Presentation I gave at MIGS 2007, still relevant today

1. Anatomy of the MMO
High level introduction to the technology
involved in an MMO
George Dolbier, CTO
Games and interActive Entertainment
IBM
© 2006 IBM Corporation

2. Today’s Agenda
Who is IBM again? And who is this guy?
MMO spotting
Architectural patterns for MMOs
Guts of an MMO
2 © 2006 IBM Corporation

3. Who is IBM again?
And who is this guy?
© 2006 IBM Corporation

4. IBM is imbedded the gaming industry
starting with the CPUs in every game console
Souce www.nexgenwars.com 11/11/2008
4 © 2006 IBM Corporation

5. Microprocessors
IBM
Systems & Storage
Middleware
People
Partners
5 © 2006 IBM Corporation

6. MMO Spotting
Definitely Divergent
History
© 2006 IBM Corporation

7. MMOG Divergence
An Online Game is…
An Massively Multiplayer Online Game Is… Technology
Persistence
Business
Centralized Simulation
Software As a Service
Scale
Re-accruing revenue
CC Pipeline
Subscription
Economic Systems/Item Sales
Ongoing Operational Expense Game
Scale
Autonomy
Community Co-Ordination
In Game Support Co-Operation
Access to the game from outside Arbitration
Economics
An Massively Multiplayer Online Game Is… Communication
A form of entertainment
7 © 2006 IBM Corporation

8. Forgotten, but not lost, History
On 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.
8 © 2006 IBM Corporation

9. Architectural patterns for
MMOs
Environment
Archetypes
Patterns
© 2006 IBM Corporation

10. Every Architecture exists in an Environment
Segments Segment
are differentiated by the goals
Creation Production Operation Interaction of individuals, and how those Creation:
 Content is created
individuals relate to content
Production:
 Content is transformed
Operation:
 Content is distributed
Environments and operated
Studio: Interaction:
 Highly Collaborative Environment
where concepts are created and  Content is interacted
transformed into products. This is with
where the virtual world is created
IDC:
 Consolidated, efficient, secure
Environment where data and
communications come together.
This is where the virtual world
Studio IDC Setting runs
Setting: Environments
Technology deployment  Home, Office, Mobile, Capability,
timeline device, location, and connectivity are differentiated by
Time that allows a game or virtual world
to be interacted with economic model as well
as physical, technical and
Human factors
Concept Launch Flight
10 © 2006 IBM Corporation

11. MMO Environment: The Internet Datacenter
Segments Segment
are differentiated by the goals
Creation Production Operation Interaction of individuals, and how those Creation:
 Content is created
individuals relate to content
Production:
 Content is transformed
Operation:
 Content is distributed
Environments and operated
Studio:
 Highly Collaborative Environment
where concepts are created and
Interaction:
transformed into products. This is  Content is interacted
where the virtual world is created with
IDC:
 Consolidated, efficient, secure
Environment where data and
communications come together.
This is where the virtual world
runs
Studio IDC Setting Setting:
 Home, Office, Mobile, Capability, Environments
Technology deployment device, location, and connectivity
that allows a game or virtual world are differentiated by
timeline to be interacted with
Time economic model as well
as physical, technical and
Human factors
Concept Launch Flight
11 © 2006 IBM Corporation

12. MMO Archetypes
Universe
Sharded
Hybrid
12 © 2006 IBM Corporation

13. Why one v.s. the other
Sharded Universe Hybrid
Content Content
Content
Business Model Business Model
Business Model
Single Operations Mixed Operations
Multiple Operations User created Content Instanced Content
Authored Content Scale Out Bi-Directional Scale
Latency Tolerant Mixed Gameplay
Step Scale
Moderate latency
13 © 2006 IBM Corporation

14. Guts of an MMO
3 Major Organ systems
© 2008 IBM Corporation

15. More than just a single system
© 2008 IBM Corporation
15

16. Massively Triumvirate Systems
Economic Game Support
© 2008 IBM Corporation
16

17. Economic Organs
© 2008 IBM Corporation
17

18. Support Organs
© 2008 IBM Corporation
18

19. Game Organs
© 2008 IBM Corporation
19

20. Simple Organism
© 2008 IBM Corporation
20

21. How Do I…
How Many of What?
How Much will it cost up front?
How much will it cost me every month?
© 2008 IBM Corporation

22. How big?
Decide 2 numbers
How many Simulation servers per shard
Ratio of other systems per shard
Make up 2 numbers
How many players TOTAL
How many players Online at any one time (CCU)
Measure 2 numbers
How many CCU can each simulation server can manage
How much bandwidth is required for each player
Then chop it up into regions to taste
Make up one number (how many players per geography)
Single Datacenter per Geo, or Sub Geographic datacenters
But Don’t Forget… Your Mileage may vary
22 © 2008 IBM Corporation

23. How much up front?
NOTHING!
But Don’t forget…
Software Licensing Advertising Buys
Down Payments Initial Install
Salaries (admin and support) Events
Sign up fees Promotional items
URLs registration Contract fees
Retail Buys Development
IP Licensing
23 © 2008 IBM Corporation

24. How much every month?
Billing
Capitol
Power
Space
Network
Support
BUT Don’t forget….
Ongoing Development
Marketing
Taxes
24 © 2008 IBM Corporation

25. How does it grow?
Size of 30
Commu Total Bandwidt
nity CCU Servers h (Gbps)
25
5,000 1,000 17 0.06
10,000 2,000 18 1.00
25,000 5,000 25 1.00 20
50,000 10,000 34 1.00
105,000 21,000 55 2.00
Number of Racks
200,000 40,000 95 2.00 15
300,000 60,000 135 3.00
400,000 80,000 174 3.00
500,000 100,000 214 4.00
10
700,000 140,000 293 5.00
900,000 180,000 375 6.00
1,100,000 220,000 454 7.00
5 Rack Dence
1,300,000 260,000 535 8.00 Blades
1,600,000 320,000 655 10.00 0
1,900,000 380,000 774 11.00
1 2 3 4 5 6
Comunity Size
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
1U
2,200,000 440,000 894 13.00
25 © 2008 IBM Corporation

26. Futures
Ok, now where to?
© 2006 IBM Corporation

27. What’s coming to MMOs?
Virtual World Physical Object
Owner Operator Publisher
Growth through the Economic
Build v.s. Buy Pendulum depression
Components as a Service Games (& Money) from strange places
More “Clear Skys” Macinema
More
Genres 10 MMOs
Platforms reach 1 million active
User Created Content
Failures 4 MMOs
10 million
Global acceptance of
2 MMOs
free to play pay for stuff
limited or no NA operations
Bi-directional economics
27 © 2006 IBM Corporation

28. MMOs are…
Entertaining
Thank you for your time
georged@us.ibm.com
© 2006 IBM Corporation