The Beginner’s Guide to Text Based Games
December 19th, 2010, 7:11 am
You have heard of text-based browser games, only you want to find out more. Continue reading to discover the history, attraction and how text-based MMORPGs continue to rule and have evolved over the years.
Students played text-based games over 15 years ago on college LANs over exceedingly slow dial-up connections.
Most text based MMORPGs have very few graphics. Similar to original RPGs, played with pencil, paper and dice, they rely on random numbers, written words and statistics. The game can be played over a poor web connection, and they can handle large numbers of concurrent users, often known as MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). Another advantage to text based browser games is that they have much lower system requirements than graphical games, enabling them to be played on pretty much any PC connected to the web. Many people are now playing them on modern handheld gadgets and cell phones.
All text based games worth their salt will have the ability to build a virtual character, increase their health, wealth, status, equipment, weaponary, trade items etc, and complete tasks in the game. Over the last 5 years, the landscape has changed and with so much competition, expectations are much higher and developing a successful text-based rpg game requires time, effort, regular feature updates and lots of caffeine. Good text web games are massively addictive and retain loyal players for months, and sometimes, years.
Facebook saw the appeal in text based browser games and launched Mafia Wars, Farmville and Frontierville, created by Zynga. Although much more graphical than the original text based RPGs, under the bonnet, they are almost identical to most other text-based games.
Torn City is a popular text-based MMORPG which has been played for over 6 years. A great place to start experimenting with text-based gaming.