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Online gaming or online games are the games that are played online
via the LAN, Internet, or even Telecommunication. They are distinct
from video and computer games that are not networked. Normally, all
technical requirement for playing online games is a web browser
and/or appropriate client software. A game played in a browser is
called a browser-based game or web game. In broad definition, online
gaming includes Internet gaming, web gaming, online gambling, local
LAN gaming, and mobile gaming, but not the non-networked video and
personal computer gaming. Figure 1 illustrates the different types of
online games. Within the diagram, the overlapping circles such as
MMORPG, Internet, Web and online gambling games are generally
operated through wide/public network environment. Mobile gaming is
operated by telecommunication, and local LAN gaming is operated by
local/private network. Before we present our experimental analysis of
server scale-ability and behaviour, in this section we review a typical
multi player game setup. We emphasize the actions taken by the
server and provide a high level description of the structure of the
server and client applications.
Figure shows a generic setup for interactive, multiplayer game
sessions. In this client server setup, servers usually maintain
consistency of the plot and handle coordination among clients, whereas
clients perform all graphics and user interface operations. More
specifically: A set of players, or clients connect to a centralized game
server, or simply server, they join a game session, and participate until
they leave the session, they are terminated, or the session is ended.
Clients communicate only with the server. The server parses client
actions and notices other clients accordingly. Players can locate
available servers via well known directory servers where servers
publicize their network ad-dress and other game related information. In
this work, we are interested in server behaviour after a game session
has been initiated. Game servers are usually stand{alone PCs or
workstations. Client systems are, today, either home{ level desktop
systems or game consoles.
1. Cheating by Collusion:
Exploiting Bugs:
Something considered a cheat, but is not a hack, is the exploiting of
“bugs” sometimes called “sploitz”. A definition of bug is; “A computer
bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that
prevents it from working correctly or produces an incorrect result. Bugs
arise from mistakes and errors, made by people, in either a program's
source code or its design.”22 It is generally so that every game comes
with bugs, even if well coded games contain fewer bugs than badly
coded. A synonym to bug in this context is glitch, and the bug exploiter is
called glitcher.
Exploiting bugs can be done in many different ways, depending on
the type of the game and the bug itself. For example, a common bug in
some FPS-games allows players to reach areas of map that is not
suppose to be accessible, and from these areas they are invisible to
other players. Hence they can shoot other players undetected. Trying to
list every bug that has been exploited is of course impossible; suffice it
to say that there probably are bugs for every game ever released. Some
are severe, some negligible and some are not even noticed by the
majority of the players. Generally though, bugs are not that big of a
problem compared to hacks, people exploiting bugs are often easy to
spot. The problem arises when the glitches exploits a bug not visible to
other players. The exploiting is then tantamount to hacks, e.g. exploiting
a bug that lets the player see through walls. The existence of a certain
bug in MMORPG’s is so severe that it is worth mentioning individually. In
some MMORPG’s certain techniques allows the players to duplicate
items, the action being called “duping”. Duping is a form of bug
exploitation, but it can also be a combination of hack and exploiting. A
game with good support from the developer and the publisher will have
patches released. A patch is an update to the game that focuses on
fixing bugs and other game play issues, but some also release new
features in their patches.
CONCLUSION: