The present invention relates to an online game system in which a plurality of players access and play a game by using their personal computers or likes through a network such as the Internet.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a transition of stages in a conventional online game such as an online game “PHANTASY STAR ONLINE™” or a like presented by the applicant of the present application. In FIG. 1, first, a player searches for a person such as an opponent, a cooperator, or a like to play a game together in a virtual space provided as a public area A1, and comes in a lobby which is an area to wait for the person. Then, at a counter in the virtual space, the player creates a game field in which the player performs a mission charged on the game, for example, a private area A2 which is a virtual room including a dungeon, and comes in this room after setting a team name, a difficulty level, and a like (step S1).
Other players, who are willing to take an adventure together with this player, are allowed to attend to (burst into) the room. A plurality of players coming into the same room make a party and fight with enemy game characters by cooperating with each other. The room provided as the private area A2 includes a dungeon, and is a completed area. In general, the player plays without getting out from the room until the end of the game. In a case of playing from the beginning of the game, the player goes back to the lobby provided as the public area A1 (step S2). The room is deleted when all players get out from the room to the lobby.
On the other hand, Cross-Reference No. 1 discloses a technology which manages entering to and exiting from the vertical space on the game so as to smoothly enable the entering to the vertical space.
[Cross-Reference No. 1 of Related Application]
Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2003-190642
As described above, there are a public area (lobby) and a private area (dungeon) in the conventional online game. The public area is simply a starting point of an adventure (game). The conventional online game is a closed game in which once an adventure has begun, only the party formed by the plurality of players is conducted.
Accordingly, the player spends much of his time for a game play in the private area. There are problems such that the player cannot sufficiently approve “sharing time and space (communication) with the plurality of players” which is a whole point of the online game.
In addition, due to a performance limitation of a system (a server, a network, and a like), the online games are broadly classified into an MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) type which allows a large number of players to play simultaneously but is a lower action nature, and an MO (Multiplayer Online) type which restricts to a small number of players to simultaneously play but is a higher action nature.
The MMO type allows for a greater number of players sharing the same game space more than the MO type, and the main part of a game process is conducted by a server. For example, the server conducts processes concerning actions of characters (movements of the characters, attacks to other characters, usages of items, determinations of collisions with other objects in a virtual three-dimensional space, and the like). A process result is sent to a terminal through the network. Thus, a response is degraded and the action nature becomes lower. In the MO type, the main part of the game process is conducted by the terminal, so as to immediately display the process result. Thus, the response is well performed, and the action nature becomes higher.
