Philips Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy User Manual
Page 69
Trigger Happy
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Owing to different modem connection speeds, it is
often difficult to play a satisfying game of Quake over
the Internet against someone on the other side of the
world, because that game is a very rapid-response
shoot-’em-up. But a real-time strategy game such as the
amusing alien wargame Starcraft (1998) is the perfect
vehicle for such global connections, and moreover can
handle far more than merely two players at a time.
Starcraft’s American server, at one point on its 1998
launch weekend, had thirty thousand players connected
simultaneously. Earth is truly humming, as you are
reading this, with the smoke and crackle of imaginary
warfare.
The cognitive demands made on the player of
realtime strategy games are among the most complex
any videogame offers, and the attraction of logical,
combinatorial thinking allied to often beautiful graphics
(such as in the extraordinary Commandos 2) makes for
a powerful experience. Wargames, too, are the most
complex and satisfying example of the videogame
pleasure of control: you are in charge not just of one
tank or airplane, but of an entire army. You are not to
be messed with.