Six Popular Online Games

It is important to connect with your child through their favourite games, in order to build a better relationship between parent and child. We hope this article will help you better understand the games your child may be playing.

Here are six popular online games that have a huge following both online and offline (in no particular order):

1. League of Legends
   League of Legends (abbreviated LoL) is a team-oriented strategy game and falls under the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, or MOBA, genre. The game blends the speed and intensity of a real-time strategy game with role playing game elements to create the draw factor towards it.In the game, players will start by choosing their character – or as the game calls it, Champion – from a wide variety of selection (from range to melee, from physical attacks to magical attacks), each with their own unique strengths and abilities. The objective and goal of the game is to destroy the opposing team’s “Nexus”, a structure which lies at the heart of a base protected by defensive structures.
2. Defence of the Ancients 2
   
   Just Like LoL, Defence of the Ancients 2 (abbreviated Dota 2) is a team-oriented strategy game under the MOBA genre, and it pits two teams of five players against each other.Players will pick their Heroes among the 115 playable characters and enter the game; and just like LoL, the objective is to destroy the opposing team’s “Ancient” to win the game. The Heroes start off weak and need to get stronger through levelling up and purchasing of items to boost the Heroes’ abilities.
3. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
   
   Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (abbreviated CS:GO) is a multiplayer, team-based First-Person Shooter game, or FPS in short.The game splits players into two teams, the Terrorists and the Counter-Terrorists. The objective of the game is to eliminate the opposing teams with an array of guns while completing separate tasks, depending on which team you are on. The Terrorists are to plant the bomb or to defend the hostages, while the Counter-Terrorists must prevent the bomb from being planted, defuse the bomb if it is planted, or save the hostages.Players start off with an equal amount of in-game currency in the beginning and at the end of each round are rewarded, based on their individual performance, with in-game currency to spend on more powerful guns and equipment in subsequent rounds.
4. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
   
   Hearthstone is a free-to-play online collectible card video game. In the game, players can choose to play as one of nine Heroes of the Warcraft series and take turns to play cards from their customisable decks to cast spells, use weapons and abilities, or summon minions using their limited mana crystals – with the goal of reducing the opponent’s health to zero.Winning each match can earn players in-game gold and rewards in the form of new cards or other in-game prizes. Players can then buy packs of new cards through in-game gold or microtransactions to customise and improve their decks.Hearthstone features cross-platform play which allows players to be on any device to compete against each other. This in turn has caused Hearthstone to be popular, as players can access and play the game on the go without being restricted to the computer.
5. Overwatch
   
   Overwatch is an objective-based, multiplayer online FPS game released in 2016 with much anticipation and received universal acclaim from critics for its diverse appeal of each of its characters, bright cartoonish styles, and exciting gameplay.The game assigns players into two teams of six, with each player having the freedom to select from a roster of 26 playable Heroes as of 2017 – each with a unique style of play, whose roles are divided into four general categories: Offense, Defence, Tank, and Support. The objective of the game is to work as a team to secure and defend control points on a map or escort a payload across the map in a limited amount of time.Within a match, players can switch between Heroes after being eliminated or by returning to their home base. The game is designed as such to encourage players to respond to the opposing team during a match by switching to Heroes that better “counter” the opponent’s strategies, and the ever-changing flow of battle and numerous strategies draws many players into the game.
6. PlayerUnknown’s Battleground (PUBG)

Inspired by the 2000 Japanese film “Battle Royale”, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (abbreviated PUBG) is a multiplayer online battle royale game developed and published by PUBG Corporation.

Each match starts with up to 100 players parachuting from a plane onto an island in which they would need to scavenge for weapons to eliminate other players without getting eliminated themselves. As time passes, the available safe area of the game’s map will decrease in size, keeping players on the move and forcing encounters with opposing players until only one player or team remains.

What makes each match unique and exciting is the element of randomness added to each round. These include the varying flight paths each round as well as the non-specific location of equipment spread throughout the map. Not knowing what they will get or who they will encounter, coupled with adrenaline-packed combat, keeps players constantly absorbed and coming back for more.