. The program can simulate your opponent.

3)

Text Adventure (aka Interactive Fiction)

Once upon a time, when Apple ][, Commodore, and Atari ruled the world, text adventures were the game of choice of `intelligent folk'. You are given a scenario and can interact with the world you're placed in: You are in a room. It is pitch dark and you're likely to be eaten by a grue.

> Light lantern with match. You light the lantern. This room appears to be a kitchen. There's a table with a book in the center. You also see an oven, refrigerator and a door leading east. > Open the oven. In the oven you see a brown paper bag. > Take the bag. Open the bag. Close the oven. Inside the bag is a some garlic and a cheese sandwich. The oven door is now closed. Back then, text adventures were self contained executables on a disk or casette. These days there's usually a data file and an interpreter. The interpreter reads data files and provides the gaming interface. The data files are the actual game itself, similar to the relationship between first person shooters and wad files. The first adventure game was Adventure (actually “ADVENT”, written on a PDP-1 in 1972). You can play Adventure yourself (actually, a descendent); it comes with “bsd games” on most Linux distros. Text adventures became popularized by Scott Adams and reached their height of popularity in the late 80's with Infocom which are also playable under Linux. As computer graphics became easier and more powerful, text adventures gave rise to graphic adventures. The death of commercial interactive fiction more or less coincided with the bankruptcy of Infocom.

4)

Graphical Adventures

Graphical adventures are, at heart, text adventures on steroids. The degree to which they use graphics varies widely. Back in the 80's, they were little more than text adventures which showed a screen of static graphics. When you picked up an item, the background would be redrawn without the item appearing. The canonical example would be the so-called `Hi-Res Adventures' like The Wizard And The Princess. Later on, the sophisticated graphical adventures had your character roaming around the screen, and you could even use a mouse, but the interface remained purely text. Next there are the `point and click adventures' which basically have no text interface at all, and often have dynamic graphics, like a cat wandering around the room while you're deciding what to do next. In these games, you point at an object (say, a book) and can choose from a pull-down list of functions. Kind of like object oriented adventuring. :) There aren't many graphical

adventures written natively for Linux. The only one I can think of is Hopkins FBI (which happens to be my favorite game for Linux).

5)

Simulation (aka Sims)

Simulations strive to immerse the player behind the controls of something they normally wouldn't have access to. This could be something real like a fighter jet or something imaginary like a mechanized warrior combat unit. In either case, sims strive for realism. Some sims have little or no strategy. They simply put you in a cockpit to give you the thrill of piloting a plane. Some are considerably complex, and there's often a fine line between sims and strats. A good example would be Heavy Gear III or Flight Gear. These days sims and strats are nearly indistinguishable, but a long time ago, sims were real time while strats were turn based. This is awkward for modern day use, since a game like Warcraft which everyone knows as a strat, would be a sim by definition.

6)

Strategy (aka Strats)

Strategy games have their roots in old Avalon type board games like Panzer Leader and old war strategy games published by SSI. Generally, they simulate some kind of scenario. The scenario can be peaceful, like running a successful city (SimCity), or not, like illegal drug selling operation (DrugWars) or an all-out war strategy game like Myth II. The types of games usually take a long time to complete and require a lot of brainpower. Strats can be further divided into two classes: real time and turn based. Real time strats are based on the concept of you-snooze-you-lose. For example, you're managing a city and a fire erupts somewhere. The more time it takes for you mobilize the fire fighters, the more damage the fire does. Turn based strats are more like chess---the computer takes a turn and then the player takes a turn.

7)

First Person Shooter (aka FPS)

What light through yonder window breaks? It must be the flash of the double barreled shotgun! We have a long and twisted history with FPS games which started when id Software open sourced code for Doom. The code base has forked and merged numerous times. Other previously closed engines opened up, many engines are playable via emulators, many commercial FPS games were released for Linux and there are quite a number of FPS engines

which started life as open source projects. Although you may not be able to play your favorite FPS under Linux (Half-Life plays great under winex) Linux definitely has no deficiency here! First person shooters are characterized by two things. First, you pretty much blow up everything you see. Second, the action takes place in first person. That is, through the eyes of the character who's doing all the shooting. You may even see your hands or weapon at the bottom of the screen. They can be set in fantasy (Hexen), science fiction (Quake II), present day `real world' (Soldier Of Fortune) and many other settings. Like text adventures, FPS fit the engine/datafile format. The engine refers to the actual game itself (Doom, Quake, Heretic2) and plays out the maps and bad guys outlined by the datafile (doom2.wad, pak0.pak, etc). Many FPS games allow people to write their own non-commercial datafile. There are hundreds, even thousands of non-commercial Doom datafiles that you can download for free off the net. Often, companies release their engines to the open source community so we can hack and improve them. However, the original data files are kept proprietary. To this day, you still have to purchase doom.wad.

8)

Side Scrollers

Side scrollers are similar to FPS but you view your character as a 2D figure who runs around various screens shooting at things or performing tasks. Examples would be Abuse for Linux and the original Duke Nukem. They don't necessarily have to be violent, like xscavenger, a clone of the old 8-bit game Lode Runner.

9)

Third Person Shooters

Similar to FPS, but you view your character in third person and in 3D. On modern third person shooters you can usually do some really kick-butt maneuvers like Jackie Chan style back flips and side rolls. The canonical example would be Tomb Raider. On the Linux platform, we have Heretic 2 and Heavy Metal FAKK2.

10)

Role Playing Game (aka RPG)

Anyone who has played games like Dungeons & Dragons or Call of Cthulhu knows exactly what an RPG is. You play a character, sometimes more than one, characterized by traits (eg strength, dexterity), skills (eg explosives, basket weaving, mechanics) and properties (levels, cash). As you play, the character becomes more powerful and the game adjusts itself

accordingly, so instead of fighting orcs, at high levels you start fighting black dragons. The rewards increase correspondingly. At low levels you might get some gold pieces as a reward for winning a battle. At high levels, you might get a magic sword or a kick-butt assault rifle. RPG's generally have a quest with a well defined ending. In nethack you need to retrieve the amulet of Yendor for your god. In Ultima II, you destroy the evil sorceress Minax. At some point, your character becomes powerful enough that you can `go for it' and try to complete the quest. While the insanely popular Ultima series, written by Richard Garriot (aka Lord British) for Origin, was not the first RPG, it popularized and propelled the RPG genre into mainstream. Ultima I was released in 1987 and was the game that launched 9 (depending on how you want to count them) very popular sequels, finishing with Ultima IX: Ascension. You can play Ultima VII under Linux with Exult.

Profile of Counter Strike Developer(s)

Valve Software

Publisher(s)

Vivendi Universal (PC) Microsoft Game Studios(Xbox)

Designer(s)

Minh "Gooseman" Le Jess Cliffe

Engine

GoldSrc (Half-Life)

Version

1.6 (September 15, 2003)

Platform(s)

Microsoft Windows, Xbox

Release date(s)

June 12, 1999 (Mod) November 8, 2000 (Retail) March 25, 2004 (Xbox)

Genre(s)

First-person shooter

Mode(s)

Multiplayer

Rating(s)

ESRB: Mature 17+ ELSPA: 14+

Media

CD-ROM, download

System requirements

500 MHz processor, 96 MBRAM

Input methods

Keyboard, mouse

Counter-Strike (commonly abbreviated to CS) is a tactical first-person shooter video game which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe. The game has been expanded into a series since its original release, which currently

includesCounter-Strike:

Condition

Zero, Counter-Strike:

Source, Counter-Strike:

Anthology and Counter-Strike on Xbox. Counter-Strike pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in a series of rounds. Each round is won by either completing the mission objective or eliminating the opposing force. The latest incarnation of the game, Counter-Strike: Source, is based on the Source engine developed for Half-Life The game is currently the most played Half-Life modification in terms of players, according to GameSpy. Counter-Strike was developed first as a Half-Life modification. Therefore named "HalfLife: Counter-Strike". The original version was a 3rd-party Half-Life modification, but since then it has grown into a commercial mod and later advertised as a separate game in itself. It still uses and runs on the Half-Life game engine and is based on its unchanged structure. Counter-Strike, the world’s number one online action game series, is a first-person shooter developed by Valve Software, the creators of the renowned Half-Life series. This teamoriented online shooter pits terrorists and counter-terrorists against one another in round-based combat set all over the world. Using the power of the “Source” engine, the original CounterStrike has been completely remade as Counter-Strike: Source—offering upgraded graphics, levels, and the implementation of a new physics engine. Counter-Strike will never be the same! First released to the public on June 18th, 1999, Counter-Strike began as a simple fanproduced mod for Half-Life. Thanks to a series of steadily-improving beta releases, the mod started to foster a progressively-enlarging and dedicated following. As the fast-paced, tactical game play was refined and improved, and as new concepts and maps were introduced, CounterStrike moved from being a mere Half-Life mod to an entirely new game. With the release of Steam, Valve's digital content delivery system, Counter-Strike found a new footing within the gaming community. Counter-Strike’s first single-player chapter, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (Developed by Valve and Turtle Rock Studios), was a great success, bringing many new features and upgraded graphics to the classic game. The release of Counter-Strike: Source only helped boost the series further towards its now legendary status. Counter-Strike is about as close as you’ll ever get to saving the world; or destroying it!

System Requirements for Using Counter Strike

Minimum: 1.2 GHz Processor, 256MB RAM, DirectX 7 level graphics card, Windows 2000/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection. Recommended: 2.4 GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, DirectX 9 level graphics card, Windows 2000/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection.

Game Play Screenshot of a player using aDesert Eagle on the map de_dust in the original Counter-Strike (left) andCounter-Strike: Source (right). Counter-Strike is a first-person shooter in which players join either the terrorist or counter-terrorist team (or become a spectator). Each team attempts to complete their mission objective and/or eliminate the opposing team. Each round starts with the two teams spawning simultaneously, usually at opposite ends of the map from each other. A player can choose to play as one of eight different default character models (four for each side, although Counter-Strike: Condition Zero added two extra models, bringing the total to ten). Players are generally given a few seconds before the round begins (known as "freeze time") to prepare and buy equipment, during which they cannot attack or walk/move (a player can still take damage, having the player drop from a certain height during freeze time was the only way somebody could control the players starting "HP"). They can return to the buy area within a set amount of time to buy more equipment (some custom maps included neutral "buy zones" that could be used by both teams). Once the round has ended, surviving players retain their equipment for use in the next round; players who were killed begin the next round with the basic default starting equipment. Standard monetary bonuses are awarded for winning a round, losing a round, killing an enemy, being the first to instruct a hostage to follow, rescuing a hostage or planting the bomb. The scoreboard displays team scores in addition to statistics for each player: name, kills, deaths, and ping (in milliseconds). The scoreboard also indicates whether a player is dead, carrying the bomb (on bomb maps), or is the VIP (on assassination maps), although information on players on the opposing team is hidden from a player until his/her death, as this information can be important.

Killed players become "spectators" for the duration of the round; they cannot change their names until they spawn (come alive) again, text chat cannot be sent to or received from live players; and voice chat can only be received from live players and not sent to them (unless the cvar sv_alltalk is set to 1). Spectators are generally able to watch the rest of the round from multiple selectable views, although some servers disable some of these views to prevent dead players from relaying information about living players to their teammates through alternative media (most notably voice in the case of Internet cafes and Voice over IP programs such as TeamSpeak or Ventrilo). This form of cheating is known as "ghosting".

Development Mods and scripts Though Counter-Strike is itself a mod, it has developed its own community of script writers and mod creators. Some mods add bots, while others remove features of the game, and others create different modes of play. Some of the mods give server administrators more flexible and efficient control over his or her server. "Admin plugins", as they are mostly referred as, have become very popular (see Metamod, AMX Mod and AMX Mod X). There are some mods which affect gameplay heavily, such as Gun Game, where players start with a basic pistol and must score kills to receive better weapons, and Zombie Mod, where one team consists of zombies and must "spread the infection" by killing the other team (using only the knife). There are also the Superhero and Warcraft III mods which mix the first-person gameplay of Counter-Strike with an experience system, allowing a player to become more powerful as they continue to play. The game is also highly customizable on the player's end, allowing the user to install or even create their own custom skins, HUDs, sprites, and sound effects, given the proper tools.

Controversy with Counter Strike

Counter-Strike faced controversy in April 2007 when Jack Thompson, now a disbarred attorney from Florida, predicted that the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech Massacre had been trained to kill in the game, well before Seung-Hui Cho (the shooter) was identified. News sources originally stated that Seung-Hui Cho only played the game in high school, however no video games whatsoever were found in the gunman's dorm room, and there is no evidence that he ever played Counter-Strike.[13][14] Thompson also blamed Counter-Strike for the February 14, 2008Northern Illinois University shooting perpetrated by Steven Kazmierczak on the day after the shooting. While it is reported that Kazmierczak played Counter-Strike in college, news agencies point out that mental health issues, and not video games, were the likely culprits in the shootings. On January 17, 2008, a Brazilian federal court order prohibiting all sales of CounterStrike and Everquest and imposing the immediate withdrawal of these from all stores began to be enforced. The federal Brazilian judge Carlos Alberto Simões de Tomaz, of the Minas Gerais judiciary section, ordered the ban in October 2007 because, according to him, the games "bring immanent stimulus to the subversion of the social order, attempting against the democratic and rightful state and against the public safety". On June 18, 2009, a regional federal court order lifting the prohibition on the sale of Counter-Strike was waiting to be published.

STARCRAFT 2

StarCraft 2 is the sequel to the award winning strategy game released almost a decade ago. The original StarCraft game is also a social phenomenon in the country of South Korea. It was perhaps only fitting then when Blizzard announced that development on the proper sequel to Starcraft was underway at a special event held in South Korea in 2007. Also, recently it was announced at Blizzcon that Starcraft 4 would be split up into 3 parts with the first game entitled Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty expected to be released sometime this year. Expect the same addictive game play with the 3 familiar factions all rendered in a spanking new graphics engine and those impressive cinematic pre-rendered cut scenes, Blizzard is so good at.

DIABLO 3 Diablo 3 is a sequel to the action RPG game Diablo 2 released in 2001. Diablo 2 was a massive hit for Blizzard and if anything, the announcement of Diablo 3 was much later than expected. Perhaps Blizzard was a little busy in the interim on a little game called World of Warcraft. Still they have been kind enough to feed us some info regarding the character classes and the worlds at regular intervals. If the gameplay videos are any indication, we can expect the same fast paced, addictive and visceral gameplay that made us sink countless hours into hacking and slashing our way through the worlds of Diablo. With the kind of polish and quality we have come to expect from Blizzard over the past few years, we can be rest assured that Diablo 3 will definitely be among PC gaming’s finest this year if Blizzard do surprise us by releasing it in 2009.

STAR WARS- THE OLD REPUBLIC After the not-so-successful shot at an MMO set in the Star Wars universe; read Star Wars Galaxies, game publisher LucasArts and developer BioWare announced Star Wars : The Old Republic in October last year. The game has been pitched as a story-driven massively multiplayer online PC game set in the timeframe of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic franchise. Immersive storytelling, dynamic combat and intelligent companions were also some of the keywords mentioned during the games press release. How integral a part of the gameplay they end up forming, we can only perhaps decide when the final game is released. What gets us excited is that it’s being developed by game development veterans BioWare. BioWare, as we know, are some of the most impressive storytellers in the world of gaming. Since the story angle of the game is what they have claimed will end up differentiating it from other MMO’s we are genuinely excited about a new kind of MMO entering into the fray.

WARHAMMER 40000 DAWN OF WAR 2 Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War 2 is the sequel to the Dawn of War Series of real time strategy games. Dawn of War 2 is being developed by Relic Entertainment, the same studio behind the original game as well as the more recent Company of Heroes series. The new game is set to feature the same fast paced sci-fi RTS action based on the Warhammer tabletop game. Relic has decided to change some of the core features of the gameplay in the sequel. Base building has been taken out of focus in favor of battle tactics and strategically planning and winning over capture points. Some of these changes are what will set it apart from a more traditional RTS like Starcraft and make some of the gameplay elements seem more in the vein of an action RPG. Whatever design decisions they chose, we can trust Relic Entertainment to deliver another top notch strategy game for the year.

EMPIRE TOTAL WAR

Empire: Total War is the next installment in the Creative Assembly-developed Total War series. It is part turn based part real time strategy game. The game will feature campaigns set in the 1700s and 1800s this time around and also for the first time in the series, naval battles will be played out in real time instead of having a simulated outcome as in the previous games. The elements that the Total War games of the past have always encompassed are impressive strategic depth, battles of an epic scale and since the last two games all rendered in an impressive 3D engine. Empire: Total War seeks to sharpen all these elements through the use of a brand new engine capable of even more impressive graphical effects, more content than any of the previous games in the series and the addition of real time naval battles.

DEMIGOD Gas Powered Games’ Demigod is certainly one of 2009’s most intriguing games. It aims to be a fusion of the action, RTS and RPG genres, the ultimate aim of the game to ascend towards godhood. Players can try to raise super strong hero units whom they can wield individually to unleash an awesome destructive force or take command of a group of smaller units to achieve victory. You can play against the AI or against online opponents. To achieve this end, you can do battle in a persistent online world in multiplayer or a virtual persistent universe in single player. The game is powered by the Supreme Commander engine and combat is set to look visually spectacular to say the least. The game is being published by Stardock, the company behind last year’s awesome Sins Of A Solar Empire. Having the talent behind that game involved in DemiGod will certainly help it gain the polish it needs to tower above the other games of the year.

THE SIMS 3:

Love it or hate it,

there’s no denying

that The Sims is the kind of game with mass market appeal like none other. Countless copies of the game and its expansions have been sold and yet its core market is ever eager to lap up more. EA could just release another expansion if they wished and sit back contented. Among the changes expected in the new version is the presence of one seamless neighborhood that you can explore at your leisure without ever encountering loading screens. There is a new personality traits system that lets you create Sims with far more complex and interesting personalities than before. Perhaps borrowing a page from Maxis’ own Spore game, they have a new Create a Sim feature with plenty of customization options to let you create a truly individual Sim. Also a customize everything feature and plenty of new gameplay options will ensure that there is plenty to do in The Sims 3 at least until the next inevitable expansion drops on us.

2009 is shaping up to be a good year for PC gamers. Blizzard is expected to drop a couple of heavy hitters on us hopefully before the year is up. Some of the most anticipated real-time strategy games are also expected to be released this year. There are also some unique sounding multiplayer games that are being developed for release.

Overall, I think PC gamers have some rather impressive exclusives coming their way. For all the talk about a dying platform, 2009 looks like the time when PC gaming is going to be more alive than ever. Here are some titles which we think will be 2009’s trademark PC exclusives.