Материал: 2076
game content can also be studied in scientific field, especially gamers' interactions within virtual societies in relation to the behavior and social phenomena of everyday life.
14. Explain next terms from the text.
Gaming platforms, computer network, internal network, commercial games, graphical games, game server, social games.
15. What two types of problems faces online game culture? Can you explain the meaning of the following terms: cyberbullying, xenophobia,
gaming addiction, social stigma? |
Match these terms with |
their |
definitions. |
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- «…the act of harming or harassing via information technology networks in |
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a repeated and deliberate manner…». |
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- «…the fear of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange…» |
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- «…an excessive or compulsive use |
of computer games or video |
games, |
иwhich interferes with a person's everyday life…» |
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- «…refers to extreme disapproval of (or discontent with) a person or group |
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on socially characteristic grounds that are perceived, and serve to |
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distinguish them, from other members of a society…» |
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Find more information about these phenomena and write an essay concerning to one of the problems mentioned above (100-150 words).
17. Skim the text. What genres of video games are mentioned in it? Can |
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you complete the list? |
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ONLINE GAME GENRES |
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First-person shooter game (FPS) |
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During the 1990s, online games started to move from a wide variety |
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of LAN protocols (such as IPX) |
and |
onto |
the Internet |
using |
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the TCP/IP protocol. Doompopularized |
the |
concept |
of deathmatch, |
where |
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multiple players battle each other head-to-head,Иas a new form of online game. Since Doom, many first-person shooter games contain online components to allow deathmatch or arena style play. And by popularity, first person shooter games are becoming more and more widespread around the world. And FPS (First Person Shooter) games are now becoming more of an art form because of the required skills and strategy with teammates. More first person shooter competitions are formed to give players a chance to showcase their talents individually or on a team. The kind of games that are played at the more popular competitions are Counter-Strike, Halo, Call of
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Duty: Advanced Warfare, Quake Live and Unreal Tournament. Competitions have a range of winnings from money to hardware.
Real-time strategy game (RTS)
Early real-time strategy games often allowed multiplayer play over a modem or local network. As the Internet started to grow during the 1990s,
software was developed that would allow players to tunnel the LAN protocols used by the games over the Internet. By the late 1990s, most RTS games had native Internet support, allowing players from all over the globe to
Сwere formed where people could meet in "rooms" to play a game. Popular RTS games with online communities have included Age of Empires, Sins of a Solar Empire, StarCraft and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.
play with each other. Services were created to allow players to be automatically matched against another player wishing to play, or lobbies
Multiplayer online battle arena game (MOBA)
A specific subgenre of strategy video games referred to as multiplayer online
battle arena (MOBA) gained popularity in the 2010s as a form of electronic |
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the Defense |
of the Ancients mod |
sports, encompassing games such as |
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for Warcraft III, its Valve-developed |
sequel Dota |
2, Heroes of the |
Storm and League of Legends. |
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MassivelyбАmultiplayer online games were made possible with the growth of broadband Internet access in many developed countries, using the Internet to allow hundreds of thousands of players to play the same game together. Many different styles of massively multiplayer games are available,
Massively multiplayer online game (MMO)
such as: |
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MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) |
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MMORTS (Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy) |
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MMOFPS (Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter) |
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MMOSG (Massively multiplayer online social game) |
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Console gameИ
Xbox Live was launched in November 2002. Initially the console only used a feature called system link, where players could connect two consoles using an Ethernet cable, or multiple consoles through a router. With the original Xbox Microsoft launched Xbox Live, allowing shared play over the
internet. A similar feature exists on the PlayStation |
3 in the form |
of |
the PlayStation Network, and the Wii also supports a |
limited amount |
of |
online gaming. However, Nintendo has come with a new network dubbed "Nintendo Network", and it now fully supports online gaming with the Wii U console.
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Cross-platform online game
As consoles are becoming more like computers, online gameplay is expanding. Once online games started crowding the market, networks, such as the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox took advantage of
online functionality with its PC game counterpart. Games such as Phantasy |
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Star Online have private servers that function on multiple consoles. |
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Dreamcast, PC, Macintosh and GameCube players are able to share one |
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server. Earlier |
games, |
like 4x4 |
Evolution, Quake |
III Arena and Need for |
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Speed: Underground also have a similar function with consoles able to |
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interact with PC users using the same server. Usually, a company like |
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и |
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Electronic Arts or Sega runs the servers until it becomes inactive, in which |
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private servers |
with their |
own DNS number can |
function. This form of |
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networking has a small advantage over the new generation of Sony and |
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Microsoft consoles which customize their servers to the consumer. |
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Browser games |
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As the World Wide |
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Web developed |
and |
browsers became |
more |
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sophisticated, |
people |
started |
creating browser |
games that |
used |
a web |
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browser as a client. Simple single player games were made that could be |
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played using a |
web browser via HTML and HTML scripting technologies |
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(most commonly JavaScript, ASP, PHP and |
MySQL). More |
complicated |
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games such as Legend of Empires or Travian would contact a web server to |
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allow a multiplayer gaming environment. |
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The development |
of |
web-based |
graphics technologies such |
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as Flash and Java allowed browser games to become more complex. These |
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games, alsoбАknown by their related technology as "Flash games" or "Java |
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games", became increasingly popular. Many games originally released in the |
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1980s, such as Pac-Man and Frogger, were recreated as games played using |
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the Flash plugin on a webpage. Most browser games had limited multiplayer |
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play, often being single player games with a high score list shared amongst |
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all players. This has changed considerably in recent years as examples |
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like Castle of Heroes or Canaan Online show. |
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Browser-based pet games are popular amongst the younger generation |
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of online gamers. These games range from gigantic games with millions of |
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users, such as Neopets, to smaller and more community-based pet games. |
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More recent browser-based games use web technologies like Ajax to |
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make more complicated multiplayer interactions |
possible and WebGL to |
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generate hardware-accelerated 3D graphics without the need for plugins. Java has become the most widely used programming language for
browser games (though 2d). Applets made in Java are embedded in webpages and are run on the user's computer.
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MUD
MUD are a class of multi-user real-time virtual worlds, usually but not
exclusively text-based, with |
a history extending back to |
the creation |
of MUD1 by Richard Bartlein |
1978. MUD were the direct |
predecessors |
of MMORPG. |
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18. |
Fill in the following table. |
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Type of the |
Characteristics |
Examples of the |
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game |
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games |
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FPS |
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RTS |
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бА |
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MOBA |
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MMO |
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Console game |
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Browser game |
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Cross-platform |
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online game |
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MUD |
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19. Answer the following questions.
1. How do you think what is an average age of computer gamers and what is their socioeconomic status? Can you make up a segmentation of gamers in coordination with age and socioeconomic status?
2. |
How many hours per day does an ordinary computer gamer/online gamer |
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spend playing computer games? |
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3. |
What genres of video games/online games are more popular? |
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4. |
What is the percentage of male and female gamers in the world? What |
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genres are more popular among male and female gamers? |
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5. |
Are there any differences in genres between online and video computer |
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games? Can you give any other classifications?
Surf the internet to find more information for your answers
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20. Look through the extract from the text devoted to PC video games 2016. What style does this text refer to? Give some reasons.
THE BEST PC GAMES OF 2016
СLet's get one thing out of the way before we dive into the deep end of the pool: this is not a historical retrospective of the best or mostgroundbreaking PC video games.
Instead of penning a piece that would assuredly cause rabid fanboy rage in the comments section, we decided to handle the best PC games topic with a more informative, practical approach. An approach that will help you decide which titles to download for your gaming rig when
иCompiling this list was no small undertaking. PCMag's writers and editors have reviewed an insane number of PC games over the years, so
Battle.net, GOG, Origin, and Steam are calling your name.
incompleteбАhigh-profile titles to see if the developers had patched in fixes since our initial reviews. ДOur goal was to determine if the updated games were now worthy of being included. That was a wise move. Street
The Game Selection Process
selecting the cream of the crop requires significant time and effort. A game was deemed worthy for inclusion if it received at a rating of at least 3 stars. Yes, flawed games can be fun games, too—but not broken games.
On the topic of flawed games, we revisited a few busted and/or
Fighter V is a prime example of a title that greatly benefitted from this decision. The half-baked original release earned a disappointing 2.5 star review, but now bears 4 stars after several software updates. It's become an excellent game, even though it's stillИnot complete. Don't get us started on games being released before they're finished, though.
Digging Into Our Picks
There are dozens of games in this story, so making navigation as simple as possible was a high priority for our crack team of editors and visual artists. The games are grouped alphabetically by genre, and the titles in each category are listed in alphabetical order.
Keen-eyed gamers will notice that there are two genres that are a bit skimpily represented at the moment: MMORPGs and MOBAs. Now, before you break out the pitchforks and torches, please understand that we hold no ill will toward games such as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn or Dota 2. The truthful answer is that we haven't reviewed very many MMORPGs and MOBAs, but that will change as we frequently
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