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MMOG
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
A fundamental design question to ask in the development of a network game is - -Which transport protocol should be used - -TCP, UDP, or some other protocols? Seeking an objective answer to the choice of communication protocol for MMORPGs, we assess whether TCP, a popular choice, is suitable for MMORPGs based on empirical evidence. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first evaluation of transport protocol performance using real-life game traces.We analyze a 1, 356-million-packet trace from ShenZhou Online, a TCP-based, commercial, mid-sized MMORPG. Our analysis indicates that TCP is unwieldy and inappropriate for MMORPGs. This is due to four distinctive characteristics of MMORPG traffic: 1) tiny packets, 2) low packet rate, 3) application-limited traffic generation, and 4) bidirectional traffic. We show that because TCP was originally designed for unidirectional and network-limited bulk data transfers, it cannot adapt well to MMORPG traffic. In particular, the window-based congestion control and the fast retransmit algorithm for loss recovery are ineffective. Furthermore, TCP is overkill, as not every game packet needs to be transmitted in a reliably and orderly manner. We also show that the degraded network performance did impact users' willingness to continue a game. Finally, we discuss guidelines in designing transport protocols for online games.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
MMOG are very large distributed applications, sharing very large states, and supporting communication between potentially thousands of player nodes. Despite the development of many solutions to define suitable architecture and communication protocol, and enabling efficient deployment of these types of applications, many issues remains which still require a solution. In this paper we discuss MMOG deployed over a Peer-to-Peer architecture, supporting a distributed model of systems with shared state and we address issues related to scalability, interest management and communication. We identify an efficient partitioning and distribution of the shared state as an important aspect in such models and propose a hierarchical multi-level interest management algorithm which enables contextual communication between peers. Experiments have been carried out and show the performance of the approach.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
As virtual worlds and games grow in both personal and cultural importance, present limitations in access to them is increasingly limiting their ability to achieve their potential. Transmedial access, in which a given player's access to a game is made possible across different devices, offers a promising solution to this problem. It also inaugurates a new category of interaction design: transmedial interaction. This workshop explores the state of the art of transmedial interaction in games, which today unfortunately is often at most mere afterthought. It provides a participatory environment in which attendees can chart new paths forward, from developing viable business models and understanding the technical infrastructure to developing critical vocabularies and evaluative frameworks.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
In this paper I explore a particular slice of massive multiplayer participants known as power gamers. Through my ethnography of EverQuest, as well as interviews with players, I analyze the ways these participants, who operate with a highly instrumental game-orientation, actually facilitate their play style through a variety of distinctly social activities. Rather than seeing this segment of the gaming population as “lone ranger” figures or via various other “geek gamer” myths, this work explores the way high-end players are actually embedded in deeply social structures, rituals, and practices.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Digital games are a global, multibillion dollar industry, yet few standards exist for the localization of games for different cultures. By contrast, the process of localizing productivity applications follows a relatively well-defined set of guidelines, with which many technical communicators are familiar. The localization processes for digital games, however, can follow one of three levels of complexity, none of which are formally articulated. In this article, we focus on the most challenging and most potentially effective form of digital game localization, known as blending. Blending involves the alteration of the central storyline of a game to make the game more successful in other countries. We believe that technical and professional communicators should learn more about blending, digital game localization, and their place within the burgeoning game industry.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
This paper presents the concept of a “black box” as a tool for analyzing virtual worlds. The concept comes from the field of Science & Technology Studies (STS) and we employ it here more specifically to study one such virtual world in particular, Project Entropia. The concept of a “black box” is used to describe the developers’ efforts to hide or to build certain assumptions into the very fabric of the virtual world in order to get the players to perform certain prescribed roles. The concept is also used to describe players’ efforts to open up this black box in order to get access to and play other roles – roles not prescribed by the game publisher and that in some cases function as a threat to the publisher’s business model. The focus of the analysis is on the imperative to “pay to play”. This imperative is essential to the developers of the game since Project Entropia does not employ the usual subscription-based revenue model that most other Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) use.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
The online multi-user game is an exemplar of the emergent structures of interactive media. Social relationships and community networks are formed, and developer/player relationships are negotiated around ongoing development of the game features and playercreated content. The line between production and consumption of the text has become blurred, and the lines between social and economic relationships must be redrawn. This article explores these relationships, using EverQuest as a case study. It suggests that the dynamic, mutable, and emergent qualities of the online multiplayer game exceed the limits of the reifying processes embodied by copyright law and content regulation regimes.
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