Thankfully, though, times are changing: both Half-Life: Team Fortress and Quake III feature ultra-friendly, no-fuss client code - you just click on the 'play online' icon and the computer scours the Internet for the nearest/fastest/bestest server and chucks you in. Believe us, this attitude will take off as multiplayer gaming grows in importance. No-one wants to attend a PC course so they can play some shoot 'em up with a few likeminded souls. Ease of use is going to be big.

Developers must also write code that understands and compensates for the Internet's key flaw: latency. Dave Kosak explains: "Probably the most important element is that the game is Internet-friendly. If it's an action game, it's got to have great prediction code to make sure that it's smooth and playable over a modem. Strategy games have a little more leeway, but nothing's more frustrating than having parts of the game not respond or game elements jumping around the screen as the clients and servers synchronise".

Once you're actually in the game, though, balance becomes a key aspect. Kosak continues: "Every player should always feel like they have an opportunity to win or at least continue to make an impact in the game. No single element or strategy should overwhelm the way the game is played". Good balance is a tough thing to put into words. It means making sure that all the weapons/power-ups/resources are equally distributed around each map - and that no single weapon or battle unit has a complete advantage over others. In Quake III, for example, the Rail Gun is deadly with one shot, but it takes seconds to power up - the machine gun on the other hand is weedy but fires rapidly; if a machine gun holder can move fast enough, the rail gun guy is cannon fodder. This is balance.

Games which allow you to develop different ideas and systems each time you play are cool. For instance, Half-Life: Team Fortress Classic (it keeps cropping up, but it's damn good), lets you select from a number of roles (spy, heavy weapons expert, engineer, etc) before you join the action. Not only does the style and pace of the game change dramatically depending on how your team is shaped, but the sheer dispersal of responsibilities means everyone plays an important part. Similarly, RPG titles like Diablo II and Heroes of Might and Magic III give players a selection of character classes to pick from - and as they all have their own strengths and weaknesses, there are dozens of different ways to approach each game.

Continued next week