32 Networking and Online Games: Understanding and Engineering Multiplayer Internet Games 3.4.4 Summary The evolution of gaming platforms can be summarised by a table, taking a representative example from each genre and comparing the gaming capabilities: Platform Processor Memory Resolution Network Handheld 333 Mhz 32 MB 480 272 WLAN Console 733 Mhz 512 MB 640 480 10/100 Ethernet PC 3500 Mhz 2048 MB 1600 1200 100/1000 Ethernet 3.5 Context of Computer Games Shared space technologies, including computer games, can be classified according to their transportation, the extent to which participants leave behind their local space, and their artificiality, the extent to which the space is generated by a computer [BGR+98]. From these two dimensions, broadly, there emerge four classifications of technology (depicted in Figure 3.19): (a) In physical reality, participants reside in the immediate, physical world in that physical game elements are tangible and the participants are corporeal. (b) With telepresence, the participants are transported to a real-world location that is separated from their physical location. (c) For augmented reality, the local, physical environment is present, but synthetic, computer-generated objects are overlaid on the local environment. (d) Virtual reality allows the participants to be immersed in a remote, synthetic world. Computer games typically are completely artificial in that the game world is entirely generated by a computer and completely transportive in that the player controls an avatar immersed in the game world. 3.5.1 Physical Reality Physical reality encompasses interactions with objects in the world that take place in everyday life. Games based on physical reality have the participants in the same location, (physical) Artificiality(synthetic) Augmented Virtual reality reality Physical Tele reality presence (local) Transportation (remote) Figure 3.19 Classification of shared spaces according to transportation and artificiality (from [BGR+98])
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Recent Online and Multiplayer Games connecting a (short) wire between up to four Game Boys, and the game software could even be downloaded from one handheld to another. The newest generation of handheld gaming systems are equipped with a wireless mode for multiplayer network gameplay. Sony s Playstation Portable (PSP), and Nintendo s Dual-Screen (DS) support the IEEE 802.11b wireless local area network (WLAN) standard. The Nintendo DS provides a specific subset of the features of 802.11b in order to save battery power for wireless network play. Notably, only a short preamble is used, and only the WLAN capacities of 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps are used, even though 802.11b supports capacities up to 11 Mbps, because these lower capacities consume less power. The Nintendo DS does not support any network layers above the 802.11 layer (in other words, no Internet packets), while the Sony PSP allows and supports Internet packets (IPv4) in the 802.11 infrastructure mode. This allows the PSP to connect to an Access Point (AP) and provide gameplay over the Internet. The newest release of the PSP even includes a Web browser. Nintendo DS System Resolution 256 192, 260k colors Dual ARM processors ARM 9 at 67MHz, ARM 7 at 33MHz 4MBRAM Touch-pad Network WLAN is IEEE 802.11b Short preamble Wireless capacities of 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps, only Ad hoc mode (peer-to-peer) No IP stack (UDP/TCP) Sony PSP System Resolution 480 272 pixels, 24-bit color Dual MIPS R4000 processors at 333 MHz 32 MB RAM Analog joystick Network WLAN is IEEE 802.11b 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps Ad hoc mode (peer-to-peer) and infrastructure mode (Internet) IP stack
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Recent Online and Multiplayer Games 3.4 The Evolution of Online Game Platforms 3.4.1 PCs The PC has continued to evolve as a general computing platform, as well as a gaming platform, at a phenomenal pace. Improvements to processing power have continued to follow Moore s law, doubling approximately every 18 months. Graphics cards, the core component of any PC used for serious gaming, have done even better, doubling in speed about every 6 months. Random access memory (RAM) speeds and capacities have kept pace with processor improvements. Disk drives that are not generally used during real-time gameplay because their access times are slow, have kept up with the demand for storage capacity increases for games that require more space. Displays have gone from small, monochrome cathode-ray tubes to 24-bit colour, high-resolution, wide-screen liquid crystal display (LCD) displays. Audio has gone from tiny-sounding, integrated PC speakers to surround-sound, 6.1 channel audio. Input devices for PC games are still primarily via a keyboard and mouse, but PCs support game controllers as well as force feedback joysticks (particularly useful for flight simulators). Figure 3.18 summarises the performance evolution of the personal computer. A 1981 point of reference is provided as a standard4 computer that had a unit performance of 1. Depicted are power, memory capacity and network capacity and a typical price of about $2500 for a machine. 3.4.2 Game Consoles By the late 1990s, online gaming really only existed for PCs, with game console systems still being off-line (but certainly multiplayer via split-screen or joint-screen technologies). That all changed as the year 2000 approached. In 1999, Sega introduced the Dreamcast that was the first console to include a built-in 56k modem. While the Dreamcast had numerous technically advanced hardware features and even the support of several popular network games such as Quake 3 and Phantasy Star online through the SegaNet gaming service, it was unable to unseat Playstation and Nintendo as the dominant home consoles. The years right after 2000 saw each of the three major consoles (Sony s Playstation 2, Microsoft s Xbox, and Nintendo s Gamecube) equipped with online capabilities (although Nintendo s Gamecube did not feature built-in networking, users were able to buy network adapters that connected via the Gamecube s serial port). By 2004, Microsoft s online live service reportedly had over 1 million subscribers [Tut04]. 1981 2005 Factor Power 1 1600 1600 $/Power $100K $1 100,000 Memory 128K 2G 15,000 Disk capacity 10M 10G 1000 Net bandwidth 9600b/s 1Gb/s 100,000 Figure 3.18 Evolution of the PC computer hardware, from 1981 to 2005 4 Measured by SPEC, the Standards Performance Evaluation Corporation.
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30 Networking and Online Games: Understanding and Engineering Multiplayer Internet Games As of 2005, the hardware components of today s consoles are as follows [Tys06]: Sony PlayStation 2 Processor: 128-bit Emotion Engine , 300 MHz Graphics: 150 MHz, 4 MB VRAM cache, 75 million polygons per second RAM: 32 MB RDRAM Other features: . Two memory card slots . Optical digital output . Two USB ports . FireWire port . Support for audio CDs and DVD-Video Nintendo GameCube Processor: Gekko IBM Power PC microprocessor, 485 MHz Graphics: ATI 162 MHz, 4 MB RAM, 12 million polygons per second RAM: 40 MB (24 MB 1T-SRAM, 16 MB of 100-MHz DRAM) Other features: . Two flash memory slots . High-speed parallel port . Two high-speed serial ports . Analog and digital audio-video outputs Microsoft Xbox Processor: Modified Intel Pentium III, 733 MHz Graphics: nVidia, 250 MHz, 125 million polygons per second RAM: 64 MB (unified for audio, video, graphics) Network 10/100-Mbps Ethernet, broadband enabled, 56K modem (optional) Other features: . 8-GB built-in hard drive . 5X DVD drive with movie playback . 8-MB removable memory card . Expansion port The next generation of consoles promises to be even more powerful [CNET05]. 3.4.3 Handheld Game Consoles Early handhelds were primarily single player. Multiplayer mode was generally enabled by players taking turns, as in Mattel s Electronic Football, but some handhelds allowed two players to play simultaneously on the same device, sharing the display. Nintendo s Game Boy, released in 1989 and the most popular handheld console ever, was the first handheld console to support networked multiplayer gaming. This was accomplished by
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26 Networking and Online Games: Understanding and Engineering Multiplayer Internet Games were single player, by the early 1990s, popular series such as Ridge Racer and Need for Speed had multiplayer support (Figures 3.13 and 3.14). In 2001, Electronic Arts released Motor City Online depicted in Figure 3.15, the first online racing game that offered persistent profiles for players. Players earned points and money in racing through different tracks, head-to-head or solo, and could then level up the avatar, and purchase and upgrade vehicles. Other notable online racing games include the POD series that allowed simultaneous play for eight players over the Internet with POD, Speedzone being the first online racing Figure 3.13 Screenshot of Ridge Racer. (Sony Playstation version). Copyright Namco.. Figure 3.14 Screenshot of Need for Speed Underground 2. Reproduced by permission of Electronic Arts.
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Recent Online and Multiplayer Games Figure 3.15 Screenshot of Motor City Online. Reproduced by permission of Electronic Arts. game for game consoles. The game 4 4 Evolution for the Sega Dreamcast console was the first game to allow online play between Dreamcast, Macintosh and PC platforms. 3.3 Summary of Growth of Online Games The different game genres can be summarised in the form of a table with some online characteristics: Genre Notable release Max players Architecture Real-Time Strategy Warcraft About 10 Client Server Sports Games Madden NFL About 10 Peer-to-Peer First Person Shooter Doom About 50 Client Server Online Role Playing EverQuest About 10,000 Client Server The introduction, growth in popularity and in some cases the decline for each of the genres can be depicted by examining the number of Usenet news posts related to each genre. The data from Figure 3.3 can be combined to have Usenet newsgroup posts on Doom clones and FPSs represent all FPS games. Similarly, the number of Usenet posts2 related MMORPG , Real-Time Strategy and Racing Game can represent the pervasiveness of the Massively Multiplayer, RTS and Sports genres, respectively. Notice that all genres have seen a rise and then subsequent fall in popularity (at least according to Usenet posts in Figure 3.16) with the exception of the MMORGP genre which is still going strong. 2 Obtained from http://groups.google.com/
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28 Networking and Online Games: Understanding and Engineering Multiplayer Internet Games 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 Posts per year FPS MMORPG RTS Racing 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 Year Figure 3.16 The growth in Internet games, depicted by the frequency of occurrence in Usenet news group postings 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 Number of Internet hosts (in millions) 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 Year Figure 3.17 The growth of the Internet, depicted by the number of Internet addresses that have been assigned a name While the growth in the online game genres have been substantial and perhaps even impressive, it is interesting to put the online game growth in the context of Internet growth. Figure 3.17 depicts the growth of the Internet in terms of the number of hosts.3 The Internet has shown exponential increase in the number of hosts during the same time period, although there are signs that this exponential growth may be slowing. 3 Data obtained from Network Wizards, http://www.nw.com/
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Recent Online and Multiplayer Games Figure 3.11 Screenshots of Madden NFL. The 1993 Sega Genesis version is shown on the left, the 2005 Microsoft Xbox version is shown on the right. Reproduced by permission of Electronic Arts. Figure 3.12 Screenshot of pole position. Copyright Namco.. Establishing itself in the mid-1990s, Madden NFL Football (Figure 3.11), in its various versions, is the highest revenue-generating video game franchise in North America and in computer game history [MADDEN05]. Online play, however, was only introduced to the 2003 version and was only available for the Sony Playstation console or a Microsoft Windows PC. As of July 2004, Madden games are also enabled for online play on the Microsoft Xbox Live network. As of 2005, Madden only supports two-player games. Online services (such as for the Playstation or Xbox) via a centralised server enable opponents to locate each other, but players communicate in a peer-to-peer fashion directly with each other [NC04]. The first computer racing game that was released was Pole Position (Figure 3.12), popular in the early 1980s because of the quality of the graphics at the time [http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sim racing]. Although early versions of computer racing games
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24 Networking and Online Games: Understanding and Engineering Multiplayer Internet Games (a) (b) (c) Figure 3.10 Screenshots of Warcraft. Warcraft I is shown in (a), Warcraft II is shown in (b) and Warcraft III is shown in (c). Reproduced by permission of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. developed a vigorous online community that even developed into several competitive leagues. Blizzard released Warcraft III in 2002, featuring new gameplay including Heroes and 3-D graphics (Figure 3.10). The success of multiplayer gaming over the Internet was obvious, so Blizzard introduced Battle.net, an online gaming service. Like Kali, Battle.net was a virtual meeting place that permitted players to easily find opponents for Internet play. Use of Battle.net was (and is) free with the purchase of a Blizzard game. Battle.net essentially provided a meeting place for game players, complete with chat rooms and challenge ladders, but without Battle.net actually hosting the game in a client server fashion (although games such as Diablo keep persistent characters and worlds on the Battle.net servers). This kept the bulk of the game traffic from passing through the Battle.net servers, saving on Blizzard s hosting costs and increasing the scalability over a single, centralised client server model. 3.2.4 Sports Games Nearly as long as there have been computer games there have been computer games based on sports (see Atari Football in Chapter 2). Sports lend themselves to competition that naturally suggests multiplayer sports games. While the field of sports is nearly as varied as computer games themselves, two multiplayer online games that are popular and have been studied academically are American Football and Car Racing.
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RecentOnlineandMultiplayerGames230 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000 Jan-97Jul-97Jan-98Jul-98Jan-99Jul-99Jan-00Jul-00Jan-01Jul-01Jan-02Jul-02Jan-03Jul-03Jan-04Jul-04Jan-05Jul-05 Total Subscribers Ultima Online Lineage EverQuest Final Fantasy XI Lineage II World of Warcraft Figure 3.8 Active MMORPG subscriptions for games with 120, 000 + players (excluding City of Heroes, EverQuest II, Dark Age of Camelot, Runescape, Ragnarok Online, Star Wars Galaxies which are all smaller) [Woo05] Figure 3.9 Screenshot of Dune II. Reproduced by permission of Electronic Arts. hit, Warcraft set the stage for Blizzard s Warcraft II in 1995, one of the biggest successes the RTS genre has known. WarCraft II allowed up to eight people to play simultaneously on a LAN using the IPX protocol. The v1.2 patch for Warcraft II included optimization for network play, but was not, in fact, playable on the Internet since it still used IPX instead of IP. In the light of this, Blizzard released a special executable to facilitate multiplayer War- craft II over the Kali network. Warcraft II showed that the Internet could support superb multiplayer RTS gameplay that appeared surprisingly resistant to the effects of latency and bit rate limitations, even on slow modem connections. Because of this, Warcraft II
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