anatomy of the mmo

© 2006 IBM Corporation

Anatomy of the MMO

High level introduction to the technology involved in an MMO

George Dolbier, CTO Games and interActive Entertainment IBM

2 © 2006 IBM Corporation

Today’s Agenda

Who is IBM again? And who is this guy?

MMO spotting

Architectural patterns for MMOs

Guts of an MMO


Who is IBM again?

And who is this guy?


IBM is imbedded the gaming industrystarting with the CPUs in every game console

Souce www.nexgenwars.com 11/11/2008


IBMMicroprocessors

Systems & Storage

Middleware

People

Partners


MMO Spotting

Definitely Divergent History


MMOG DivergenceAn Online Game is… An Massively Multiplayer Online Game Is… Technology

Persistence

Centralized Simulation

Scale

CC Pipeline

Business

Software As a Service

Re-accruing revenue

Subscription

Economic Systems/Item Sales

Ongoing Operational Expense GameScaleAutonomyCo-OrdinationCo-OperationArbitrationEconomicsCommunication

CommunityIn Game SupportAccess to the game from outside

An Massively Multiplayer Online Game Is…A form of entertainment


Forgotten, but not lost, HistoryOn October 20 2008 Massively Multiplayer online gaming turned 30

MUD was invented in the U of Essex (that’s in the UK) Roy Trubshaw, and Richard Bartle,

Also in 1978 Alan E. Klietz wrote Scepter, which eventually became Secpter of Goth, which became quite influential

Scepter of Goth Licencees develop their own MUD, merge with Mythic and eventually launch Dark Age of Camelot

Brett Vickers was heavily influenced by Scepter when he wrote his own MUD software, Brett now is a “programmer” at Arenanet. Also inventor of NBP and EQOS

Interplay employees Tom and Suzan Zelinski, left the tortured SoG Licensee Interplay to write several MUDs and found the organization which would become Simutronics, still in business today.


Architectural patterns for MMOs

EnvironmentArchetypesPatterns


Every Architecture exists in an Environment

SettingIDCStudio

InteractionOperationProductionCreation

Segment

Creation: Content is created

Production: Content is transformed

Operation: Content is distributed

and operated

Interaction: Content is interacted

with

Time

Concept Launch Flight

Technology deployment timeline

Environments

Studio: Highly Collaborative Environment

where concepts are created and transformed into products. This is where the virtual world is created

IDC: Consolidated, efficient, secure

Environment where data and communications come together. This is where the virtual world runs

Setting: Home, Office, Mobile, Capability,

device, location, and connectivity that allows a game or virtual world to be interacted with

Environments

are differentiated by economic model as well as physical, technical and Human factors

Segments

are differentiated by the goals of individuals, and how those individuals relate to content


MMO Environment: The Internet DatacenterSegment

Creation: Content is created

Production: Content is transformed

Operation: Content is distributed

and operated

Interaction: Content is interacted

with

Time

Concept Launch Flight

Technology deployment timeline

EnvironmentsStudio: Highly Collaborative Environment

where concepts are created and transformed into products. This is where the virtual world is created

IDC: Consolidated, efficient, secure

Environment where data and communications come together. This is where the virtual world runs

Setting: Home, Office, Mobile, Capability,

device, location, and connectivity that allows a game or virtual world to be interacted with

Environments

are differentiated by economic model as well as physical, technical and Human factors

Segments

are differentiated by the goals of individuals, and how those individuals relate to content

Studio

ProductionCreation

Setting

Interaction

IDC

Operation


Universe

MMO Archetypes

Sharded

Hybrid


Why one v.s. the other

Sharded

Content

Business Model

Multiple Operations

Authored Content

Step Scale

Moderate latency

Universe

Content

Business Model

Single Operations

User created Content

Scale Out

Latency Tolerant

Hybrid

Content

Business Model

Mixed Operations

Instanced Content

Bi-Directional Scale

Mixed Gameplay


Guts of an MMO

3 Major Organ systems


More than just a single system


Massively Triumvirate Systems

Economic SupportGame


Economic Organs

Financial administration Interface

Game Interface

User Financial AccountDatabase

Account Management Website

Tax/VAT Tax processing system

Support Administration Interface

FireWall

DOS/DDOS

Account Transaction Database

Decision Support Database

Fraud Detection/Reporting System

Financial Transaction processing

Payment Processor Gateways


Support Organs

FireWall

CSR Interface

Support Interface to Financial System

In Game Support Interface

Problem Management database

Decision Support Database

External Support Website

Support Ticketing System

CRM system

Support Knowledge Base (Wiki)

Interface to bug tracking system

Interface to game/Systems & Network

Management

DOS/DDOS


Game Organs

Support Administration

Interface

Financial administration

Interface

Player behavior reporting system

Map/Object Data

Mnaagement and comms log

Player Stats

Game Website

Simulation Engine

FireWall

DOS/DDOS

Routing/load balencing

“Instance” Manager

Authentication System

Patch Server

CDN

Authentication System

Txt Chat Server

Voice Chat Server

Simulation Engine

Simulation Engine

Simulation Engine

“Instance” Manager

XBLA/PSNGW

Transaction management/caching

Transaction managementcaching

In Game Economic system

Console Network

Game Manager

Game Manager

Game Manager

Game Manager

Simulation Engine

Simulation Engine

Simulation Engine

Simulation Engine

Txt Chat Log


Simple Organism

MySQL

JabberAppache

VBBS

Flash

Joe’s Web Hosting


How Do I…

How Many of What?How Much will it cost up front?How much will it cost me every month?


How big?Decide 2 numbers

How many Simulation servers per shardRatio of other systems per shard

Make up 2 numbersHow many players TOTALHow many players Online at any one time (CCU)

Measure 2 numbersHow many CCU can each simulation server can manageHow much bandwidth is required for each player

Then chop it up into regions to tasteMake up one number (how many players per geography)Single Datacenter per Geo, or Sub Geographic datacenters

But Don’t Forget…

Your Mileage may vary


How much up front?

NOTHING!

But Don’t forget…Software Licensing

Down Payments

Salaries (admin and support)

Sign up fees

URLs registration

Retail Buys

Advertising Buys

Initial Install

Events

Promotional items

Contract fees

Development

IP Licensing


How much every month?

BillingCapitol PowerSpace

NetworkSupport

BUT Don’t forget….Ongoing DevelopmentMarketingTaxes


How does it grow?

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6Comunity Size

Num

ber o

f Rac

ks

Rack DenceBlades1U

Size of Commu

nity CCUTotal

ServersBandwidt

h (Gbps)5,000 1,000 17 0.06

10,000 2,000 18 1.00

25,000 5,000 25 1.00

50,000 10,000 34 1.00

105,000 21,000 55 2.00

200,000 40,000 95 2.00

300,000 60,000 135 3.00

400,000 80,000 174 3.00

500,000 100,000 214 4.00

700,000 140,000 293 5.00

900,000 180,000 375 6.00

1,100,000 220,000 454 7.00

1,300,000 260,000 535 8.00

1,600,000 320,000 655 10.00

1,900,000 380,000 774 11.00

2,200,000 440,000 894 13.00


Futures

Ok, now where to?


What’s coming to MMOs?Owner Operator Publisher

Build v.s. Buy Pendulum

Components as a Service

More Genres

Platforms

User Created Content

Failures

Global acceptance of free to play pay for stuff

Bi-directional economics

Virtual World Physical Object

Growth through the Economic depression

Games (& Money) from strange places

More “Clear Skys” Macinema

10 MMOs reach 1 million active

4 MMOs 10 million

2 MMOslimited or no NA operations


MMOs are…Entertaining

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