Omni: Playing the field - online video games

Playing the computer hermit ain't much fun. Sure, you can plop down on the couch or squat in front of the computer screen and play against yourself. At times, the computer-created opponents are remarkably able. But they're nowhere near as crafty and contentious as a living, breathing adversary.

The personal computer and videogame machine may be the best thing since someone figured out how to play solitaire with a deck of cards, but they're too much like Pat Buchanan's idea of foreign policy: isolationist. Computer and videogames operate with fewer social skills than a serial killer, play like a brain-dead one-trick pony, and rarely adjust to your playing style. Winning may be everything, but it gets boring after awhile.

Connected computers is the answer. Rather than play against the artificial life form held captive on the hard disk, you link your PC or Macintosh with other computer owners. Using a modem and the telephone lines, your computer communicates with other, like-minded machines. Data flows back and forth across the telephone lines, giving your moves to your opponent's computer and, in turn, putting his or hers on your screen.

Doing all this yourself can be more trouble than the ensuing game is worth. You must find an opponent, arrange a time to play, and wade through the intricacies of telecommunications--no easy task for the best of us. A better way to find willing victims is through some sort of electronic clearinghouse.

Fortunately, they already exist. Several online services--those data networks that sport tens or hundreds of thousands of subscribers--offer entertainment as well as information. Services like CompuServe, Prodigy, and Genie all include games, some of them outstanding games, that let you play other people, not the PC.

But today's best place to play is The Sierra Network (TSN), an all-game network. Using an approach that's worked for Disney--TSN is laid out like an amusement park, divided into several "Lands"--this virtual game board offers a variety of multiplayer games and enough opponents to keep you sufficiently challenged.

Once you connect with TSN, you're staring at a colorful map of the park. To enter a particular Land, you just point to it with the mouse and click. Logging on and navigating TSN is slick--simpler, in fact, than even Prodigy, the easiest-to-use general-purpose online service.

TSN's unique make-a-face feature lets you create a portrait that represents you in the games you play. With a composite kit like those used by the police, you mix and match head shapes, hair styles, clothing, and features to build your self-image.

TSN features a general area that everyone can access, and (at the moment) three optional Lands that you pay extra to enter. The everyone-gets-in area, tucked away in the Clubhouse, features eight card and board games--bridge, chess, checkers, and backgammon are four--that you play with others. Enter the waiting room, check out anyone hanging around, then challenge him or her to a game, While you play, you can talk to each other by typing in short messages. You can also--with the players' permission--watch a game in progress.

But the Lands are what make TSN. LarryLand, named after Sierra's goofy Leisure Suit Larry character, gives you a chance to play casino games like slots, roulette, blackjack, and poker. Larryland differs from the rest of TSN's locations in another way as well--it's an adult-only Land where the conversation tends toward the suggestive and mildly bawdy (though not enough to shock anyone who's sat through an R-rated movie). SierraLand opens up seven more games, from Red Baron, a multiplayer WWI aerial battleground, to MiniGolf, a cute miniature-golf game. In MedievaLand, you play The Shadow of Yserbius, a dungeon-crawling role-playing game that includes monsters and magicians, either solo or with a team of elves, dwarves, and trolls peopled with real people. MedievaLand is where the action is in TSN, for Yserbius almost always sports more players than any other game. The fantasy of playing strong heroes and heroines obviously plays a part.

At $13 for 30 hours of non-prime time per month and with additional time running $2 to $7 per hour, TSN can get expensive. Add $4 per month for each Land you use, and its costs can rival the phone bill for a long-distance romance. Fortunately, you can tell TSN to cut you off after a set amount each month.

The Sierra Network is a far cry from the too-often-abused term virtual reality. But it's a small step in that direction and the best place to play with and against people, not the dull-witted PC.