The world is my game room: video games are moving online, where the limits of competition are practically nil.

• Author: Kafka, Peter
• Position: Arts

Kurtis Melby used to spend hours playing video games by himself in the basement of his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But competing against a computer holds only so much excitement, he says. Now Melby, 14, plays against hundreds of other people, via a dial-up Internet connection. "Online is always fun, because you're playing against humans," he says.

SOLITAIRE NO MORE

Melby is one of at least 42 million Americans who play video games online. It's a demographic that is larger and more diverse than casual observers may realize. And it may be only the beginning, as game purveyors try to convince consumers to stop thinking of video games as a solitary pursuit, and start thinking of them as something to be shared with people across town or across the world.

"Online gaming has been in the infancy stage for a while," says Richard Ow, who covers the industry for NPD Funworld Video Games. "Now it's becoming a toddler."

The rationale for the predicted growth spurt comes from two sources. The first is the launch of high-profile online computer games like The Sims Online, which allows players to interact with each other in a series of startlingly complex virtual neighborhoods. The second is a well-financed push by "console" game manufacturers Sony and Microsoft to promote the new online capabilities for PlayStation 2 and Xbox products, respectively.

Both Microsoft and Sony made a point of targeting the most rabid video game fans initially. Not surprisingly, the most popular console games with online capabilities feature sports or action: From August to December of last year, game maker Electronic Arts sold an estimated 2.4 million copies of its Madden NFL 2003, which lets players match football smarts with opponents around the country but can also be played offline. The next best-selling online-enabled games are Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, in which skateboarders try tricks and talk smack with remote players; and SOCOM: US Navy Seals, a miliary action game in which players assume the roles of the Navy's elite special-operations teams.

GAMES FOR LUNCH

But thrill seekers and sports nuts are hardly the only ones getting their gaming kicks online. Check the monitors in an average office during lunch (and maybe even during working hours), and you're likely to find someone logged on to a virtual game of spades or checkers, playing against an opponent several states away. At Microsoft's Zone.com game Web site, usage starts to go up during the middle of the...