CompTIA Network+

In 1971, Galaxy Game was the first arcade video game that was widely known. The following year was the release of Pong, which was the start of the popular gaming industry. Now, gaming is so ubiquitous that it has left the arcades and colonized our computers.

Nowadays there is no doubt that online games have created the biggest stir. You can play these multi player games in both home consoles and on your computer. Online games are played around the globe. Their levels of difficulty range all the way from beginning to advanced.

There are many online games, ranging from classic arcade games to casino games to online multiplayer role-playing games (RPGs), and many of these are even available free. A unique aspect to role-playing games is the real time environment they inhabit- even after you sign out, other gamers continue playing, which means that when you log back in the game may look completely different from when you left it.

But there are a ton of websites that charge for playing these online games. The way it works is that many of these websites allocate points for wining which can then be exchanged for prizes. Pogo.com is one of the websites that does this. They actually take it even a step further because as you earn tokens for winning these games, they can later be traded in to be a part of a random drawing to win bigger prizes.

Many online role-playing games also give benefits to players who pay a charge. For example, the game Runescape allows users to pay to gain access to weapons not available to those playing the game for free. And as gaming grows more popular, games become more and more realistic. Home consoles have allowed users to engage in real time live play, playing with other gamers from all over the world.

On March 27, 2007, Uno became the first game to be downloaded over a million times. This popularity has paralleled the growing number of console downloads, which on March 6, 2007 reached 25 million downloads. Many of the games downloaded are both arcade classics and games made into arcade games.

Arcade games are not the only games available for download; one the most popular among console owners are games like the Madden football series, where gamers play their favorite football team against other teams (with players participating from all over the world).

As I am sure you already know, both online and console games have additional content which users can download. For example the newer video games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero give players the ability to download new songs which can then be used to play in the game.