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      <h5><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">//<a href="../../../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">loonygames</font></a>://<a href="../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">issue 
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                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="2">Game, 
                        Set, Match!</font><font color="#904C10" size="3"><br>
                        <font size="2">The Brave New World of Online Gaming</font></font></i></font></b><br>
                      
                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 

                        Stephanie &quot;<a href="mailto:bobbi@loonygames.com">Bobbi</a>&quot; 
                        Bergman</font></div>
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                  <td width="45%" align="right" valign="top"> 
                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 2&nbsp; <br>
                      November 17, 1999&nbsp; </font></b></h5>
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              <p><loonystart> </p>
              <div align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Other 
                competitive gaming organizations use different formats. The <a href="http://www.cyberathlete.com">Cyberathlete 
                Professional Organization</a>, the PGL&#146;s chief competitor, 
                recently awarded a $10,000 prize at the <a href="http://www.frag3.com">Frag 
                3</a> last month. At that event, CPL Founder Angel Munoz announced 
                the largest prize yet to come, $40,000 to be awarded to the first 
                place winner at an event to be held in Los Angeles. <a href="http://www.i2e2.com/">i2e2</a>, 
                launched by former PGL and CPL founders Joe Perez and Frank Cabanski, 
                is taking yet another approach, seeking to hold events both &#147;professional&#148; 
                and &#147;amateur&#148;, as well as online and off. To look at 
                this in the coldest way possible, these organizations exist to 
                make a profit off of people playing games they didn&#146;t create. 
                To make money off of gamers. Is it really possible? </font> </div>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">And what 
                about the companies making these games? id Software jumped into 
                the competitive gaming ring this past summer with <a href="http://www.quakecon.org">QuakeCon 
                &#146;99</a> (held entirely offline), and Microsoft recently gave 
                two Harley-Davidson motorcycles away at a <b>MechWarrior 3 </b>tournament 
                (held both online and off). <a href="http://www.zone.com">Microsoft&#146;s 
                Gaming Zone</a> is a study in how to run a ultra-successful online 
                gaming service, but not exactly the premiere place for serious 
                competition (but if you&#146;re looking for a mean game of Hearts, 
                it&#146;s the best around), the <b>MW3</b> tournament aside. <b>Starcraft</b>, 
                <b>Total Annihilation</b>,<b> Half-Life</b>, <b>Tribes</b>, <b>Age 
                of Empires</b>...all these and more have been used in competitive 
                gaming events. With the Dreamcast&#146;s multiplayer capabilities, 
                other games may soon be entering this arena, bringing other types 
                of gamers with it. How do all of these developers feel about companies 
                starting up to organize people playing their games?</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Of course, 
                there is also the issue of bragging rights. How do you really 
                know who is the best player, when so many different formats are 
                being used? Will someone, some organization, create a standard 
                for ranking online gamers? </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Then there 
                is the most important question of all. What effect will all this 
                ranking, paying out, and partnering have on the gamers themselves? 
                We pretty much take for granted the ability to jump on a server 
                and play without a rank or registration. Is that time nearing 
                an end?</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don&#146;t 
                know the answers to the questions raised here. But this column 
                will seek, if not to answer them, at least to explore the complicated 
                issues surrounding them. At its most fundamental level, online 
                gaming is about you and me. I am a gamer. I like being able to 
                play, competitively, online. I like the rush I get when I&#146;m 
                winning a game of <b>Quake</b>, and nothing is like the hopeless 
                despair of losing a hard-fought match. It&#146;s a wonderful, 
                exhilarating experience, and what fuels all of these companies, 
                all of these organizations, all of us. Ultimately? We all just 
                want to kick some ass. It&#146;s the fact that we need so much 
                structure (and cash incentives!) to do it that makes it so interesting. 
                </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I like 
                to think I know the online gaming world fairly well at this point. 
                This past year, I co-organized the <a href="../../cgi/link.cgi?url=http:%252F%252Fwww.femalefrag.com%252F&amp;file=%252Fusr%252Fwww%252Fusers%252Floonygames%252Fcontent%252Fcgi%252Flink.htm&amp;mark=abc">Female 
                Frag Fest '99</a>, an all-female <b>Quake 2</b> tournament sanctioned 
                by the CPL, and I am a member of the <b>Quake</b> clan <a href="http://www.clanpms.com">PMS</a>. 
                I also currently play on the OGL ladder (<b>Quake III</b> open 
                division), and have participated in a number of other ladders 
                and tournaments, including the PGL. So while I try to answer these 
                questions, I will be doing it, not only from the perspective of 
                a researcher and a writer like everyone else, but also as a former 
                tournament official, and a gamer. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Let me 
                add this. Online gaming is a very confusing, very complicated 
                issue. I've pretty much laid out what I intend to cover in this 
                column. If there is anything not mentioned here, any organization 
                worth looking into, something confusing, please let me know. Online 
                competitive gaming is ultimately about the gamers, and this column 
                will be the same. </font></p>
              <p align="left">&nbsp;</p>
              <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><i>- 
                Stephanie &quot;Bobbi&quot; Bergman needs to come up with better 
                taglines.</i></font></p>
           </loonystart> 
           
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. Game, Set, Match! is &copy; 1999 Stephanie Bergman. 
  All other content is &copy; 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction 
  is prohibited, you dolt.</font></i></p>
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