Architecting Scalability for Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming Experiences

With this article we want to identify the main scalability issues for the development of Massive Multi-Player Online Games. There is no generic architecture to achieve scalability for every problem. We must understand the nature of the problem in order to reach system scalability. Massive Multi-Player Online Games (MMOG) are conceived with the objective of massive use by a potentially geographically dispersed population. In their design we are faced with scalability challenges which are specific to the interactive modalities and the socio-technical scenarios we intend to enable [Fitch 2001]. The emergence of the Internet made possible the development of interactive distributed systems that can be accessed by thousands of users in virtually any part of the world. The scalability issues introduced by such a massive use must be considered in the system design. By scalability we mean the system fit capacity according to his loading charge, for example, accommodates increasing interaction volume, without significant degradation of quality service. It is commonly known that scalability can’t be secured if we only pay attention to some system parts. To achieve scalability in any kind of distributed system we must design all the components to achieve this goal. For example, a system that has high scalability in the simulation and low communication scalability may result in a poor scalable system, globally. To see the scalability problems in a MMOG we must understand the system dynamics and structure and what’s bound for. Looking at the existent types of MMOG – massive multi-player online role playing games, virtual environments, massive multiplayer real time strategy, massive multiplayer online first-person shooter – we can try to generalize some features that allow us to analyze their scalability requisites. Normally, in this kind of games the action takes place in a virtual 3D environment, where thousands of players interact by controlling avatars, allowing real-time interaction between users in simulated virtual worlds. The action environment can be persistent in order to maintain the notion of space and time continuity [wikipedia 2004]. From an analysis of the characteristics of MMOG systems and their usage we can start to identify four main scalability issues: a) simulation capacity that allows for thousands of players to be online in the same virtual world; b) data storage capacity of all the information that is used to represent the virtual worlds and one efficient distribution method for guaranteeing availability when needed; c) reliable and efficient communications for experience coordination and smooth interaction; d) architectural integration enabling system expansibility through new computational, communication and storage resources. Next we will briefly discuss these issues. The simulation component role in MMOG is to process the events that are generated through the player’s interaction or by sub-systems that generate automatic environmental activities (e.g., atmospheric, AI bots). Besides the high event volume that must be processed, the simulation activity has other challenge: the size of the virtual universe data model. Virtual universe action area can have the size of a planet or even a galaxy, which becomes very complex to handle [Rosedale 2003]. As previously referred, the MMOG environments are commonly 3D and very dynamic, being impossible for the clients to keep the virtual world state. So, when a player enters the virtual world must be given to him all the information necessary to animate that world. This information has two different types: data model that represents abstractly the virtual world; and the necessary multimedia elements needed to visual and sonorous animation. Nature and volume size of multimedia information become the main problem of the distribution system [Yu-Shen 1997]. Communication scalability is one of the essential issues in simulated real-time games through Internet. Scalability must be understood not only by the capacity to support communication between a high numbers of players, but also, as the capacity to maintain a communication performance level that doesn’t put at risk the game experience quality. This fact in the MMOG systems is paradigmatic, since there are possible thousand of players interacting with the world objects and moving in the same space. Objects state and players activity must be informed to all players in order to maintain the game integrity/consistency [Smed 2001]. Structural scalability is important to increase the system live span. In order to achieve this requisite the system structure must be designed to enable the addition of new resources. Architectural scalability, through the specification of clear system components that interact in a clear dynamics, through defined protocols, is a pre-requisite for system repairing, actualization and evolution; and must also have the capacity to integrate significantly contribute to the later incorporation of new technologies and devices. At first glance, we would think that to achieve scalability in MMOG implementations we would simply have to work on an architectural design to satisfy all the requisites that have been presented. But that would not be enough. System scalability also emerges from the balance and harmony of the system components. When we are trying to satisfy some requisite, the ideal solution may be in conflict with some other requisite. For example, the best solution for the distribution of static content (such as 3D models, textures and sounds) can jeopardize communication scalability for more immediate real-time events, as their compete for the available bandwidth. The best solution may not be the optimal one for any system component, but the best overall solution for the integrated system, that guarantees an adequate level of quality to the interactive experience. In order to achieve such a balance we have to consider an adequate partitioning of responsibilities for the components and the internal and the external dynamics that are originated

Re-engineering jake2 to work on a grid using the GridGain Middleware

With the advent of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), engineers and designers of games came across with many questions that needed to be answered such as, for example, "how to allow a large amount of clients to play simultaneously on the same server?", "how to guarantee a good quality of service (QoS) to a great number of clients?", "how many resources will be necessary?", "how to optimize these resources to the maximum?". A possible answer to these questions relies on the usage of grid computing. Taking into account the parallel and distributed nature of grid computing, we can say that grid computing allows for more scalability in terms of a growing number of players, guarantees shorter communication time between clients and servers, and allows for a better resource management and usage (e.g., memory, CPU, core balancing usage, etc.) than the traditional serial computing model. However, the main focus of this thesis is not about grid computing. Instead, this thesis describes the re-engineering process of an existing multiplayer computer game, called Jake2, by transforming it into a MMOG, which is then put to run on a grid

Architecting the Metaverse: Blockchain and the Financial and Legal Regulatory Challenges of Virtual Real Estate

There has been disagreement over the value of purchasing space in the metaverse, but many businesses including Nike, The Wendy’s Company, and McDonald’s have jumped in headfirst. While the metaverse land rush has been called an “illusion” given underdeveloped infrastructure, including inadequate software and servers, and the potential opportunities for economic and legal abuse, the “real estate of the future” shows no signs of slowing. While the current virtual space of the metaverse is worth $6.30 billion, that is expected to grow to$84.09 billion by the end of 2028. But the long-term legal and regulatory considerations of capitalizing on the investment, as well as the manner in which blockchain technology can secure users’ data and digital assets, has yet to be properly investigated. With the metaverse still in a conceptual phase, building a new 3D social environment capable of digital transactions will represent most of the initial investment in time in human capital. Digital twin technologies, already well-established in industry, will be ported to support the need to architect and furnish the new digital world. The return on and viability of investing in the “real estate of the future” raises questions fundamental to the success or failure of the enterprise. As such this paper proposes a novel framing of the issue and looks at the intersection where finance, technology, and law are converging to prevent another Dot-com bubble of the late 1990s in metaverse-based virtual real estate transactions. Furthermore, the paper will argue that these domains are technologically feasible, but the main challenges for commercial users remain in the legal and regulatory arenas. As has been the case with the emergence of online commerce, a legal assessment of the metaverse indicates that courts will look to traditional and established legal principles when addressing issues until the enactment of federal and/or state statutes and accompanying regulations. Lastly, whereas traditional regulation of real estate would involve property law, the current legal framing of ownership of metaverse assets is governed by contract law

Distributed Technology-Sustained Pervasive Applications

Technology-sustained pervasive games, contrary to technology-supported pervasive games, can be understood as computer games interfacing with the physical world. Pervasive games are known to make use of 'non-standard input devices' and with the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), pervasive applications can be expected to move beyond games. This dissertation is requirements- and development-focused Design Science research for distributed technology-sustained pervasive applications, incorporating knowledge from the domains of Distributed Computing, Mixed Reality, Context-Aware Computing, Geographical Information Systems and IoT. Computer video games have existed for decades, with a reusable game engine to drive them. If pervasive games can be understood as computer games interfacing with the physical world, can computer game engines be used to stage pervasive games? Considering the use of non-standard input devices in pervasive games and the rise of IoT, how will this affect the architectures supporting the broader set of pervasive applications? The use of a game engine can be found in some existing pervasive game projects, but general research into how the domain of pervasive games overlaps with that of video games is lacking. When an engine is used, a discussion of, what type of engine is most suitable and what properties are being fulfilled by the engine, is often not part of the discourse. This dissertation uses multiple iterations of the method framework for Design Science for the design and development of three software system architectures. In the face of IoT, the problem of extending pervasive games into a fourth software architecture, accommodating a broader set of pervasive applications, is explicated. The requirements, for technology-sustained pervasive games, are verified through the design, development and demonstration of the three software system architectures. The ...Comment: 64 pages, 13 figure

Development and empirical testing of a game engagement scale : case r/Stopgaming

The thesis conceptualises gaming from leisurely and labour-like starting points and both measures and develops this perspective by pioneering a concept of game engagement. Putting forth this perspective is grounded by appeals to burnout in and out of professional contexts in the videogame industry, ludology and research on player experiences. These views coming together prompted a need to verify whether games are to be normatively held as engaging in only popular belief, or verifiably so in actuality. In so doing, both methodological and theoretical insight is provided. The engagement construct was adapted from the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale -9 (short form) and a survey study was conducted. Data was analysed using ordinal logistic regression and exploratory factor analysis. Results showed those not holding games dear to them may require substantial investment increases to reap adequate increases in engagement, if playtime is low, while a committed orientation towards gaming (in terms of subjective gamerhood and hours played) showed marked differences in engagement per incremental increase in playtime. These results are considered descriptive, rather than predictive. Future directions for game studies are suggested to uncover how players become disengaged and how rationalisation affects the gaming experience

Network traffic characterisation, analysis, modelling and simulation for networked virtual environments

Networked virtual environment (NVE) refers to a distributed software system where a simulation, also known as virtual world, is shared over a data network between several users that can interact with each other and the simulation in real-time. NVE systems are omnipresent in the present globally interconnected world, from entertainment industry, where they are one of the foundations for many video games, to pervasive games that focus on e-learning, e-training or social studies. From this relevance derives the interest in better understanding the nature and internal dynamics of the network tra c that vertebrates these systems, useful in elds such as network infrastructure optimisation or the study of Quality of Service and Quality of Experience related to NVE-based services. The goal of the present work is to deepen into this understanding of NVE network tra c by helping to build network tra c models that accurately describe it and can be used as foundations for tools to assist in some of the research elds enumerated before. First contribution of the present work is a formal characterisation for NVE systems, which provides a tool to determine which systems can be considered as NVE. Based on this characterisation it has been possible to identify numerous systems, such as several video games, that qualify as NVE and have an important associated literature focused on network tra c analysis. The next contribution has been the study of this existing literature from a NVE perspective and the proposal of an analysis pipeline, a structured collection of processes and techniques to de ne microscale network models for NVE tra c. This analysis pipeline has been tested and validated against a study case focused on Open Wonderland (OWL), a framework to build NVE systems of di erent purpose. The analysis pipeline helped to de ned network models from experimental OWL tra c and assessed on their accuracy from a statistical perspective. The last contribution has been the design and implementation of simulation tools based on the above OWL models and the network simulation framework ns-3. The purpose of these simulations was to con rm the validity of the OWL models and the analysis pipeline, as well as providing potential tools to support studies related to NVE network tra c. As a result of this nal contribution, it has been proposed to exploit the parallelisation potential of these simulations through High Throughput Computing techniques and tools, aimed to coordinate massively parallel computing workloads over distributed resources

Diseño de un juego multijugador en Android

El objetivo de este proyecto es el de llegar a conocer los límites de los dispositivos móviles en cuanto a la ejecución de juegos multijugador y una vez alcanzados, descubrir si es posible superar esos límites utilizando distintas técnicas, como por ejemplo utilizando una buena arquitectura. Para lograr este objetivo se diseñarán optimizaciones, las cuales reducirán los recursos utilizados por cada jugador aumentando así el número de posibles jugadores que podrá tener. Otro objetivo que surge a partir del primero es el de diseñar e implementar un prototipo de juego con las optimizaciones previamente diseñadas para comprobar si es posible utilizarlas y determinar cuál es su impacto.Ingeniería Informátic

Scalable spatially aware media sharing display system

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2004.Page 129 blank.Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-94).The scalable spatially aware media sharing display system provides an efficient and convenient means of harnessing media messaging in global communications. A three- tiered system of input, control, and output creates a medium for communication and data sharing via varied media types for relevant and enhanced contextual experiences. It is built as a platform independent infrastructure for sharing and/or displaying various media types onto a grid of, or singularly placed, target display nodes while accommodating dynamic growth in its support of on-the-fly display node assimilation. The system promotes interfacing flexibility thus allowing multiple devices, extant or yet to be, to connect and fully exploit its capabilities. In addition, the system supports an architecture that can accommodate loosely coupled parallel tasks thus exhibiting the qualities of a dynamic parallel cluster.by Patrick Menard.M.Eng