Networking and Online Games


Book Description

The computer game industry is clearly growing in the direction of multiplayer, online games. Understanding the demands of games on IP (Internet Protocol) networks is essential for ISP (Internet Service Provider) engineers to develop appropriate IP services. Correspondingly, knowledge of the underlying network's capabilities is vital for game developers. Networking and Online Games concisely draws together and illustrates the overlapping and interacting technical concerns of these sectors. The text explains the principles behind modern multiplayer communication systems and the techniques underlying contemporary networked games. The traffic patterns that modern games impose on networks, and how network performance and service level limitations impact on game designers and player experiences, are covered in-depth, giving the reader the knowledge necessary to develop better gaming products and network services. Examples of real-world multiplayer online games illustrate the theory throughout. Networking and Online Games: Provides a comprehensive, cutting-edge guide to the development and service provision needs of online, networked games. Contrasts the considerations of ISPs (e.g. predicting traffic loads) with those of game developers (e.g. sources of lag/jitter), clarifying coinciding requirements. Explains how different technologies such as cable, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) and wireless, etc., affect online game-play experience, and how different game styles impose varying traffic dynamics and requirements on the network. Discusses future directions brought by emerging technologies such as UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone Service), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), Wireless LANs, IP service Quality, and NAPT/NAT (Network Address Port Translation/Network Address Translation) Illustrates the concepts using high-level examples of existing multiplayer online games (such as Quake III Arena, Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, and Half-Life 2). Networking and Online Games will be an invaluable resource for games developers, engineers and technicians at Internet Service Providers, as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate students in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Multimedia Engineering.




Developing Online Games


Book Description

A soup-to-nuts overview of just what it takes to successfully design, develop and manage an online game. Learn from the top two online game developers through the real-world successes and mistakes not known to others. There are Case studies from 10+ industry leaders, including Raph Koster, J. Baron, R. Bartle, D. Schubert, A. Macris, and more! Covers all types of online games: Retail Hybrids, Persistent Worlds, and console games. Developing Online Games provides insight into designing, developing and managing online games that is available nowhere else. Online game programming guru Jessica Mulligan and seasoned exec Bridgette Patrovsky provide insights into the industry that will allow others entering this market to avoid the mistakes of the past. In addition to their own experiences, the authors provide interviews, insight and anecdotes from over twenty of the most well-known and experienced online game insiders. The book includes case studies of the successes and failures of today's most well-known online games. There is also a special section for senior executives on how to budget an online game and how to assemble the right development and management teams. The book ends with a look at the future of online gaming: not only online console gaming (Xbox Online, Playstation 2), but the emerging mobile device game market (cell phones, wireless, PDA).




Games Online For Dummies?


Book Description

"An invaluable resource for novice and experienced gamers alike." — Sid Meier, Creator of Civilization Save $$$! See Inside for Coupons! Find, Play, and Win the Best Games on the Internet! Feel like taking the wheel of an Indy race car? Commanding your forces against the evil empire? Or simply grabbing a cue and hitting the old electronic ball? Trust gaming expert John Kaufeld to take you straight to the best online games. With direct links to the hottest games on the Net and a wealth of gaming tips — including advice on which games you may not want your kids playing — Games Online For Dummies® takes you on an exciting tour of the Wild Net Yonder. Inside, find helpful advice on how to: Play games on major game services like the Internet Gaming Zone, HEAT.NET, Mplayer, and more Trick commercial games into playing through the Internet with Kali and Kahn Figure out what to play, where to play, and how to make your computer play better with our special Internet Directory Chat with fellow gamers — and find worthy opponents Join the online gaming communities inside America Online and CompuServe Turn your computer into the ultimate game machine CD-ROM Includes Multiplayer Demos of: StarCraft You Don't Know Jack the Netshow HardBall 6 Age of Empires Shanghai Dynasty MindSpring Internet Access Shareware programs are fully functional, free trial versions of copyrighted programs. If you like particular programs, register with their authors for a nominal fee and receive licenses, enhanced versions, and technical support. Freeware programs are free, copyrighted games, applications, and utilities. You can copy them to as many PCs as you like — free — but they have no technical support. System Requirements: 133 or faster Pentium PC with Windows 95/98; 24MB RAM (32MB recommended); double-speed (2X) or faster CD-ROM drive; and an Internet connection (14,400 bps or faster modem — regular access charges apply)




Innovation And Strategy Of Online Games


Book Description

This book is the first study to survey, over a ten-year period, innovations and the industrial formation process of online game business, and global strategies of major Korean online game companies. It focuses on the innovative factors which made the Korean online game industry grow tremendously and successfully to gain competitiveness in the global game industry. These include: the main factors stimulating online game business; virtual business created by online games as well as an examination of the role of the Korean government at the beginning and developmental period of the online gaming business.This book also contains authentic and accumulated research conducted over five years in the international domain of the online game industry. This research unveils diverse strategies of game companies and presents cognitive differences toward the online game business where various convergences will occur between the online game and other Internet businesses./a




Immigrant Youth, Hip Hop, and Online Games


Book Description

Anti-Muslim racism with its attendant xenophobia and (the fear of) Salafist hostility are two of the most essential problems facing Europe today. Both result from the enormous failure of the continent’s integration policies, which have either insisted on immigrants’ rigid assimilation or left immigrants to fend for themselves. This book radically breaks with contemporary approaches to immigrant assimilation and integration. Instead it examines non-institutional approaches that facilitate immigrant inclusion through the examples of three alternative small-scale projects that have impacted the lives of urban working-class youth, specifically with second-generation immigrant roots, in Vienna, Austria. These projects involve online gaming, hip hop as an art form, and social work as emancipatory pedagogic practice (commonly referred to as street work). After exploring historic and structural conditions of marginalization in Austria, the book investigates working-class teenagers’ social networks and describes an online game designed to provide a platform for interaction between non-immigrant and immigrant youth who usually either do not interact or display prejudice when they engage each other. Hip hop can provide both a necessary outlet for alienated youth to articulate their frustrations and a highly effective tool for transforming inclusion conflicts. This is achieved through offering individual teens the necessary means to gain the resilience and social grounding necessary to help overcome exclusion and marginalization. In addition to the individual young person’s agency, the inclusion process, of course, also requires corresponding efforts by the majority society. Social work with marginalized youth is crucial for successful inclusion. Specifically individual support in small-scale settings provides a unique opportunity to open up spaces for discouraged and disaffected teenagers to gain self-worth and dignity. While the book focuses on identity formation and the teenagers’ agency, it argues that only projects that include both “newcomer” and “native” can aid in overcoming exclusionary attitudes and policies, eventually allowing some form of social bonding to take place.




Multiplayer Online Games


Book Description

Multiplayer Online Games (MOGs) have become a new genre of "play culture," integrating communication and entertainment in a playful, computer-mediated environment that evolves through user interaction. This book comprehensively reviews the origins, players, and social dynamics of MOGs, as well as six major empirical research methods used in previous works to study MOGs (i.e., observation/ethnography, survey/interviews, content and discourse analysis, experiments, network analysis, and case studies). It concludes that MOGs represent a highly sophisticated, networked, multimedia and multimodal Internet technology, which can construct entertaining, simultaneous, persistent social virtual worlds for gamers. Overall, the book shows that what we can learn from MOGs is how games and gaming, as ubiquitous activities, fit into ordinary life in today’s information society, in the moments where the increased use of media as entertainment, the widespread application of networked information technologies, and participation in new social experiences intersect. Key Features: Contains pertinent knowledge about online gaming: its history, technical features, player characteristics, social dynamics, and research methods Sheds light on the potential future of online gaming, and how this would impact every aspect of our everyday lives – socially, culturally, technologically, and economically Asks promising questions based on cutting-edge research in the field of online game design and development




Learning Christian Religious Education (CRE) Through Online Games


Book Description

This book explores innovative approaches to teaching Christian Religious Education (CRE) by integrating online games as an educational tool. Addressing the challenges faced in traditional religious education, the authors highlight how online games can make learning more engaging and interactive for students. Each chapter provides theoretical foundations, practical recommendations, and real-life case studies on the use of online games in CRE. The book offers educators strategies for content planning, implementation, and evaluation, aiming to enhance students’ understanding and application of religious values in their daily lives. By leveraging the interactive nature of online games, this book seeks to foster a deeper connection between students and their faith, making religious education both enjoyable and meaningful.




Current Issues in Asian Tourism


Book Description

This comprehensive volume was put together in response to the growing amount of research on tourism in Asia and an increasing number of authors from Asian countries. It concentrates on two aspects of Asian Tourism: first, the Asian tourists themselves, and second, economic development and tourism in the Asian region. The first part of the collection focuses on three areas: the motivations of different types of Asian tourist; the characteristics and behaviour of particular Asian tourist segments; and, finally, an analysis of specific research issues. The second part of the book then goes on to explore the governance and organisation of tourism in the Asian region, and the nature of Asian growth and competitiveness as it relates to tourism. The articles in this book were originally published in the journal Current Issues in Tourism.




America Online For Dummies Quick Reference


Book Description

This handy lay-flat reference provides users with the information they need to get connected and explore all the great information and resources America Online has to offer. The book includes step-by-step instructions on cruising the Internet, as well as how to download files, chat with others, join a newsgroup, find the latest news, and more.




Library Journal


Book Description