2013-08-07

Multiplayer gaming has changed dramatically in only the last few years. In the late 1990s and early 2000s there were two main ways to connect with someone to play something like your favorite fantasy video game, a puzzle game or even a card game. The first main way was to simply be in the same room with that person at the same time. If you were playing a card game on a computer, for example, each person could take turns using the computer’s keyboard when it was their time to play. If you were playing a first person shooter video game, one person could use the keyboard while the other used a joystick.



The second main way was to connect directly to another computer through something like a local area network. Each person could use the full computer monitor available to them and wouldn’t have to share the screen with other players.

Recently, an emphasis has been placed on using gaming sites and dedicated servers for online play. These types of services and sites aren’t just for epic role playing games like Blizzard Entertainment’s popular “World of Warcraft.” Even relatively straightforward games like poker can be played through dedicated sites. Though the emphasis towards these sites could have been off-putting at first to traditional gamers, it is actually a method that has a wide variety of different advantages.

For starters, using a gaming site to play a card game like poker means that you don’t actually have to worry about downloading or installing any gaming software onto your computer. Instead of taking up physical space on your computer’s hard drive, you can just open any existing Web browser that you happen to have access to and play to your heart’s content. You also don’t have to worry about downloading and installing any software updates. If you don’t have the most updated version of certain gaming titles you won’t actually be able to play online until those files have been downloaded. With gaming sites, you are always logging into the most recent version.

Another main benefit of these types of setups is that you can guarantee with absolute certainty that rules will be followed. By logging into a gaming site you often have to create a user account, which itself means that you have to agree to the terms of service and usage conditions for that particular site. Those terms of service traditionally mean that you agree to not cheat or “hack” your way to the top of the leaderboards in any way. If you do decide to cheat, your account can be banned and you won’t be able to play anymore. Because of that guarantee, it can make the online gaming experience much more enjoyable for all. If you were connected to your friend via a local area network and your friend wanted to cheat during a game, there wasn’t really much that could be done about it beyond a physical confrontation. Many sites also have automatic cheat detection services that can see if an add-on has been installed or something of that nature.

Ron Hastings is a World of Warcraft enthusiast. He also enjoys gaming online and his articles mainly appear on gaming blogs. To read the best online casino blog, visit the link.

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