Online gaming is playing videogames with opponents through the use of networks.  A network can be the internet or a LAN.  A LAN or Local Area Network is a combination of several computers placed in a limited space, for example a room

With a PC linked to the internet, gaming will never be the same.  No more playing against the computer, from now on one competes with human opponents.  Before, this was only possible by connecting two PC’s with a serial or parallel cable or connecting several PC’s in a LAN (local area network).  In both cases the PC’s had to be placed in a limited physical space.  The internet drastically neutralizes this restriction.  At the moment it’s possible to play with people from different countries (even continents).  The only spoilsport is the modem speed of the players.  In actual practice everything less than a cable connection is often hardly playable.  When you’re one of the lucky ones with cable, a new dimension of  gaming opens up.  It’s difficult to explain to someone who has never played online before what the actual difference is. It is only through use that all the possibilities are revealed.

Although internet is by far the most popular network used for online gaming LAN-gaming is becoming more popular every day.  This renewed popularity is merely caused by the so-called LAN-parties.  A LAN-party is a gathering of gamers at a given location where loads of computers are combined to a Local Area Network.  At these LAN-parties hundreds of gamers engage in various competitions, for example http://www.innersphere.org. 

--- Edcel Magtira