OGame

OGame is a Browser Game Gameforge AG, in which the player in space peacefully and / or warlike builds an empire.

OGame was developed by Alexander Roesner, known to many OGamern even under his nickname Legor. The name OGame - composed of the words online and Game - was initially intended only as a working title of the game. However, due to the rapid announcement of the game, the name remained until today. The Gameforge AG from Karlsruhe operates and internationalized the game. A developer team developed OGame steadily.

Universes

The first game of the world ( " universe ", or " Uni" ) was opened on 3 October 2002; each university is completely independent of the other universities. The German version contains an average of 1515 players each. This OGame is one of the biggest browser games in Europe. At times, there were more than 2 million player accounts in over 700 universes, with many players have an account in more of them.

OGame is currently available in 29 country versions, the country version of the UK representing the international English version simultaneously. In this there is a speed universe (Uni 35), formerly called ProGame, with 5 times the normal speed.

Here is an overview of the countries in which there are OGame. In brackets the ending of the URL, as well as the number of active universes are given:

The servers in China and South Korea with 9 universities were shut down in November 2009. Reasons for country-specific, technical problems and it inferentially little interest ( a total of approximately 6000 and 7000 players) were called.

Although the German OGame Uni 91, or Mizar has arrived, there are only 84 active Unis, because Uni 24 is missing and the universes 32, 35, 36, 37 and 38 were closed in the wake of Unifusion. Uni 24 was a limited-time, paid "Speed- Uni", were reduced in the construction, flight, research and production times to one-fifth of the original time. The Universe " Electra " runs at four times the speed and therefore resembles universe 24 Uni 6 was provided since opening as a test universe of the development team, but was released in December 2008 as a beta universe for the redesign again to play. Jupiter, one of the most visited universities, is the first special universe, in which the community features could a say.

To participate in the respective country versions OGames mastery of the corresponding game language is assumed. For countries versions in which too few players are expected to English is also allowed as a spoken language.

Game scenario

The player assumes the role of a ruler of a planet at first and builds an economic and military infrastructure. At the three required for raw metal, crystal and deuterium is accessed by mine expansion, trade, expeditions to unknown planets and / or raids ( "Raids " ) on others. The military units follow this to some degree the rock-scissors- paper principle. Through research, a player can colonize new planets and get access to new technologies, buildings and better weapons systems.

In OGame, there are no rounds - a universe that is has no end in time, and it will also set a target. However, we obtain for built or verforschte raw points, which one ascends in a ranking, while be deducted for lost ships and defense units points. In general, players therefore select the destination to climb in the rankings as far as possible to the top.

Like most browser games the game runs around the clock in real time, your empire is thus unprotected in player absence. This is also the decisive factor in the development looking like behaviors, as they may well occur in such games. In case of prolonged absence, it is the possibility to activate the so-called " vacation mode ". In this, the player can not be attacked by others, but also produces no resources and can perform no fleet actions.

The complexity of the game evolves with the increasing availability of buildings and technologies. Newcomers are also various support services available.

Officers and payment system

Since February 2007 it is possible to enable fee-based enhancements, called officers to unlock the production bonuses or other benefits. Among them is the Commander, which offers ease of use benefits.

On 19 September 2007 a ​​new payment system in OGame, and the in-game currency was introduced in Dark Matter. Dark matter can buy, store and exchange them for in-game features such as officers or mines booster. In addition, one can thus summon a merchant who traded commodities.

One can find "Expeditions" Dark Matter in, but the yield here is rather low. Therefore, it takes a comparatively long time, alone with " expeditions " to get enough Dark Matter for buying from officers or similar in-game extensions.

End of August 2010 have been increased with the introduction of an update both the prices of some officers, as well as a new feature introduced with the one for dark matter ( for about 12,50 €) one of the planet with all the facilities and moon on a blank space in the can move the universe.

Redesign

The redesign, usually abbreviated as " RD", is a complete rewrite and redesign of OGame. The entire surface was changed, in addition, all source code has been revised and changed the programming on Ajax. Thus, many old bugs have been fixed. In addition, the code has thus become much clearer and extensions can be inserted easily. The game behavior was changed in only a few points.

From the producer of a major innovation was announced in August 2007 for the first time. As a result, was in the community of the "Great new " short GN, the speech. From October 2008, a promotional video and the first screenshots of the redesign were published. On 4 December 2008 Beta two universes were opened with redesign. Since the new code bugs were included, until 15 July 2009, several updates have been deployed.

On 4 August 2009 the release of OGame version 1.0 and the start of the Universe Andromeda followed. This was the first universe that bears a name as an identifier. All universes have opened then the redesign. All the old universes, universe except 20 have to get the end of May 2010, the new surface. The changes in gambling behavior were ultimately adopted on 23 September 2010.

Universe fusion

In November 2010, it was announced on the official forum of the OGame so-called " fusion universe ". The universe fusion, named Unifusion to counteract the merger of several universes, the declining numbers of players in the universes.

The "Exodus" - and " target universes " are defined in the Unifusion by the developers. Players from the Exodus universities have the opportunity to select a target universe. After a few weeks then shall all the Exodus universes are closed. Players that have not selected a target universe are then deleted.

After a test on a prototype in early 2011 and the elimination of several bugs, the first fusion phase, in which the universes 32, 35, 36, 37 and 38 are merged in the universes 30,31 and 33, July / August 2011 was performed.

Features

Is the basis for the success of OGame respectively were found in the following points:

• The old design was kept simple and thus opened up a large potential user circuit. The short description texts that were under every building, every ship and every research, clarified immediately to the properties and functions.
• The game begins psychologically sent with very low buildings that need only a few minutes and few natural resources to build, so you already makes at the beginning visible progress, which in turn maintained the initial motivation and encouraged. Later stages of development cost many times the starting building and can take days to complete.
• The real-time strategy game ensured despite its fundamental simplicity, a variety of strategies from which you can choose. So have both defensive and offensive strategies appropriate advantages and disadvantages and are designed to be equivalent. It can be found next to items of a commercial simulation also aspects of a war game and it is inevitable to apply basic skills in both areas. Since more economically oriented players need to protect their resources, they are also forced to deal with the strategic battle part.
• OGame is one of the games where the rounds have no time limit. Thus, the work of months and years will not eventually deleted. The buildings and researches are limited in their development stages only by their rising costs and construction as well as by the size of the planet, in principle, the game can run forever.
• Over time, the possibility of cooperation was widely extended. In addition to the alliance system in the browser game there are also the alliance combat system that allows common attacks and common defense. Particularly for weaker players, this is a significant improvement, as a well-organized alliance can protect them from attacks and they can attack itself along with other superior opponents.
• In OGame emphasis is placed on the protection of beginners: There are affordable defense systems ( "Def " derived from " Defense" ), which build up to up to 70% again
• During an attack normally a maximum of 50 % of the available raw materials are stolen (up to 100 % for players, their behavior makes them the honor points system to Bandits )
• An excessive number of attacks on a player is banned
• Excluding ships and defense are destroyed, buildings can not be damaged
• Colonies can not be conquered
• After the start, there is in most universes a points -based protection phase, " noob protection " called

Since the implementation of a new Noobschutzes this protection has been extended

Community

OGame has a large and active community. In addition to the main forum Alliance Forums and Alliance areas exist.

The game has its own IRC network that OnlineGamesNet, which can be reached at irc.onlinegamesnet.net. Since 26 March 2010, this is also accessible via IPv6. In OnlineGamesNet there are now more than 3000 own alliance channel.

Over time, a variety of external tools around OGame was developed. This tools created different shapes. Examples are alliance and player stats and combat simulators or Battle Report archives.

Criticism

• By regularly opening new universes it just comes in the older universes into a massive player decline. Unis with ever increasing number of users, there is virtually no more. Ways to solve problems, such as the Unifusion now being drafted, have been repeatedly addressed by the player community.
• OGame is progressively commercialized, this is particularly illustrated by the Bezahlabos. Were particularly critical of the officers. Criticism is that you can buy by the officers an advantage in the game. For example, a player with Geologist 10% more raw materials. This is especially in the starting phase of a universe of advantage. The game community responded then primarily in the official forum of protest to stop the launch. During the development of additional payment functions were introduced (such as " production boosters" or additional development fields).
• Use of the service provider Offerpal Media gave up OGame.de time, the way to get dark matter, if you eg downloaded software in return, but this malware is installed on the computer. Furthermore, you could upload ringtones to your mobile phone, however, this was associated with paid subscriptions.

Awards

• 2010 - Nomination for the German Developer Award in the category of Best Customer Support