Planetarion

Planetarion (commonly referred to as PA) is a browser-based massively multiplayer online game. Created by  Fifth Season AS in early 2000, and owned and hosted by Jolt since 2003, the game has placed players in control over a planet, with the ability to mine its asteroids for resources, and construct a fleet of spaceships to attack other player's planets. It is the first purely webbased game that attracted thousands of simultaneous players, and although its popularity has declined with the emergence of other similar games and the introduction of a pay-to-play model, the game is currently still active.

The objective of the game is to amass more score than your opponents, which can be achieved primarily by stealing their asteroids and destroying their fleets. The game offers a player the choice between five races, each with their own ships and advantages, allowing for a variety of strategies. Every few months, the game is reset, at which point winners are declared and a new round of play starts, commonly with a number of new features and updates to keep the gameplay balanced.

The game updates once per hour, which is called a tick ingame. Every action within the game, from the construction of a factory to the attack of another planet, takes a set number of these ticks, which gives the game a unique mix between turn-based and real-time gameplay, as it allows players only a limited window of time to react to other player's actions. Because of this, cooperation and communication between planets is a necessity, which leads to a strong sense of community play as the players organise themselves into alliances. As such, Planetarion has an active presence on the NetGamers IRC network for direct communication between players.

History
When the game was launched in 2000, it quickly rose to great popularity, receiving no less than 11 Multiplayer Online Games Directory Game of the Month Awards, and peaking out at a total of around 180.000 planets in the universe, although it is commonly believed many of these were duplicates, with an actual userbase of close to half that amount. Many similar games sprung up as a result of Planetarion's popularity, such as Bushtarion, Planetia and StarSphere.

Whilst originally free, the crash of the dotcom bubble also meant a decline in advertising revenue for Fifth Season AS, the Norwegian company behind Planetarion. As a result, the move was made to a pay-to-play model with the start of Round 5, which ultimately led to a sharp decline in the game's userbase. The exact amount of active players currently is unknown, but estimated to be a few thousand.

In 2003, Planetarion was sold by Fifth Season AS to the UK-based company SimTech Ltd., a daughter company from Jolt, who provide hosting for the game.

In 2007, round 22 ("Shards of Infinity") once again was a free round. Presumably because round 21 had shown a growth in the amount of players. A notable feature is that inactive players will automatically be moved to an inactive part of the cluster.

Races
Planetarion currently features five races that players can choose from when creating their planet, each offering particular bonuses and different styles of play. While since the introduction of separate races there have always been four races, the twentieth round saw the introduction of a fifth: the Eitraides, who are said to be a Terran race that broke off in search of profit. Making extensive contact with the other races, they receive mostly financial bonuses, as well as a mixture of ships which previously belonged to separate races, such as ships with EMP, cloaking and stealing technology.


 * Terran (Ter): Terrans are a human race, whose ships use conventional weaponry. Generally they favour the larger and heavier ship classes to attack and inflict damage with.


 * Cathaar (Cat): Cathaar are a humanoid feline race, who possess advanced EMP technology, resulting in the ability to use highly efficient but non-lethal weaponry.


 * Xandrathii (Xan): The Xandrathii are a highly advanced insectoid race using small and fast ships equipped with cloaking technology. Their high firepower and speed, combined with the unpredictability of their fleets due to cloaking technology, is offset by the fact that their ships are quite fragile.


 * Zikonian (Zik): The Zikonians are a rather mysterious race on whom not much is known. It is claimed that they are an ancient race come to claim domination over the universe, others say that they are a rebel offspring of the Cathaar. The fact is that they have the rather unique ability to steal enemy ships and use them against their opponents.


 * Eitraides (Eit): The Eitraides are humans who decided to leave their home planet and pursue profit, rather than war. This has made them the traders of the universe, receiving great financial advantages. Additionally, their travels have brought them into contact with the other races' ship technology, giving them a mixed arsenal of ships to deploy in their efforts.

Game Setup
The game takes place in so-called rounds, the length of which has varied throughout history, but which is currently at approximately two months in length. At that time, the winners are declared and the game is reset, upon which everyone can sign up for a brand new planet. New rounds generally also bring changes in gameplay, ship statistics or even universe makeup, as a result of feedback from the players during the active round.

In between rounds, speedgames are frequently held over weekends which generally run at one-minute ticks, instead of hourly ones for more fast-paced action. In the past, these speedgames have been run at LAN events such as The Gathering in Norway and the Multiplay i-Series in the United Kingdom, and have also been used for competitions such as the Planetarion World Cup.