You signal for your party to halt as a dark, cloaked figure emerges from the woods ahead. Without a word, he raises both arms, and the parched ground of the northern plain begins to rumble, knocking two of your companions off-balance. As you steady yourself, the earth between you and the stranger begins to rise, taking on the form of a giant, twenty-foot tall lizard that immediately charges your position. You order three horsemen forward to intercept the creature, but before they can move, three bolts of lightning from the stranger's hand knock them to the ground.
Welcome to the world of fantasy, where small bands of adventurers battle mystical creatures and evil sorcerers, usually while questing to find some ancient artifact or trying to destroy an evil warlord whose minions have been plaguing their homeland. These mystic realms are often the subject of books and movies, as well as the fantasies of countless school-age children who dream of something more interesting that the monotony of their daily classes.
As these children dream of facing dangerous foes in far-off lands, many realize that they do have one powerful device that no wizard could ever hope for - a computer. And long before the Internet became a household term (remember using your 1200 baud modem to log on to the local bulletin board service?), computer programmers created text-based adventure games to try to simulate the excitement of living in a fantasy realm.
To interact with the "world" of an online role-playing game (RPG), players type in simple commands such as "move north," "look under rock," "wield bone dagger" and "attack ogre" that control the actions of characters that they have created. The world itself is a series of "rooms" - think of it as a checkerboard-like layout of which you can only see one square at a time. On entering the game or moving to a new room, the player is presented with a description of the room they are in, including a list of possible exits and the other items and creatures in the room.
Each character has a certain number of "hitpoints" - the amount of damage they can receive before being killed - and "mana points" - the amount of magic they can cast before waiting for it to regenerate. These attributes can be augmented by certain types of equipment and usually increase every time a player gains a certain amount of experience points, which are awarded for fighting against computer-controlled monsters ("mobs") and other players. Thus, older characters who have better equipment are much more dangerous adversaries than those who have just started playing the game.
Battles are usually run with a round-based system: each round, every character and mob involved in the fight is allowed one attack. Rounds occur every certain number of seconds (usually just a couple), unlike in single-player games like Heroes of Might and Magic or card games like Magic: The Gathering, in which the computer doesn't wait for each player to decide what to do and finish his/her turn. Instead, it automatically forces every participant in the fight to try to hit their adversary. The damage inflicted by a player's attack (if any) depends on the random roll of a virtual pair of dice, which is also calculated automatically by the computer.
But fights aren't totally automated. The number of damage points inflicted, like the number of hitpoints or mana points a character has, can be augmented by the character's equipment. And in addition to their one attack per round, players can also perform actions such as casting spells or, more importantly, trying to flee the battle, though the computer limits how many times per round this can be done. And even without the computer's limits, players can only cast spells as quickly as they can type them in, so a good typing speed becomes nearly as important as good equipment.
So what's the point of it all? How does one "win" a game like this? Many online RPGs allow players to quest for "immortality" by gaining a certain number of experience points. Some players also find it enjoyable to prevent others from gaining immortality by killing them - when characters "die," they can continue playing but lose a large amount of experience, as well as all of their equipment. But whatever a certain player's goal is, online RPGs offer participants the chance to simulate many of the adventures that they dreamed of as children - exploring exotic lands, collecting strange artifacts and engaging in "dangerous" battles with mystical creatures. And, of course, players once again have something that our lengendary heroes could only dream of - the ability to leave the dangerous fantasy world behind for a simple, boring existence by simply exiting the game.
For a list of online RPGs, visit http://www.mudconnect.com.
