Most online games are big game hunts: sign on and kill everything in your path until the game is over. However, games like Microsoft’s Allegiance space-combat game are changing the playing field by making blowing things up a truly social event.
Allegiance puts you behind the controls of a variety of ships, from one-man fighters to massive starships. Players fight over and mine resources, then build weapons to destroy an enemy starbase.
As a pilot, your job is to protect your own base, find more resources, destroy enemy ships, and follow the orders of your commander. There are usually a variety of assignments available, from flying a fighter to manning a gunnery station on one of the starships.
The commander of each team takes a very different role. He’s responsible for the grand strategy of the game: assigning missions, developing technology, and choosing what ships and weapons will be built for his fleet.
The commander can hop into a fighter if he feels like it, but for him Allegiance is like playing a real-time strategy game with extremely intelligent game pieces.
The right tool for the right job
In Allegiance, how much fun you have is directly related to how much you know about the game. Since the manual is virtually useless, the best way to learn is just to go online and play.
The first thing a pilot must master is what ship is right for the job – a scout is not a killing machine, and stealth fighters make lousy guardians. Each ship is a tool, and flying the wrong ship is like using a hammer to pound in screws.
The more time you spend playing, the more time you have to make friends and rivals. The game is a lot more fun with a trusty wingman to watch your back and make rude remarks about your flying.
Mission Impossible 2 fans need not apply
Your wingman isn’t the only person who is important to your good time. Having fun depends on finding a group of fellow players who are serious enough about the game to work together as a team.
This makes joining the Allegiance pay zone a good investment. Most of the people willing to shell out $10 per month are willing to put some time and effort in having fun together.
Even so, it only takes a few bad people to ruin a good game. When "Suck it Bitch!" joins the game, you can be pretty sure he’s not going to be a team player.
Fortunately, commanders have the option of kicking obnoxious players out. On the rare occasions when you’re stuck with an obnoxious commander, though, there’s not much that can be done but quit the game.
In the long run, the best way to deal with annoying players is to let the game handle them. Being a team player is so important to survival that "Suck it" will probably learn to play nice on his long trip home in an escape pod.
The burden of command
Taking the commander’s seat is probably the ultimate challenge of Allegiance. It requires a thorough knowledge of the game’s ships and tactics, as well as strategic skills that can’t be learned from the piloting side of the game.
The hardest part of being in command is that you can see everything happening to your fleet, and can do almost nothing about it. On a tactical level, you’re helpless – it’s up to your capable pilots to do your work for you.
The key to being a successful commander is in being able to predict what resources and equipment your players will need next. That’s a difficult job on a rapidly changing battlefield.
