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TIGSource ForumsCommunityTownhallForum IssuesArchived subforums (read only)TutorialsApproaching a MMO
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J. Kyle Pittman
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« Reply #40 on: February 12, 2009, 01:46:31 PM »

Technical complexities aside, an MMO simply does not exist without players.  I wouldn't want to sink years of my life into developing an MMO if I didn't already know in advance that enough people were actually interested in playing it to warrant the cost.  Even in the commercial market, the MMO scene is dominated by only one or two games.  There just isn't much room for anything else.  I suppose theoretically, the indie community might be able to support a larger number of smaller titles, especially if they were free and there were no risk involved in joining and playing them, but is that a risk you're willing to take?  What happens when your players lose interest and your world becomes a barren wasteland?  How much post-release support do you want to commit yourself to?  These are the high-level questions I would be asking myself when approaching an MMO.  Personally, I'd rather spend my time making something a little less fleeting.
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Wilson Saunders
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« Reply #41 on: February 12, 2009, 03:09:00 PM »

Since this thread has sparked some interest in the technical side of MMO's or "persistent multiplayer game", I would like to ask a quesitons of people who know more than I.

Can database calls through flash "loadVars" work fast enough for a realtime MMO type flash game?

Also can a database handle realtime (every 0.2-0.5 secconds) position and state updates for 100+ people?
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BorisTheBrave
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« Reply #42 on: February 12, 2009, 03:20:18 PM »

I know this is a cop out answer, but if you are asking these questions, do not make a real-time MMO.

The real answer is it depends on how much data you intend to transfer, of course, which can vary dramatically according to exactly how your game plays. I should guess loadVars is no slower than other forms of communication, but a persistent compressed connection is better. And how much a database can handle is very dependent on the number of users. An indie MMO is unlikely to have any problems, I expect, and in any case MMOs are very amenable to sharding to reduce loads. I would be inclined to use something like CouchDB rather than a relational database for an MMO, but what do I know.
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Wilson Saunders
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« Reply #43 on: February 12, 2009, 03:29:27 PM »

I am not making an MMO I am day dreaming about making an MMO.  Tongue

loadVars essentially calls a webpage with the arguments you want to pass in as part of the web address then reads the contents of the page back into flash. I have had some success making close to real-time multiplayer (ie dynamically updating scoreboard). However I am not sure if this is the path to follow for taking the next step into multiplayer.
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David Pittman
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« Reply #44 on: February 12, 2009, 06:02:05 PM »

I am not making an MMO I am day dreaming about making an MMO.  Tongue

loadVars essentially calls a webpage with the arguments you want to pass in as part of the web address then reads the contents of the page back into flash. I have had some success making close to real-time multiplayer (ie dynamically updating scoreboard). However I am not sure if this is the path to follow for taking the next step into multiplayer.


Performance issues aside, the bigger issue I'm seeing is that you'd have to write your server-side game logic as a PHP script or something, and there would be no current state beyond what was stored in the database. I don't know a whole lot about MMO server design, but I assume there's an active world state to handle transient things like combat actions, and that the database is there to maintain permanent changes to the world like player statistics.
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« Reply #45 on: February 14, 2009, 03:12:07 AM »

But aren't tutorials meant to... explain things? Like, tell people how to do things? This doesn't really explain much, it's more of a warning. And however great and well-justified a warning is, is it really a tutorial?

In any case, I never understood the appeal of MMO games. I've tried a few but didn't really feel that any are very good. I can get the social aspect of them and they're a great place to make friends, but they usually aren't (and almost never are) very good as games.

you haven't tried ultima online Sad
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« Reply #46 on: February 15, 2009, 07:40:15 PM »

Are you saying it's a good game or it's a terrible place to make friends?
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tylerjhutchison
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« Reply #47 on: February 15, 2009, 07:55:34 PM »

Are you saying it's a good game or it's a terrible place to make friends?

I would say Ultima Online is both of these.  I played when I was 13, it was a great game because it was a terrible place to make friends. 9ri3f3r5  4 1if3!!! dud3xor!!! ... Roll Eyes
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« Reply #48 on: February 19, 2009, 02:11:14 PM »

Replace thread with this: http://www.planeshift.it/download/PlaneShift_Tech_Talk.pdf
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