Virgin online gamer, please help...

[pompa303]

I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice on how to get started in playing online gaming. Do I have to use something like gamespy ????

Oh, and what is this steam that I see in the forum...

Thanks

[mithrandi]

You could use something like GameSpy; however, almost all of the servers / players you encounter will probably be international, which you probably don't want. What you need to do is look around at the various local gaming "services". Here's a few to get started, I'll add any others that anyone mentions to the list:

GameWave - http://www.gamewave.za.net/
SAIX Games Service (SGS) - http://games.saix.net/
M-WEB Games - http://www.mweb.co.za/hub/games/default.asp

Have a look at what games they run servers for, pick one that you want to play, and connect to it :) The exact procedure for connection to a server varies from game to game, of course.

As far as Steam goes, it's an online content distribution system run by Valve; I'll let someone else explain it in more detail, since I don't play Valve games, but basically you use it to download updates and stuff for Half-Life / Counter-Strike / etc.

mithrandi

[Andre]

You can try the All Seeing Eye at http://www.udpsoft.com/eye2/index.html

This will find you local game servers with a bit of fiddling.

[Strobemeister]

Ja, I also recommend AllSeeingEye for local servers, a very nice piece of software.

Telkom - South Africa's Handbrake to progress.