- Enter The Plot!
- The Symbian Operating System— The Open Playground
- Java on the Handset—J2ME
- The Newer, Funnier WAP
- Playing with Messages
- Networking—An Integral Part of Mobile Games
- High Speed, High Action with Bluetooth
- Rock Your Opponents Miles Away— Gaming over GPRS
- And There's More... Over the Air
- The Network Is the Game
- Who Operates a Game Server?
- Spotting Your Target—Location-Aware Games
- Conclusion
The Newer, Funnier WAP
Despite the attractiveness of the more developed mobile gaming platforms, most of the players participated in The Plot with WAP handsets. They also would have been keen to try the latest technologies but did not want to purchase a new cell phone solely for this purpose.
The game play using WAP was a bit different from N-Gage and mobile Java playing. A new player registered in the beginning and received a unique ID and password. The ID and password could then be used to log in to the game. For many phone models, the separate login was normally not needed because the game server could recognize the player automatically as soon as he entered the main page of the game.
Each time the player got in the WAP game, he was assigned to a team mission—a task that could not be solved alone. Now the player had 30 minutes to complete the assignment with the help of the other players to be able to reach the next level.
The term "wireless application protocol (WAP)" has gone through some hard times. In some aspects, it has become an example of everything that went wrong when the convergence of the Internet and the telecommunications business first started. Despite the difficulties of the past, WAP still remains the most widely available technology for content browsing in the mobile environment. The two major put-offs for WAP—the slow connection speed and the relatively crude output—are less of a problem today, and the new version offers new and interesting features for mobile games.42
The first feature is the capability to "push" content to cell phones. The behavior of a WAP push message is similar to that of a text message— the phone beeps when the message is received, and it is shown to a user. The received message includes hyperlinks that can be used as starting points for browsing. For example, in The Plot, a push message, which takes the receiver to the browser application, can be used to invite a friend to the game or to deliver a new mission automatically to the player or team.
Wireless web browsing has also improved to support color and richer content. A new format, XHTML, is replacing the old WML documents in the modern browsers. It provides a better and more consistent user experience across regular and wireless web since it can be used in both.