My first encounter with multiplayer games actually goes back to 1993 when I first tried my hand on multiplayer (MP) Doom. This game is widely regarded as a landmark title of first person shooter games.
Now, multiplayer wasn’t really sophisticated back then. Four players at most could go at it at a time. We actually had a nifty setup in a company I was interning at, and we put four PCs networked side by side and we had a blast during our lunch breaks and after office hours. I remembered I was pretty good at the game and was usually the top-ranked of four whenever we went head-to-head in deathmatches. But then again, there weren’t very many persons who were into multiplayer first person shooters then.
This was the early days, well before professional gaming leagues, fancy rigs, high-resolution mice, special gear and the like.
I didn’t get into MP first person shooters after Doom. Part of it was that the 3D first-person shooters from Quake onwards gave me bad bouts of motion sickness. So, after getting into the alpha test of Ultima Online in 1996-1997 (?), I got into MMORPGs instead . Over the years there’s also been one or two strategy games that I’ve played online, especially World in Conflict which I think I was reasonably good in.
These days there are even international tournaments for these first person shooter games, and even young gamers who train professionally (and get worshiped by fans) like Olympians. I’m nowhere as good as these fellows are of course, but I still enjoy a round or two of MP shooters, like Resistance 2 on the PS3. My skill level’s only about average, but the environment in cooperative play is easy to get into, pretty safe, and terrifically exciting. Here’s a video of a session I recorded in the living room over the weekend.:)
You keep playing these games like you have the last several weeks and you’re bound to have sponsors come knocking on your door offering to fund your training for the next competitive gaming meet. : )
LOL no way that’s ever gonna happen bud. I’m simply no good. Any one of my students could easily trash me if I took them on competitive play even if they’re half asleep.:)
I’m not very good at first-person shooter games either. At best I’m somewhat above average depending on the exact game, but I rarely do more than play through the campaign mode of a particular title once. My only prolonged MP experience with an FPS is Tribes, and all the broadband-equipped players danced circles around me.
Truth to tell, the video game feat that really impresses me is the speed run, where a player blazes through a platformer (preferably an older, 2-D title) in record speed in flawless fashion.
There was an amazingly difficult Super Mario Bros fan-made mod that, I think, featured inverted gravity and other off the wall game machanics obstacles. I can’t think of the name, but someone recorded their speed run through it and uploaded it to the internet. I nearly fainted.
Yep; those recorded speed run videos on game sites are loads of fun to watch. Apparently there was a race recently to see who could finish Fallout 3 quicker, and someone blazed through it in 75 minutes LOL. Details here.:)
http://blogs.ign.com/Bethesda_Softworks/2008/09/15/101489/?RSSwhen2008-09-15_160100&RSSid=910167