Analysis: PC Gaming — Trying to Make a Connection

[Have the games kept growing while the tech remains the same? In this opinion column, writer Phill Cameron looks at the technical pitfalls surrounding how PC gamers play — or don’t play — together.]Opening Ports….Lowering Firewall…Authorising False Localised Network…Attempting Connection…The heart flutters. The false hope that resides in every PC gamer’s heart surges, hoping that you’ve not forgotten the tiny, insignificant setting that will mean that the game will throw up the rude, coarse and unwelcome error message. Multiplayer games really haven’t come a long way.The internet was supposed to be a huge boon, something to let you reach out and touch someone. For gaming, that ‘touch’ was usually with high velocity rounds or razor-sharp blades. But, well, it was still something we were looking forward to. The problems were that the developers couldn’t, and haven’t, moved fast enough, and more often than not you’ll get nothing back from the fickle ‘refresh’ page when looking for servers, or your friends will have some inscrutable ‘NAT’ configuration that means you’re out of luck, and back at square one, bored and frustrated.With multiplayer modes coming packaged with almost every game released, and broadband becoming so prevalent that if your ping is over… Read full this story

Analysis: PC Gaming -- Trying to Make a Connection have 266 words, post on www.gamasutra.com at August 5, 2009. This is cached page on Travel Breaking News. If you want remove this page, please contact us.