Well, here you see the worst caste scenario.

The Battlefield 2 Ranked game servers maintain a constant connection to the EA/GameSpy backend for stats processing.

If this connection is interrupted, all players are dropped, the game servers crash. Not just one game servers, but all game servers running Battlefield 2 in Ranked mode. Yesterday we experienced such a crash when both Savvis (used in Amsterdam network) and Level3 showed packet loss on the last hops in LA USA, just before the GameSpy backend. The graph also shows how  Battlefield 2142 and Battlefield Heroes (both ranked games) are unaffected. The packet loss started just after 8 pm and was resolved around 9:40 pm last night.

Packet loss to master server

Starting now, Interactive 3D will also host a large number of SimBin managed Race 07 practice and race gameservers in several strategic locations in Europe and the United States of America providing the race fans with optimal latency times in the game’s multiplayer mode.

About RACE 07 –THE WTCC GAME:
RACE 07 – The Official WTCC Game features the full FIA WTCC season of 2007 including all cars and tracks, as well as several new support classes and tracks from all over the world. The game also features the full WTCC season of 2006 which was included in the games predecessor RACE – The WTCC Game, released in 2006 on PC.

For the first time ever SimBin is also presenting single seater action with Formula cars. Race with the incredibly fast Formula 3000, Formula BMW and in addition also the Radical sports cars with the models SR3 and SR4.

All in all RACE 07 features more than 300 cars in 9 different classes on 32 real life racing tracks and city circuits from all over the world.

RACE 07 official website: www.race-game.org

About Interactive 3D:
INTERACTIVE 3D (i3D.net) is an European internet service provider (ISP). With over 400 high-end Dell servers at multiple international locations, a multi-langual support staff and an office open seven days a week, i3D.net aims to deliver it’s services close to the public while maintaining a high service level.

i3D.net partners with game publishers to bring special featured packed games to international gamers. On a daily basis we welcome over 150.000 gamers.

For further information: http://www.i3d.net

About SimBin:
The SimBin group is a privately owned group of Swedish companies that occupies a total staff of 70 people, consisting of 50 employees and 20 distributed consultant’s world wide.
In the SimBin portfolio you will find award winning titles like “GTR – The FIA GT Racing Game”, “GT Legends”,  “GTR 2 – The FIA GT Racing Game” and “RACE – The WTCC Game”. GTR and RACE are registered trademarks owned by the SimBin group.
For further information: http://www.simbin.com

SimBin Studios AB is the mother company, responsible for the publishing and IP rights for all productions developed within the SimBin group. SimBin Studios AB is also responsible for Business Development, Finances, Marketing, PR and administration.

SimBin Development Team AB is a Swedish game developer founded in 2003 and is a subsidiary of SimBin Studios AB. SimBin Development Team AB handles all the game productions in the group and develops games for all leading platforms.

www.simbin.com
For further info please contact:

SimBin
Magnus Ling – VP/CCO
magnus.ling@simbin.com

Robert Thorgren – IT Manager
robert.thorgren@simbin.com

Stijn Koster – CEO Interactive 3D     
info@i3d.net

Gameserver with a large number of slots have always been very popular for regular public gameplay. Games like Battlefield 2 changed online gameplay as they allowed up to 64 players on the same gameserver. Counter Strike Source even supports 64 players, although it’s a laggy experience for most players. Big servers are more expensive, but have always been the people’s choice.

New games like Team Fortress 2 and Quake Wars have been optimized for 24 players. They both limit the maximum number of players on this number, TF2 uses serverbrowser censorship, Quake Wars has been limited in the ranked server software (unranked supports up to 32 slots). Other upcoming games have also a lower limited number of maximum players. The Unreal 3 engineused in Unreal Tournament 3, Medal of Honor: Airborne and Frontlines: Fuel of war does support 64 players but not one of the three mentioned games uses servers larger than 32 slots.

Client-server model supporting up to 64 players as provided. Also supports non-dedicated server (peer-to-peer mode) with up to 16 players.  

This specific engine does support a second networking model: a peer to peer gameserver network model that supports up to 16 players. This is primarily used on the Playstation 3 and XBOX360 version of games using this engine (ex: Gears of War).

The lack of game supporting large gameservers will be the reason Battlefield 2 will be one of the most played online FPS in the next year, at least until Battlefield 3 is released.

• Quake Wars
• Crysis
• Call of Duty 4
• Medal of Honor Airborne
• HL2 episode 2 with the multiplayer game Team Fortress 2
• Unreal Tournament 3

I am professionally looking forward to Quake Wars, Crysis and Call of Duty 4. TF2 will be a  very unique game, too bad it’s only sold with HL2.  The first three games will feature perstitant statistics, much like Battlefield 2 introduced to the public. I am looking forward to work with Activision and EA, and their developers IW and Crytek. Already we have a very warm contact with SplashDamage, developer of QuakeWars. Those guys know what they are doing, and take their time in their commitment to quality.

Valve really wants to push both games. The episodic content is much less sold as expected, and it takes too long before a new episode is released. It’s not a new game, but they certainly take their time. They will push TF2 now the same as they tried to push CSS and DoD: Source earlier. Where CSS became a hit, Day of Defeat Source flopped. 
With Half Life 2 & Episode 2 and TF2 combined in one package, it seems Valve is trying to sell more copies of HL2. TF2 has the potential to become a big hit, even without pushing it to die hard HL2 gamers.
Now STEAM opens up to more and more developers and publishers, it’s ironic Valve is the only publisher who’s selling their products in forced combined packages.

Licensing: new developments

EA (Electronic Arts) started in the summer of 2005 with ‘ranking’-software. EA handpicked a few companies to host their special ‘ranked’-servers. These servers run a special non-public software release of the game. This way, EA could ensure a basic level of quality of the gameserver, quality of support and made sure the ranked servers are considered a premium service.
The same goes for the game America’s Army, the special Honor servers are very pricy, but in return the gamer has several ingame improvements like their own soldier to earn new ranks, even while playing on other Honor servers.
This improves the lifespan of a game dramatically. Instead of playing every single round again and again as a separate play, the game becomes a tour of duty where you will be rewarded for your actions in previous games. Every round on every server is tracked by a special masterserver who keeps score for all players. This masterserver also authorizes every single server.

The future will bring a lot more online licensed games like Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142. Not only for gameplay improvements, but the license fees are becoming a stable source of income. Thousands of servers online times ten to thirty dollars per game. It’s not big money like the sales of DVD games, but enough to ensure the future of the online game.

The bright side of licensing

Licensing has a few advantages:

• Enforce a basic level of quality by contract or agreement
• Possibility to deny a license to illegal ‘companies’ or amateur companies
• Cut down the player to server ratio to make sure more gamers play on each server
• Monthly license fee income ensures the future of the game
• Marketing: official servers sell better
• Corrupt or hacked servers can easily be shutdown

The downside

Licensing also has downsides. The publisher has control over every single gameserver. This means they can destroy competition in a country by creating a monopoly on the gameserver market. We’ve seen this happen in Germany, the UK and France where EA only gave one gamehoster the right to host Battlefield 2. Prices in these countries were triple the price elsewhere. No wonder most consumers rented their server in other countries. This can be prevented by regulating the pricing in the agreement or by creating an European market, a market comparable in size to the USA, instead of running a different programm for each country in Europe.
The customers in Europe do not care for borders, it’s the internet, it’s borderless. When will the major publishers find out?

Second, licensed gameservers tend to have a higher pricing because next to hardware, software, traffic, datacenter, support and overhead costs, the hoster has to pay the license fee.

Third, when licensing partners are picked, publishers tend to favour the commercially best candidate. This can be prevented by completing a technical background check on the licensing partners. The publisher should have the technical knowledge inhouse (“Linux, what’s that?”).

Doom scenario: Licensing per gamer

PC gaming always has been unique, but this could change pretty quickly. As games become more online based (some games don’t even have a single player mode anymore!) a new licensing scheme could be introduced in the traditional FPS games. Just like Microsoft Live or Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, pc gaming could change into a model where the gamer has to be buy the game (1) and buy an online subscription service (2). In this case the developer or publisher hosts their own gameservers which means less control over the online gameplay for the player. Gamers can’t administrate their servers, can’t create a custom mapcycle and can’t kick/ban vulgar or cheating people.
Also, we will see a lesser quality of service as we’ve seen with Live or WoW where overloaded servers and only a small number of geographically locations is common. If the nearest server location is in a different country, don’t those people have an unfair advantage?
Last but not least, it will be the destruction of the modding community, the scene of fanatic gamers developing new maps and new gameplay modifications.

This doom-scenario is still years away from reality, but this will become practice over time. However, the serverside license enforcement is already becoming much more common these days, which is a good thing.

The situation nowadays

Nowadays the quality of service gamehosting companies offer ranges from exceptional to ‘the crappiest experience ever’. The problem is the most games can be hosted by almost anyone with basic server knowledge and this results in gamehosters without business license, in gamehosters without advanced technical knowledge and gamehosters overbooking their servers trying to make profit. Most hosting companies start as a little private project, only a few of them survive the first three years, only a few will become a professional company that brings an addition to the market.

Automation & brain drain 

Recent developments are the releases of various gamehosting controlpanels and dedicated hosters enabling their customers to install gameservers automatically on their dedicated servers. The problem of these developments is they will lower the bar for any hosting company. It’s easier to start (re)selling gameservers, you don’t need any knowledge, not even basic serverside commands, and support. Support is clicking on controlpanel buttons and when that doesn’t work, well, you’re on your own.
Most gamehosting controlpanels allow the setup of unlicensed illegal voiceservers, like Ventrilo 2.1.4 or Teamspeak. In case of Teamspeak, the hosting company has to take care of the license on their own; Teamspeak software does not enforce licensing. In case of Ventrilo, this software requires a license to run, but this was not build in until versions after 2.1.4.
A legit company pays the license fees, 90% of the companies running this software just doesn’t. Future versions of Teamspeak will include a better licensing enforcement.

The problem

The problems I see are:

• Bad quality of service because of the lack of professionalism in the start-up ‘companies’
• Bad quality of service because of the gamehosting controlpanels 
• Licensing problems: illegal hosting to cut back the costs

Tomorrow I will discuss the most probable solution for these problems.
(Continue reading)