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In the not-too-distant future, online play will rule universe
Associated Press
AUSTIN — Only a few years ago, online games lurked on the fringe of American culture.
One category catered to young males interested in wreaking havoc — at others' expense. And then there were the complex, virtual communities that more closely mirror the real world in their social interactions.
Today, those never-ending online "massively multiplayer" games like EverQuest have matured into mainstream, vibrant attractions, drawing hundreds of thousands of paying customers — male and female.
But their growth appears almost stagnant compared with the popularity spike for multiplayer online shoot-'em-ups and other mostly war-themed fare geared toward users of console systems, led by Sony's Playstation2 and Microsoft's Xbox.
Already this year, two "persistent" fantasy world online computer games have been scrapped, one before it even made it to store shelves.
Broadband Internet access has helped bring connectivity to consoles that wasn't even an option two years ago. Now, 750,000 players use Xbox Live, each paying $50 a year to be able to play against people elsewhere and download updates.
By 2008, 40.2 million gamers will be going online with video game consoles, says market research firm DFC Intelligence.
"There's no denying that this is the next level of game play," NPD analyst Richard Ow said. "The console business is all about multiplayer."
Nearly 50 games with online features have been released for the Playstation2 in the past year, and twice that number are planned by year's end. Microsoft expects nearly 100 games using Xbox Live in stores by May.
Troubles in the land of persistent online worlds, meanwhile, surfaced in February, when the multiplayer feature of the adventure game URU: Ages Beyond Myst was canceled.
Before its December launch, creator Rand Miller speculated that at least 100,000 subscribers, each paying between $10 to $15 a month, would be required for URU Live to succeed.
Weeks later, Microsoft canned a Norse mythology online game in development called Mythica after what the company described as a careful evaluation of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game landscape.
In the United States, PC games like the futuristic battle game Unreal Tournament 2004 are popular with people who want to blast each other online. But those games are free to play. By comparison, most massively multiplayer online role-playing games charge monthly fees in addition to upfront hardware and software costs.
For the genre to really reach the masses, online games need to broaden their appeal beyond males between 15 and 25, said Sheri Graner Ray, a game designer with Sony Online.
"The market is not growing as fast as the game industry. It means we've got to expand our market to attract more women," she said this month at the South by Southwest interactive festival.
"It's not about making games with fluffy pink kitties. It's about understanding what barriers are out there preventing females from accessing games today."
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