Online Games: The Transformation of Gaming from Products to Services

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Online GamesThe Transformation of Gaming from
Products to Services

• World CyberGames Conference, 2002
• Erik Bethke
• CEO Taldren, Inc.

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Erik Bethke

• CEO of Taldren, Inc. with eight years of
  experience developing games.
• Taldren is an independent game development studio
  employing 25 developers in Southern California.
• Taldren is best known for the Starfleet Command
  series of Real-Time Tactical Starship Simulation

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Overview

• Alternative persistent online game architecture
• Discuss Taldrens TOGA approach to online meta
  games

• The world-wide future of games will be dominated
  by PC-based online services rather than retail
  products

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Games are supposed to be Multiplayer

• To play a game invokes images of children
  playing outside together in a game of dodge ball,
  or perhaps two people battling each other in a
  game of Go or Chess at the park, or perhaps even
  a smoke-filled casino with folks playing a heavy
  game of poker.

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Solitaire or Poker?

• Multi-player games may be competitive,
  cooperative, or both!
• Multi-player games have a a much deeper sense of
  consequence.
• Single-player games are more akin to cross-word
  puzzles, more of a diversion than a game.
• What would you rather see on ESPN2 The World
  Series of Solitaire or The World Series of Poker!

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Ah, Solitaire
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Taking Turns at the Arcade

• For most of the past 30 years of electronic
  games, games have been a single player experience
• Early electronic games like Zork were single
  player text adventures
• Even Pac-Man when played in two-player mode was
  only a single-player experience where each player
  took turns at the arcade machine
• Later games like Joust and Gauntlet became hits
  due to their multiplayer play modes

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ZORK!
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Multiplayer has been evolving

• Empire in 1972 later evolved into Net Trek in
  1982
• M.U.L.E. 4 player real-time action 1983
• DOOM in 1993
• Lineage in 1996
• Ultima Online 1997
• World of Warcraft
• EQ2
• Star Wars Galaxies

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Star Wars Galaxies
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Lineage
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Why does online make it better?

• Despite all of these great multiplayer games
  having been made, there are still many, many
  games that are crying out to become online hits.
• However there is a great momentum built in the
  traditional business model in North America,
  Europe and Japan to purchase console games in the
  store.

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Offline Consoles

• Up until the Dreamcast consoles have been gaming
  appliances that plug into the living room
  television.
• The console has been a great platform for
  multiplayer gaming via split-screen, four-way
  split screens or linked consoles.
• However, the PC with the modem and keyboard has
  been the king of online gaming

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Consoles dominate NA, Europe and Japanese markets

• Console games outsell PC games roughly 3 to 1 in
  dollars in the US market as of August 2002
• New game development in NA, Europe and Japan is
  heavily skewed towards the dollars in the console
  market

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Consoles are now Online

• The Dreamcast was first with Phantasy Star Online
• The Xbox has been heavily marketed with Xbox Live
• The PlayStation2 is already delivering with
  SOCOM, Madden NFL and Tony Hawk Pro Skater3

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I would kill for a PS2 Network Adapter!

• As of September 2002, SONY Network Adapters are
  sold out of retailers and can only be found for
  150 of the MSRP for a new adapter in a box on
  eBay
• All of the 3rd-party approved USB Network
  Adapters are sold out in the Orange County area
  of Southern California as of the week of
  September 16th, 2002

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Online ? MMORPGs w/Orcs

• The most successful massively multiplayer
  subscription games to date are typically
  massively multiplayer role-playing games set in a
  westernized fantasy environment pitting Good vs.
  Evil with classic show downs such as the fabled
  Barbarian vs. Orc and Knight vs. Dragon

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Online is a major entertainment medium

• There are countless games that have been created
  in the past that would be more compelling in an
  persistent online format
• Take any game, simulation or story and then
  imagine how to share that experience beyond the
  single player or 2 to 3 players and design a
  structure for a community of players with a
  greater context for the game to play out.

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Imagine Gran Turismo Online

• Gran Turismo series as great as it is it would
  be far more compelling as a persistent online
  racing world
• - Each race packed with human players true
  victories
• - Every car part priced as per supply and demand
• - Each license earned in a relative rating system

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Offline
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Online please?!
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Imagine Grand Theft Auto Online

• Compete with other gangsters for jobs inside the
  gang
• Have fights against other real gangs instead of
  AI gangs
• Car chases using real human players
• Gun fights involving human players
• Shared economy for cars and weapons

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Make Online!
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TOGA

• Our four-letter acronym for a collection of
  tools, APIs and server bits used to create online
  games with alternative architectures to a classic
  monolithic MMORPG architecture

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Client Server vs. Peer-to-Peer
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Client Server vs. Peer-to-Peer

• Peer to Peer is simple, but expensive in
  bandwidth
• Client-server is complex, but cheap in bandwidth
• Peer-to-Peer trusts clients
• Client-server does not trust clients

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MMORGs are Client-Server

• Full client-server games such as Everquest
  require massive server farms and large amounts of
  bandwidth pipe to update the thousands of players
  on the state of the game.

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Action Titles are often Peer-To-Peer

• DOOM was a peer to peer game with awesome LAN
  play
• Later action titles were re-written to have
  dedicated server support for better performance
  for all clients
• Now, with host migration we are back to a kind of
  peer to peer model for many action titles

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TOGA is Both

• TOGA is both a client-server approach to online
  gaming as well as a peer-to-peer approach to
  gaming
• TOGA is client-server for the big picture,
  strategic, meta, campaign-wide game information
• TOGA is peer-to-peer for the action, tactical
  game information

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Starfleet Command Tactical
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Starfleet Command Strategic
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TOGA Gameplay Dynaverse

• SFC Dynaverse is really chat lobby where people
  take breaks between chatting to fight a starship
  duel

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Match Chat with Context

• Players are automatically matched by game
  context, not by rules arbitration
• Each mission affects the state of the galactic
  map and the empires economy

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Online and Persistent

• Shared economy players bid on ships
• Game data is persistent, ship damage, prestige
  earned, etc.
• Campaigns rage for months at a time

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Low cost to serve

• Bandwidth Used
• Team chatting
• Global Chat
• Sector movement
• Political News
• Game mission matching data

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CPU Memory used

• Simple economic calculations
• Simple galactic news
• Moderate strategic AI behavior
• Complex mission matching rules but ultimately
  not so many calculations

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User extensible? Yes.

• Costs so low, we not only allow fans to run
  Dynaverse servers we depend on the fan servers to
  handle games much like a first person shooter or
  a real-time strategy game
• Just need a regular Windows machine with a decent
  processor, RAM, HD and a broadband network
  connection

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Dynaverse Server Overview

• Character
• Map
• Ship
• Mission
• Goal
• Economy
• Score
• AI

• Database
• Time
• Info
• Notify
• Messenger
• Chat

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TOGA Components

• Switch
• IPL
• Server SDK
• PuppetMaster

• AccessServer
• Remote Process Sentinel
• DB API

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Online games are a service

• An ongoing experience provided by a game company
  is a service
• Many games are sold for a fixed price in the
  retail sector yet expose the game publisher and
  developer to open-ended costs
• Madden NFL for the PS2 declares on the box that
  the online service will expire in August 2003

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Korean Consumers Lead

• Koreans have avoided importing consoles from
  Japan
• As a world leader in computer components PC
  compatible computers are very inexpensive (Taiwan
  and China too)
• CD-R burners and media are readily available
• Single-player content is too easily pirated and
  has become very common among the young world wide

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Internet Cafes

• Internet Cafes change the way consumers buy
  software
• Observe what others are playing
• Rent time playing the same game
• If they really like the game, then they purchase
  a copy / subscription for the home machine if
  they have one

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Convenience

• Consumer does not need to lay down a lot of money
  to begin playing
• Consumer does not need to upgrade the machine
  constantly
• Consumer does not need to maintain the drivers
  and such for the game
• Consumer does not even need to install the games

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Consoles are becoming PCs

• The PlayStation2 is even called the Sony Computer
  Entertainment System
• Hard drive
• Keyboard

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PS2 Powered Linux Desktop
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Console Titles are of Higher Quality

• Generally speaking console titles have fewer bugs
• Strong hardware manufacturer approval standards
  ensure that the software functions as advertised
• Results in much fewer competition thus more
  money for the publishers with the resources to
  make AAA console titles

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The Hard drive

• PS2 hard drive optional
• XBox hard drive standard
• Hard drives will be used for advanced data
  streaming
• Hard drives are designed for incremental content
  updates for online titles
• This will lead to patches being created for the
  console games

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Keyboard Chat

• Despite many clever headset solutions chatting by
  keyboard will be a dominate form of chatting
  online for the foreseeable future
• Keyboards provide anonymity of voice
• Keyboards allow innuendo, smilies
• Headsets are great for action titles in
  coordinating squads

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Consoles are Proprietary PCs

• With the addition of online, the hard drive and
  the keyboard we have a PC
• Game developers and game publishers must expend
  huge efforts to obtain approvals resulting in
  much greater development costs
• Game publishers must pay significant royalty fees
  for duplication and distribution

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Music

• The MP3 vs. the CD
• CD sales are falling for the last 5 to 7 years
• Napster was a distraction for the music industry
• Consumers are now disillusioned with the music
  industry
• Artists have been disillusioned for a long time
• Where are the new great bands? No Elvis, Beatles,
  Michael Jackson in a long, long time

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Movies

• Movies make 50 of their box office money in the
  first weekend in North America
• Movies are heavily pirated pre-release, during
  theatrical release, and after DVD/VHS release
• Consumers are being trained that electronic
  entertainment bits are just bits not worth
  paying for

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Going to the Movie Theatre

• Movies will always be protected by going to the
  theatre
• Go with a date
• Enjoy Popcorn and a Soda
• Relatively cheap at 8 a ticket

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Internet Cafes are like a Theatre

• Internet Cafes provide a service for games that
  will always be relevant
• Get together with other folks
• See what is the latest games
• Friendly (and sometimes not so friendly)
  competitive atmosphere
• Stage at COEX Internet Cafe

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Internet Cafes are slow in NA

• Relatively low population densities in North
  America leading to most players playing from home