Date of Award:

5-2012

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Computer Science

Committee Chair(s)

Daniel Watson

Committee

Daniel Watson

Committee

Donald Cooley

Committee

Nicholas Flann

Committee

Ming Li

Committee

Jacob Gunther

Abstract

Massively multiplayer games make up a large and growing segment of the computer game industry. One of the best known examples of these games is World of Warcraft, developed and published by Activision Blizzard. World of Warcraft boasts a subscriber base of over eleven million active subscribers, earning an estimated $1 billion dollars in 2010.

Some of the core issues for companies that publish these games are the cost of the computers, Internet bandwidth usage, and supporting technical staff. These costs easily reach hundreds of thousands of dollars each month, and in the case of World of Warcraft, millions of dollars. A highly successful game can generate enough revenue to offset these costs, but they represent a high risk venture for any developer, and a significant barrier to entry into the marketplace for smaller developers. Furthermore, even successful companies demand ways to reduce costs as competition for subscribers heats up.

Another issue is that not all players can participate in the same gameplay environment. Current technical hurdles prevent more than a few thousand players from participating together. This results in the subscriber base being split among many different environments, with each environment a copy and completely separate from all others.

The research presented in this dissertation proposes and demonstrates a new technical design that overcomes the limitations noted above. The design dramatically reduces the large computing load and support resources demanded by the games, while also enabling all game players to participate in the same environment, rather than being split among independent copies. The design also ensures security of sensitive player information, such as usernames and passwords, along with providing authenticity of a player's identity.

Checksum

80a06d78224f2a69573846bbcc6f4fd1

Comments

This work made publicly available electronically on April 10, 2012.

Download

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .