Massively http://massively.joystiq.com Massively http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://massively.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Massively http://massively.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/<![CDATA[The Daily Grind: Would you pay extra for a filtered community?]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/03/29/the-daily-grind-would-you-pay-extra-for-a-filtered-community/http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/03/29/the-daily-grind-would-you-pay-extra-for-a-filtered-community/http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/03/29/the-daily-grind-would-you-pay-extra-for-a-filtered-community/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,

Age of Conan - guild city event
Earlier this week we asked if there was a game you'd like to play but for its awful community. The topic got a lot of replies, and the usual MMO suspects turned up in many of the comments. The thread got us to thinking about customizable communities, server rulesets, and creative uses for instancing technology, and though no MMO firm has offered players control over their community experience as of yet, it's certainly doable.

Funcom executive producer Craig Morrison mentioned the possibility in 2011, and for today's Daily Grind, we'd like to know how you'd feel about being able to carve off pieces of a game world specifically for your friends, your guild, or your niche community (roleplayers-only, PvPers-only, etc.). Would you pay extra for dedicated communities or filtering technology?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

MassivelyThe Daily Grind: Would you pay extra for a filtered community? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>age-of-conanage-of-conan-unchainedaocaoc-unchainedcommunity-filteringconancraig-morrisondaily-grinddedicated-communityf2pfantasyfeaturedfree-to-playfuncomhyboriaopinionprivate-serversroleplayingroleplaying-instancesroleplaying-serversshardingsilirrionsingle-server-technologytdgthe-daily-grindunchainedThu, 29 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The Soapbox: The industry's obsession with shards]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/03/29/the-soapbox-the-industrys-obsession-with-shards/http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/03/29/the-soapbox-the-industrys-obsession-with-shards/http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/03/29/the-soapbox-the-industrys-obsession-with-shards/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column.

The MMO genre is now over a decade old, and in that time we've seen countless innovations in game design, graphics technology and hardware infrastructure. Some of these innovations have become so essential that without them a game looks cheap, old or backward. A functional market or auction mechanic now replaces the old meet-and-trade style barter of some early MMOs, for example, and an MMO without copious map or chat tools is seen as grossly incomplete. The limits of what is possible have been pushed gradually forward, and yet certain ideas that were formed in the genre's infancy still seem to stick to new titles like glue.

Sharded server models made a lot of sense in the early 2000s, when server hosting was expensive and the teams working on the server code were small. Those limitations have been rapidly shattered in recent years, but still new MMOs shard their communities into small groups. There are even alternative server models out there that are just as cost-effective as the sharded model but are devoid of the negative side-effects of smashing the community into hundreds of pieces.

Read on as I take a look at why developers rely on the sharded server model, the problems surrounding splitting communities and what alternative server models are out there.

Continue reading The Soapbox: The industry's obsession with shards

MassivelyThe Soapbox: The industry's obsession with shards originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>ccp-gameschampions-onlinecharacter-transfercommunitydatabaseeveeve-onlineeverquestfeaturedhardwareopinionrunescapeserverserver-firstserver-modelshardshardingshardssoapboxthe-soapboxultima-onlineWorld-of-WarcraftTue, 29 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST<![CDATA[The Daily Grind: One server vs. many servers]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/01/15/the-daily-grind-one-server-vs-many-servers/http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/01/15/the-daily-grind-one-server-vs-many-servers/http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/01/15/the-daily-grind-one-server-vs-many-servers/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Ok, so the picture above is a total lie and games that run on one server don't really run on one server, but you get our point. With the MMO genre slowly evolving, newer games are beginning to adopt the "one server" architecture idea instead of running multiple shards of a world, each equipped with their own name and specific population of characters.

Of course, both sides have their ups and downs. "Sharding" your world, a term that derives right from the lore of Ultima Online, lets you deal with a smaller community, make close friends, and have a more "shared" massive experience. However, should you not play on the same world as your friend, you're never going to get to see them!

One server, on the other hand, lets you meet everyone who plays the same game as you. Simply by switching instances you can have an easier time finding a mob to spawn or a clear area to camp. However, some say that this detracts from the community of a game, as instances aren't as personalized. Or, in the case of EVE Online, you're one pilot stranded in the lone universe.

So what's your opinion on this war, dear readers? Comment and let us know!

MassivelyThe Daily Grind: One server vs. many servers originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>cultureone-serveropinionserver-shardserversshardingthe-daily-grindFri, 15 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Why you should be playing EVE Online: One server, one universe]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/07/20/why-you-should-be-playing-eve-online-one-server-one-universe/http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/07/20/why-you-should-be-playing-eve-online-one-server-one-universe/http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/07/20/why-you-should-be-playing-eve-online-one-server-one-universe/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,


"Why you should be playing ..." is a freeform column from Massively.com intended to inform you about our favorite parts of our favorite games. We want you to know why we're playing them, so you can know what to play.

It's been dead for too long, but now it's back. The ultimate opinion column, "Why You Should Be Playing," is making a triumphant return to the pages of Massively! For those unfamiliar with this feature, this is the space where the Massively staff gets to tell you why we play our favorite games. We try to spread the love of MMOs unknown so you get to see some of the great features of MMOs you may not play.

Today's feature has all guns locked on EVE Online and the power of the Tranquility server. EVE has a vast universe of countless star systems and now even sports gigantic areas of uncharted space, but did you know that all of that world is housed on multiple servers that act as one?

Continue reading Why you should be playing EVE Online: One server, one universe

MassivelyWhy you should be playing EVE Online: One server, one universe originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>band-of-brotherseve-onlinegoonswarmone-serverone-worldpersistent-universeservershardingtranquilitytranquility-serverwhy-you-should-be-playingMon, 20 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EST<![CDATA[Champions Online has no server shards]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/05/06/champions-online-has-no-server-shards/http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/05/06/champions-online-has-no-server-shards/http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/05/06/champions-online-has-no-server-shards/#commentsFiled under: , , ,


Nearly every MMO on the market has them: server shards. Whether they're named after game characters or places they all present the same problem -- limiting a player's options. Whenever a new MMO comes out, friends must discuss and agree upon which server to choose and it's not always the smoothest discussion. Enter Champions Online, who is going the way of Guild Wars: No servers, but instead a large list of all the current instances of the particular zone you're attempting to enter.

Suddenly, the other reasoning behind the new naming system tied into player's account names becomes clear. It's nice to know -- via the same Dev Diary -- that the game UI will auto-complete names based on accounts you've spoken with prior. We're going to need all the help we can get there, considering the thousands upon thousands of players we could potentially be IMing in-game.

Continue reading Champions Online has no server shards

MassivelyChampions Online has no server shards originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 06 May 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>ataribreakingchampionschampions-onlinecrypticcryptic-studiosdev-diaryserverserversshardingunited-kingdomusaWed, 06 May 2009 11:30:00 EST<![CDATA[Is MMO terminology invading database programming?]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/01/12/is-mmo-terminology-invading-database-programming/http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/01/12/is-mmo-terminology-invading-database-programming/http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/01/12/is-mmo-terminology-invading-database-programming/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,


Raph Koster couldn't help but wonder when he read the blog post entitled, "Lessons Learned: Sharding for startups," if he had a hand in creating that terminology. Sharding, as this blog post put it, was a method of running databases parallel to one another and making sure that the program could look in the right one for the information it needed. All of the older MMO users in the audience, however, know that this was not the first time the term "sharding" was used with parallel databases.

Raph had coined the phrase "sharding" years before during the inception of Ultima Online. The story writers were looking for a way to tie in the concept of multiple servers running parallel copies of the same world into the lore of the Ultima universe. It was at that point where they got the idea that each server was the reflection in one of the many pieces of the shattered Gem of Immortality from Ultima I -- a shard world. So, is MMO terminology leaking into mainstream database programming? Raph has the whole story over at his blog, where he traces the origins of the term "shard," how it may have gotten used over at Flickr thanks to Game Neverending, and expanded into a term of it's own right. Check out the story, it certain brings back memories of the old days.

MassivelyIs MMO terminology invading database programming? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>databaseflickrgame-neverendinggem-of-immortalitymultiple-serversparallel-databasesraph-kosterservershardshardingultimaultima-onlineuoMon, 12 Jan 2009 09:00:00 EST<![CDATA[To shard or not to shard]]>http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/07/03/to-shard-or-not-to-shard/http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/07/03/to-shard-or-not-to-shard/http://massively.joystiq.com/2008/07/03/to-shard-or-not-to-shard/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

As massive as we like our MMOs to be, the realities of modern networking have made sharding, the creation of identical game worlds hosted on separate servers, a practical necessity. Last week, Awen, Jumpgate Evolution community manager, elaborated on why the NetDevil team was looking at sharded server architecture. Understandably, players maintain that the ideal MMO minimizes sharding to allow players to interact with the greatest possible population of other users.

As Awen explains, this isn't exactly possible with Jumpgate Evolution. While their spaceserver architecture--which is similar to EVE Online in that different regions of space can be hosted on different hardware and scaled to the server load--is technically capable of handling most of the challenges of going unsharded, the central-state server on which all the non-combat activity is managed, does have a physical limit. In a game that is focused on real-time space simulation, their focus is on minimizing latency, and that's why they're going to use sharding.

MassivelyTo shard or not to shard originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>aweneve-onlineforumsjgejumpate-evolutionnetdevilserversshardshardingThu, 03 Jul 2008 20:00:00 EST