Hello all,
This is my first blog in the gamerblog.

So, to start things off, the goal of the gamerblog is to share my experience of what history has shown to make a great game, with the focus more towards multiplayer aspects with your friends.

Why focus on the multiplayer aspect?

• Business side: Any commercial game publishing entity will want to sell as many copies of a game as possible. The game developers (who are not the publishers) do not necessarily worry about the number of sales as much as how good their game is -- but, publishers would be more willing to publish a game if it is likely to sell more games.
• Social side: Let's be honest with ourselves, a game is MUCH more enjoyable when you are playing with friends, neighbors, or just the guy/gal beside you in an internet cafe/gamer dive.
  
• Competitive side: Fighting AI mobs is fun, but once you learn the 'trick' or technique the -designers- intended you fight the mob with, well, it gets kind of boring and becomes more a challenge of figuring out what was intended versus what cool things could you try. Competing with other players removes the aspect of 'intended' approaches and allows a lot more variables to come into play.
• Hype side: The high-level game genre known as 'MMO' has taken off considerably over the past couple of years. Previously over the past 10 or so years, LAN and similar multiplayer gaming was 'king' of this arena, but 'MMO' style has picked up significant speed.
  

So what makes me a good candidate to blog about gaming, specifically multiplayer gaming?

• I am not a game designer. This is on purpose, as although I am a software engineer, knowing the inner working of games kinda looses the 'coolness' of a game.
• I have had significant experiences in the gaming world (yes, atari days forward), but have picked up more focus on what would make good games and trying to detect good multiplayer games coming out to share with my friends.
• I listen, and try to think and analyze logically :-)

Experiences:

• Multiplayer/LAN style
  
• Command and Conquer series
• Warcraft II/III series, Starcraft, Diablo II
  
• Mechwarrior series
  
• Dungeon Seige I/II
• Freespace II (and other similar space games)
• Master of Orion I/II (and a III title that really wasn't MOO)
• Master of Magic
• Doom/Quake/Unreal
  
• MMO style
• Dark Age of Camelot (pre Trials of Atlantis)
• Anarchy Online (pre Notum Wars)
  
• FF XII
• Star Wars Galaxies online (pre combat upgrade patch)
• Planetside
• Eve Online (only a short stint)
  
• Dungeon and Dragons Online
• Hellgate: London
• --Numerous Betas
  
• Significant single player games
• Elder Scrolls Series
• The 'gold box' series/'bards tale' series