A cloud verison of EQ.

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Candystore, Mar 20, 2019.

  1. Machentoo Augur



    You still are comparing apples to oranges.

    The number of data centers doesn't matter for an MMO, unless you restrict your customers to the server closest to them geographically. All the players who are playing on any given server all have to communicate with the data center where that server is located, not just whichever data center might be closest to them. It is an architecture problem, not a size of company problem.

    Think Blizzard with "US East" "US West" etc servers.
  2. Candystore Augur

    It matters though, as someone not living in the US, it matters a lot where servers are located and how many there are.

    It matters a lot even with no geographical restriction. Big companies have the biggest and fastest lines to internet exchanges and interconnects.

    Even if the Google, Microsoft or Amazon server that I need to connect to is the exact same distance as the DBG server, being able to connect to a local Google server makes my internet much faster and more stable.

    It will be no contest and these giant tech companies will win when it comes to server connections, because they have access to insanely fast internet exchanges between their database centers, that regular gaming companies can't afford to connect to.

    [IMG]
  3. Machentoo Augur


    You are still not getting it. It does not matter if you are connecting to servers hosted by google or DBG. The architecture of an MMO requires that the server be located in one place, not distributed amongst 50 different game servers. If you are playing a single player game hosted on google's servers, it does not matter whether you connect to the google server down the block or the google server in Taiwan -- in terms of the gameplay. But if you are connecting to an MMO server, you HAVE to connect to the same server the other 2000 people connect to. If you each connect to a server that is near where you live, then only people who live near you will be on your server.
  4. Candystore Augur

    Well no, databases constantly sync server data. Google and Amazon servers do it every millisecond, so do cloud gaming servers. Database synchronization is a major part of running a database today.

    And even if a game (for whatever reason), was only hosted on a single Google server all the way in the US, and I had to access it, accessing Google's server would still be much faster than DBG's US server.

    Simply because local Google servers are connected with blazing fast internet exchange points, and DBG is not. The cost of connecting directly to an internet exchange point is something only major ISP and Google / Amazon can do.
  5. Machentoo Augur


    Not real time data. I'm not aware of any MMO that does this, and I'm pretty sure if it were technically feasible, Blizzard would be doing it.

    But even if it were theoretically possible, there is no way DBG would be able to pull off completely reworking the architecture of the entire game system at this date.
  6. Pharone Elder

    While I don't agree with cloud gaming at all (I think it is the worst thing ever thought up), what the OP is talking about is where the game is actually running on a server somewhere, and the only thing sent to the client (your computer) is a video stream (in simplified terms), and then the input is sent from the client back to the server.

    The cheating this eliminates is anything that would normally read or alter the memory on your computer while playing the game. This is because the game isn't actually running on your computer. The game is running on a server somewhere else in the world. You're just getting the video feed sent to you.

    It's a horribly stupid technology that the industry is pushing simply because they can make more money by selling you a "game as a service" rather than selling you the game out right.

    We as consumers should be fighting back against this kind of crap because in the end, if it continues to grow, there will be no games as we know it. It takes all the power away from the consumer and gives it to the game publisher.

    If you think that the micro transaction crap in EA games is bad now, wait until all gaming is cloud-based. You will be wishing you had never chose to pay $250 for a cloud-based console machine instead of $500 for the real thing. Sure you saved $250, but in the end, you own no games ever, and everything you play comes with a service fee and lots of fun little micro transactions... >.<
    Fallfyres and Nessirfiti like this.
  7. Machentoo Augur


    The model really isn't that different than what we are already doing in mmo's. It's not like you can boot up EQ and play single player mode when the servers are down.
  8. Pharone Elder

    Well... Actually.... you can.
  9. Ceffener Augur

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.engadget.com/amp/2009/03/24/behind-the-scenes-of-wows-bandwidth/

    Blizzard/Turbine/others all were buying their server space from AT&T, does DBG? No clue, but developers have plenty of options s to not home roll their own data centers. Cloud Gaming is a differnt problem then that.
  10. Machentoo Augur


    Not without your own server. The game client doesn't give you what you need.
  11. Candystore Augur

    Yes realtime data.

    It's very possible.

    When I was playing Tera online on the Gaika cloud server, I was connecting to Gaika's server and playing with my friends who played on local clients connecting to Tera's server.

    I wasn't forced to play on some isolated server, I was connected to the same game world they were, and I could group with them. The data was being sync'd accross the Gaika and En Masse servers.

    The only difference was that I was connecting to Gaika's cloud network, and they were connecting to the En Masse network.

    [IMG]
  12. Machentoo Augur

  13. Pharone Elder

    P99 would not be possible if EverQuest was a cloud-based game.
  14. Machentoo Augur


    Obviously. That doesn't change anything I've said. P99 also wouldn't be possible without players creating their own software to replicate an Everquest server. And, for better or worse, technically the product we all purchased from Verant or SoE does not allow for it, too. The software licensing agreement we all agreed to specifically forbade it.
  15. Moncleared Lorekeeper

    Well I think we've confirmed that the OP was referring to Streaming the game versus actually building a cloud based version of EQ.

    Machen - How do you have so much time to post on the forums but never login to Phinigel anymore?
  16. Candystore Augur

    The "owning games" argument is something I would have agreed with in the 90s, and might agree with more when takling about console games.

    You owned your Nintendo or Sega console, and no one was about to take that away from you.

    But do you really own any PC game in 2019.

    Let's say you go out and buy a single player PC game. You can't even buy a DVD of PC games anymore. You get an empty box with an activation code, an activation codes that usually requires a working server to even install the game, combined with a DRM server from a third party usually. And you need to download the game too. So now you've connected to 3 different servers.

    I can't install many 10 year old PC games anymore, because either the activation or DRM server is down.

    What about Steam you say. Ok, steam, again, these games connect to non-valve DRM servers, and you simply have the same problem.
  17. Machentoo Augur


    My new job keeps me busy a lot of evening hours, including most of the nights OGC is raiding. I could make a few raids here and there, but I've never been ok at the thought of being a 25% raider, which is about what I would be.
  18. Ceffener Augur

    PC gaming isn’t the only type of gaming.

    All of which, for PC gaming you can remove that DMR and get around it. If you are having problems playing a 10 year old game, I’m sure we can help you out. You own the game, don’t let some BS DMR for a single player game stop you from playing.
  19. Moncleared Lorekeeper

    Miss you boo, find a way to come back.
  20. Candystore Augur

    True, I can understand the argument that you can still own a console game. It doesn't require a download, and single player console games usually (not always) don't require online activation.

    But the situation is very different with PC games. They require activations, online clients, DRM protection, PC games are increasingly online, etc. I doubt you will be able to play 90% of PC games in 10 years.