Pay-to-playPay-to-play, sometimes pay-for-play or P2P, is a phrase used for a variety of situations in which money is exchanged for services or the privilege to engage in certain activities. The common denominator of all forms of pay-to-play is that one must pay to "get in the game", with the sports analogy frequently arising. Brokered programming The term also refers to a growing trend in which individuals or groups may purchase radio or television airtime, much like infomercials, to broadcast content promoting the payer's interests.
Anarchy OnlineAnarchy Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) published and developed by Norwegian video game development company Funcom. Released in June 2001, the game was the first in the genre to include a science-fiction setting, dynamic quests, instancing, free trials, and in-game advertising. The game's ongoing storyline revolves around the fictional desert planet "Rubi-Ka", the source of a valuable mineral known as "Notum". Players assume the role of a new colonist to Rubi-Ka.
Lag (video games)In computers, lag is delay (latency) between the action of the user (input) and the reaction of the server supporting the task, which has to be sent back to the client. The player's ability to tolerate lag depends on the type of game being played. For instance, a strategy game or a turn-based game with a slow pace may have a high threshold or even be mostly unaffected by high lag. A game with twitch gameplay such as a first-person shooter or a fighting game with a considerably faster pace may require a significantly lower lag to provide satisfying gameplay.
GamificationGamification is the strategic attempt to enhance systems, services, organizations, and activities by creating similar experiences to those experienced when playing games in order to motivate and engage users. This is generally accomplished through the application of game-design elements and game principles (dynamics and mechanics) in non-game contexts.
Online and offlineIn computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" or "on the line") could refer to any piece of equipment or functional unit that is connected to a larger system. Being online means that the equipment or subsystem is connected, or that it is ready for use.
City of HeroesCity of Heroes (CoH) was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game which was developed by Cryptic Studios and published by NCSOFT. The game was launched in North America on April 28, 2004, and in Europe by NCsoft Europe on February 4, 2005, with English, German and French servers. In the game, players created super-powered player characters that could team up with others to complete missions and fight criminals belonging to various gangs and organizations in the fictional Paragon City.
Survival gameSurvival games are a subgenre of video games which are usually set in hostile, intense, open-world environments. Players generally start with minimal equipment and are required to survive as long as possible by crafting tools, weapons, shelters, and collecting resources. Many survival games are based on randomly or procedurally generated persistent environments; more recently, survival games are often playable online, allowing players to interact in a single world.
Game balanceGame balance is a branch of game design with the intention of improving gameplay and user experience by balancing difficulty and fairness. Game balance consists of adjusting rewards, challenges, and/or elements of a game to create the intended player experience. Game balance is generally understood as introducing a level of fairness for the players. This includes adjusting difficulty, win-loss conditions, game states, economy balancing, and so on to work in tandem with each other. The concept of game balance depends on the game genre.
Video game botIn video games, a bot is a type of artificial intelligence (AI)–based expert system software that plays a video game in the place of a human. Bots are used in a variety of video game genres for a variety of tasks: a bot written for a first-person shooter (FPS) works very differently from one written for a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). The former may include analysis of the map and even basic strategy; the latter may be used to automate a repetitive and tedious task like farming.
In-game advertisingIn-game advertising (IGA) is advertising in electronic games. IGA differs from advergames, which refers to games specifically made to advertise a product. The IGA industry is large and growing. In-game advertising generated 34millionin2004,56 million in 2005, 80millionin2006,and295 million in 2007. In 2009, spending on IGA was estimated to reach 699millionUSD,1 billion by 2014 and according to Forbes is anticipated to grow to $7.2 billion by 2016. 