ONLINE GAMES TAKE FRONT STAGE IN ENTERTAINMENT

ONLINE GAMES TAKE FRONT STAGE IN ENTERTAINMENT

The Internet has opened up many avenues that before this, was unknown to humankind. With the rapidly evolving internet technology, we have taken this opportunity and turned it into money making ventures. Online gaming has taken up such venture. Being highly addictive, online games have attracted millions of children and adults alike to spend hour after hour online. The most popular of its kind is Online RPG games as well as free multiplayer online games that involve numerous players playing a certain game at the same time.

According to the Nielsen//NetRatings, a leading provider of Internet research, reveals that kids today, especially in the UK and US have a huge appetite for playing online games.
Also, comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, showed results of a study into the online gaming category whereby there was a significant user growth among teenage girls between the ages of 12 and 17 and women between the ages of 55 and 64. comScore said that this growth in women gamers is likely the result of the emergence of gaming content, portals and Web sites that cater specifically to the female audience.

Under the category of online RPG games and free multiplayer online games, mafia games and gangster games are the most popular and sought after types. Gangland.Org is one such online entertainment that revolves around the theme of mafia games and gangster games. Gangland Org is a massive online-multiplayer text based game that includes scenarios centered money, power and respect. Gamers are supposed to build their very own violent crime organization. Just like any real-life gangster or mafia mob, this game also features prostitutes and thugs and to become the head-honcho, all you need to do is to make these people happy by either purchasing items or avoiding certain events. Although simple, it is highly addictive and fun.

The games revolve around drugs, money, weapons, sex and of course violence. It creates a whole new virtual world for those who want a piece of action but still do it on safer grounds and what better way to explore your fantasies and live your wildest dreams than to do it online. Despite the game running on negative aspects, free multiplayer online games create other healthy intangible benefits such as interactions, teamwork, and creating social groups where gamers interact with those that share similar interests with them and build both casual and meaningful relationships. Not only that, online games boost up memory and develop cognitive skills of gamers. Online games that focus on strategy, logic, speed and memory help by making use of parts of the brain that are least used. 

According to an excerpt taken from Nic Crowe from the Centre for Youth Work Studies in the School of Sport and Education at West London’s Brunel University, he says: For example, gamers are invited to join ‘Klans’ - highly disciplined co-operatives in which they share a common set of goals, they adopt identities such as merchant or warrior and they divide their time online between work and leisure. Most importantly, skills are learned which are highly valued, with experienced players tailoring their ‘training’ to acquire the ‘desirable’ skills - a clear example of ‘work related learning’.

So, this goes to say that online games are here to stay. As long as there is demand for it and as long as people out there look at the benefits, the online gaming community will continue to exist and expand.