Au Contraire, now killing is more skilled and meaningful. You may play as a sniper, picking off the heavy soldiers so that your spies can infiltrate the enemy. Or you may be an engineer, building automated turrets to stop the enemy from gaining base access. The point is, now you are building turrets, and making bombs, and shooting people for a reason, not to have your name at the top of a list with a big number next to it. Software giants are even helping advance the concept of teamwork. New gaming hardware like the Microsoft SideWinder Game Voice makes working together online even easier. I see the future of online FPS gaming as an ode to teamwork. I see the future of online FPS gaming as a community of objective-achievers, not frag-festers. I see the future of gaming as a place where Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr could get together and work together. Monica would have to stay on her knees still though.

So the next time your playing Counter-Strike, Tribes, Quake III CTF, or UT Assault, think to yourself: what can I do to help my team succeed. Not "how many times can I click the mouse on the guy and watch him go squish." I used to think that sacrifice in a game was stupid. That the only important person was I. But worrying about oneself doesn't come with the fulfilling feeling one gets when he takes a railgun hit for the flag carrier.

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