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The the meeting place for netgamers

Multiplayer Game Zone
[Maddalena Delli]

Many think that computer games are a solitary activity isolating players from the rest of the world, but that's a gross misconception. On the contrary, so long as they don't become an addiction, they offer endless opportunities of getting to know people, habits and languages.

There are several kinds of online games, but top of the list for both technology and fun are undoubtedly the role playing games (RPG). They all work with a host-client architecture, where the client is the user who wishes to take part in the game and the host is the server where all the digital players "meet”.

Since the earliest times of Information Technology, MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) allowed user groups to enter virtual environments and impersonate characters by means of textual descriptions and typed commands. Known as MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Game), today's games trace their roots to those non-graphical online games such as Adventure and Zork, and to pen-and-paper role-playing games like Dungeons %26 Dragons.

The most popular iconographic sources are fantasy books, with dragons and hideous monsters, fair princesses, ill-tempered goblins, mysterious elves and dexterous knights living their adventures in far-away worlds; some others have science fiction settings, with incredible machines and futuristic metropolis endangered by major conflicts. Thanks to the latest video cards capable of processing millions of polygons per second, today's 3-D graphic interfaces are highly realistic.

Contrary to common belief, netgamers often feel the need of meeting each other not just in a virtual but also in a physical environment in order to exchange tips and tricks, share experiences and make new friends.

In Florence the answer to that need is Rocket Arena (via Lamarmora 23, tel. 055.576991), which - besides offering the usual internet point services - was established with the precise purpose of creating a "Multiplayer Game Zone," a physical meeting point for netgamers.


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