Towards public server MMOs

ABSTRACT

While massively multiplayer on-line games (MMOs) are enormously popular, their use of the client-server architecture causes them to suffer from scalability issues and high maintenance costs. In contrast, the public server architecture employed by most first-person shooter (FPS) games scales more easily by relying on user-supplied hosting and user-generated content, but lacks persistence between servers that is required in the MMO genre. This paper examines an architecture that leverages the resources of the public server approach to support a scalable, persistent MMO.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.3 SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND APPLICATION-BASED SYSTEMS

General Terms:
Design

Keywords:
MMO, online games