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Hardy, Robert Stafford. "Cheating in Multiplayer Video Games." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/31881.
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Cheating in video games has been prevalent ever since the days of Pong. Games have evolved much since then and the ways in which people play together have changed as well. Older systems required people to play together in the same room, but with the advent of the internet, gaming consoles allow us to play games together with people located all over the globe. Cheating has evolved as well, since gamers no longer have the luxury of monitoring the person sitting next to them; anti-cheating mechanisms are built into most online systems and suspicious behavior is monitored by gaming companies.
Most of the current research has surrounded ways in which players cheat and their reasoning for doing so. This is only half of the equation however, what happens after a gamer is caught cheating? What are the repercussions for being caught cheating and how does being caught influence future decisions to cheat? By putting gamers in a situation where they are caught cheating, three different responses were revealed: those who are determined to cheat no matter what, those who scale back their cheating in the hopes of remaining undetected, and those who stopped cheating altogether.<br>Master of Science
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Hawker, Michael. "Subgames in massively multiplayer online games." Thesis, McGill University, 2008. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=21992.
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With the launch of World of Warcraft in 2004, Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) really came into their own as millions of people started playing worldwide. Providing scalability to such a large audience while maintaining a consistent gameplay experience is a diffcult task which many companies face in an industry where only few succeed. This thesis focuses on the issues of how a MMOG can be scaled to support more concurrent players and how consistency can be maintained in a Distributed Multi-Server Environment (DMSE). As a basis for investigation the notion of "Subgames" (i.e. games within games) was introduced. As smaller, more flexible game units, subgames reduce scalability problems but raise consistency concerns by requiring modular game actions in a distributed environment to function. This is addressed through a new transactional protocol and action framework which abstracts and solves consistency issues while creating an infrastructure which allows for scalability. A complete solution is illustrated using these techniques through the design of general game mechanics and subgames. The approach here further enables scalability of MMOGs in a DMSE and provides a general framework for the further investigation of MMOG consistency and scalability through subgame instances.<br>La popularité des jeux massivement multi-joueurs en ligne ( MMOGs ) a grandement augmenté avec l'arrivée du jeu World of Warcraft, qui est joué par des millions de personnes à travers le monde. Cependant, ce type d'application nécessite des infrastructures extensibles pour accommoder des milliers de joueurs, tout en offrant une expérience de jeu consistante. Ceci représente un grand obstacle que plusieurs compagnies doivent affronter, mais qui est surmonté par peu. Cette thèse aborde les problèmes reliés à la croissance du nombre de joueurs simultanés, tout en discutant comment maintenir un environnement distribué multi- serveurs ( DMSE ) consistant. La notion de sous-jeux ( un jeu qui se déroule l'intérieur d'un autre jeu ) a été utilisée pour mieux étudier le problème. En tant qu'unités de jeu plus petits et flexibles, les sous-jeux facilitent la croissance, mais augmentent les problèmes de concurrence puisque leur bon fonctionnement nécessite des actions modulaires dans un environnement distribué. Ces défis sont adressés par un nouveau protocole transactionnel et un cadre d'applications d'actions qui font abstraction et règlent les problèmes de consistance, tout en offrant une infrastructure qui permet une certaine croissance. Une solution, où les mécanismes de jeux et de sous-jeux sont adaptés en conséquence, illustre les techniques proposées dans cette thèse. Ces techniques permettent une plus grande croissance pour les jeux MMOGs dans un DMSE, tout en fournissant des outils de sous-jeux qui permettent l'étude des défis de consistance et de croissance.
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White, Dustin. "Role recognition in massively multiplayer online games." Winston-Salem, NC : Wake Forest University, 2009. http://dspace.zsr.wfu.edu/jspui/handle/10339/43154.
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Thesis (M.S.)--Wake Forest University. Dept. of Computer Science, 2009.<br>Title from electronic thesis title page. Thesis advisor: William H. Turkett Jr. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-62).
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Veron, Maxime Pierre Andre. "Scalable services for massively multiplayer online games." Thesis, Paris 6, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015PA066212/document.
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Les jeux massivement multi-joueurs en ligne (jeux MMOGs) visent à rassembler un nombre infini de joueurs dans le même univers virtuel. Pourtant, tous les MMOG existants reposent sur des architectures client / serveur centralisé qui imposent une limite sur le nombre maximum de joueurs (avatars) et sur les ressources qui peuvent coexister dans un univers virtuel donné. Cette thèse vise à proposer des solutions pour améliorer l'évolutivité de MMOG. Cette thèse explore deux services qui sont essentiels à toutes les variantes de MMOG: jumelage et détection de triche. Ces deux services sont les goulots d'étranglement connus, et pourtant les implémentations actuelles restent centralisées. Cette thèse montre également qu'il est possible de concevoir un service d'arbitrage au-dessus d'un système de réputation. Le service résultant reste très efficace sur une grande échelle, à la fois en termes de performance et en termes de prévention de la fraude. Comme l'arbitrage est un problème similaire à la détection de fautes, cette thèse étend l'approche proposée pour surveiller les défaillances<br>Massively Multi-player Online Games (MMOGs) aim at gathering an infinite number of players within the same virtual universe. Yet all existing MMOGs rely on centralized client/server architectures which impose a limit on the maximum number of players (avatars) and resources that can coexist in any given virtual universe. This thesis aims at proposing solutions to improve the scalability of MMOGs. To address the wide variety of their concerns, MMOGs rely on independent services such as virtual world hosting, avatar storage, matchmaking, cheat detection, and game design. This thesis explores two services that are crucial to all MMOG variants: matchmaking and cheat detection. Both services are known bottlenecks, and yet current implementations remain centralized. This thesis also shows that it is possible to design a peer to peer refereeing service on top of a reputation system. The resulting service remains highly efficient on a large scale, both in terms of performance and in terms of cheat prevention. Since refereeing is somewhat similar to failure detection, this thesis extends the proposed approach to monitor failures. The resulting failure detection service scales with the number of monitored nodes and tolerates jitter
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Miller, Mitchell. "Bootstrapping Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2020. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2191.
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Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) are a prominent genre in today's video game industry with the most popular MMORPGs generating billions of dollars in revenue and attracting millions of players. As they have grown, they have become a major target for both technological research and sociological research. In such research, it is nearly impossible to reach the same player scale from any self-made technology or sociological experiments. This greatly limits the amount of control and topics that can be explored. In an effort to make up a lacking or non-existent player-base for custom-made MMORPG research scenarios A.I. agents, impersonating human players, can be used to "bootstrap" the research scenario to reach the necessary massive number of players that define the game genre.
This thesis presents a system that makes its human players and A.I. players indistinguishable while preserving the basic characteristics of a typical MMORPG. To better achieve identical perception of human and A.I. players, our system centers around the collection, sharing, and exchange of information while limiting the means of expression and actions of players. A gameplay scenario built on the Panoptyk engine was constructed to imitate gameplay experienced in major MMORPGs. We conducted a user-study where subjects play through the scenario with a varying number of A.I. players unknown to them. Three versions of the scenario were created to assess how indistinguishable human and A.I. players were and vice versa.
We found, across 24 participants, there were 32% correct identifications, 30% incorrect identifications, and 38% answers of "I don't know". This was broken down into 20% correct identifications, 42% incorrect identifications, and 38% answers of "I don't know" for bot characters and 46% correct identifications, 16% incorrect identifications, and 38% answers of ``I don't know'' for human characters.
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Hughes, Chelsea M. "A MEASURE OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN TEAM-BASED, MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMES: THE SOCIALITY IN MULTIPLAYER ONLINE GAMES SCALE (SMOG)." VCU Scholars Compass, 2015. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/3884.
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Video games have become a new platform for social interaction. I review the sociality of video games and the relationship between virtual- and real-world behaviors. I review and address the pros and cons of methods of measuring social behavior. Finally, I present two studies drawn from internet populations. In Study 1 (N = 250), I develop a scale, The Sociality in Multiplayer Online Games Scale (SMOG), which measures the frequency of social gaming behaviors in team-based, multiplayer online games. I hypothesized these to align on dominance and affiliation dimensions of social interaction (Kiesler, 1982). In Study 2 (N = 104), I conduct a confirmatory factor analysis, which supports a two-factor structure—Destructive and Constructive social behavior, resulting in the SMOG-6. I examine construct validity using measures of dominance and affiliation. Controlling for age, gender, and frequency of game-play, both factors predict dominance. SMOG-Destructive negatively, and SMOG-Constructive positively, predicted affiliation.
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Bahramshahry, Armin. "MCCA : a communication architecture for online multiplayer games." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/12537.
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Over the last decade the ability of the Internet infrastructure to carry traffic has not improved at the same rate as the desktop technology. This imbalance has increased the perceived difference in the quality of service (QoS) offered by online multiplayer games compared to single player games.
This thesis introduces MCCA, a communication architecture for online multiplayer games to improve the observed QoS and to lower the development complexity. MCCA takes advantage of online game’s relaxed state consistency and predictable workload. MCCA enables a game to label its traffic as belonging to different classes, each with different priorities and requirements. Such labelling, in turn, enables differentiated traffic management, efficient use of available network resources, and ultimately, improved perceived QoS. In addition, MCCA enables a game to adapt to network conditions, through distributed quality aggregation, for each of the game’s generated network traffic. Consequently, MCCA supports a set of generic group communication and quality estimation techniques, and yet it enables a game to define customized methods.
This thesis presents the MCCA architecture and its simulation-based evaluation using Quake III, Voice-Over-IP (VoIP), and file transfers. Experiments demonstrate that workload classification, prioritization, and class targeted QoS improve user experience and lower the generated network traffic, while quality aggregation and reporting enable game adaptation to network conditions.
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Zhang, Kaiwen. "Persistent transaction models for massively multiplayer online games." Thesis, McGill University, 2010. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=95121.
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Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) can be treated as a database application. Players request actions concurrently to alter the state of objects in the game. Since the world state is the most valuable asset of MMOGs, it is extremely important to ensure its consistency. On the other hand, the defining feature of such games is their capacity to support thousands of clients playing simultaneously, thus requiring scalability. This thesis proposes a solution which leverages typical game semantics and architectures to design scalable transaction models for action handling while maintaining the required levels of consistency. These models vary in their levels of isolation and atomicity and offer different consistency guarantees that are suitable for actions of varying importance and complexity. Action handling protocols are then designed according to those models and optimized for scalability and efficiency. We also present a persistence architecture which is integrated with the transaction models mentioned above. We show how the different consistency guarantees of each transaction model can be maintained by the persistence structure. Concrete actions are then implemented and designed using various transaction models with persistence support. We then evaluate and compare the performance of the various implementations and discuss the trade-off between performance and consistency.<br>Les jeux en ligne massivement multijoueur (MMOGs) peuvent être considérés comme des applications base de données. Les joueurs initient des actions de façon concurrentielle pour modifier l'état du jeu. Puisque l'état du monde est le plus grand atout des MMOGs, il est extrêmement important d'assurer sa consistance. D'un autre côté, la caractéristique essentielle de ces jeux est leur capacité de supporter plusieurs milliers de clients simultanément, et donc l'habileté de gérer une charge grandissante. Cette thèse propose une solution qui est fondée sur des sémantiques et architectures typiques aux jeux pour concevoir des modèles de transaction extensibles à la charge pour la gestion des actions tout en maintenant les niveaux requis de consistance. Ces modèles varient dans leurs niveaux d'isolation et d'atomicité et offrent donc des garanties de consistance variées qui sont adaptées à des actions d'importance et de complexité différente. Des protocoles de gestion des actions optimisés sont alors conçus selon ces modèles. Nous présentons aussi une architecture pour la gestion de persistance des données qui est intégrée aux modèles de transaction mentionnés ci-dessus. Nous montrons comment les garanties de consistance de chaque modèle sont maintenues par la structure persistante. Des actions concrètes sont alors mises en oeuvre et conçues selon les divers modèles de transaction avec persistance. Nous évaluons et comparons la performance de chacune des implémentations et discutons du compromis entre la performance et la consistance.
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Chen, Bei Di 1978. "Cheat controlled synchronization schemes for online multiplayer games." Thesis, McGill University, 2004. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=81270.
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One of the key issues with online multiplayer games is game play fairness. In both centralized and decentralized architectures the ordering of command messages from clients for execution is an important issue that impacts fairness and response time of game play. Recently, a fair-ordered message exchange protocol (FMEP), based on "reaction" times was proposed to order command messages for a client-server model. This thesis presents a cheat controlled protocol (CCP) that can be used to control cheating in the FMEP. We examined the performance of the CCP by emulating wide-area game play scenarios on the Planet-Lab. The results from the experiments indicate that the CCP is able to dramatically reduce the cheating opportunities that exist for clients. On the other hand, for the decentralized (distributed) model, one approach is to follow a "lock step" scheme that prevents any client from acting upon a message until that message is received by all clients. In this thesis, we present a fair synchronization protocol (FSP) that enforces fairness and is more efficient than the lock-step scheme. The basic FSP is susceptible to cheating. Therefore, we added a cheat prevention mechanism as an enhancement. We implemented the enhanced protocol, the Cheat Proof Protocol (CPP), on the Planet-Lab and studied the performance under the same game play scenarios used for the CCP. The results indicate that the CPP is effective in enforcing fairness and cheat prevention.
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Abdulazeez, S. "Dynamic load balancing for massively multiplayer online games." Thesis, Liverpool John Moores University, 2018. http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/7864/.
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In recent years, there has been an important growth of online gaming. Today’s Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) can contain millions of synchronous players scattered across the world and participating with each other within a single shared game. Traditional Client/Server architectures of MMOGs exhibit different problems in scalability, reliability, and latency, as well as the cost of adding new servers when demand is too high. P2P architecture provides considerable support for scalability of MMOGs. It also achieves good response times by supporting direct connections between players. This thesis proposes a novel hybrid Peer-to-Peer architecture for MMOGs and a new dynamic load balancing for massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) based this hybrid Peer-to-Peer architecture. We have divided the game world space into several regions. Each region in the game world space is controlled and managed by using both a super-peer and a clone-super-peer. The region's super-peer is responsible for distributing the game update among the players inside the region, as well as managing the game communications between the players. However, the clone-super-peer is responsible for controlling the players' migration from one region to another, in addition to be the super-peer of the region when the super-peer leaves the game. In this thesis, we have designed and simulated a static and dynamic Area of Interest Management (AoIM) for MMOGs based on both architectures hybrid P2P and client-server with the possibility of players to move from one region to another. In this thesis also, we have designed and evaluated the static and dynamic load balancing for MMOGs based on hybrid P2P architecture. We have used OPNET Modeler 18.0 to simulate and evaluate the proposed system, especially standard applications, custom applications, TDMA and RX Group. Our dynamic load balancer is responsible for distributing the load among the regions in the game world space. The position of the load balancer is located between the game server and the regions. The results, following extensive experiments, show that low delay and higher traffic communication can be achieved using both of hybrid P2P architecture, static and dynamic AoIM, dynamic load balancing for MMOGs based on hybrid P2P system.
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Chan, Pauline B. "Narrative participation within game environments: role-playing in massively multiplayer online games." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/37126.
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Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) present fantastic, persistent worlds and narratives for a community of players to experience through pre-defined rules, roles, and environments. To be able to offer the opportunity for every player to try the same experiences, many game developers have opted to create elaborate virtual theme parks: scripted experiences within static worlds that cannot be affected or changed through player actions.
Within these games, some players have turned to role-playing to establish meaningful connections to these worlds by expanding upon and subverting the game's expectations to assume a limited sense of agency within the world. The interaction between role-players and the locations they occupy within these worlds is a notable marker of this narrative layering; specific locations inform social codes of conduct, designed by developers, and then repurposed by players for their characters and stories. Through a qualitative case study in World of Warcraft on public role-playing events, this thesis considers how the design of in-game locations inform their use for role-playing, and how locations are altered through storytelling as a result.
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Khan, Nadeem. "A distributed server architecture for massively multiplayer online games /." Thesis, McGill University, 2006. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=101150.
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There has been a tremendous growth in the popularity of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (or MMOGs) with millions of players interacting in their virtual game space at the same time. However, the centralized server architecture of most modern day MMOGs is unable to cope with this increase in the number of participating players. Hence, there is a need for a scalable network architecture which can support these large number of players without affecting the overall gaming experience for each player. In this thesis we propose a scalable distributed server architecture which divides the virtual game space in smaller sub spaces and assigns them across a cluster of server nodes thereby reducing the overall load per server. It is based on a distributed publish/subscribe architecture which takes care of client-server as well as server-server communication. We discuss the implementation of this architecture in a real MMOG and experimentally prove that it shows better scalability than the centralized server architecture.
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Meredith, A. D. "The presentation of self in Massively Multiplayer Online games." Thesis, Nottingham Trent University, 2014. http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/240/.
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This thesis examined the presentation of self in Massively Multiplayer Online games, to investigate how players create and maintain versions of self in these environments. Key research questions concerned the motivation for engaging in these behaviours, the impact of such activities on their offline lives and for those that did not engage in the active presentation of self, why they did not do this. There were three studies in the thesis, employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The first study consisted of interviews (n=29), analysed using Grounded theory, and the second an online focus group (n=13 participants) explored using thematic analysis. These results were combined to create a theoretical model for the presentation of self in MMOs. Based on these concept statements a third study (n=408) was created, using an online questionnaire design. Results indicated that a five factor model was the most satisfactory means of explaining the presentation of self in MMOs – with Presentation of the Existing Self, Social Interaction, Gaming Aesthetics, Presenting Different Sides of the Self, and Emotional Impact as the salient factors. Virtual environments are rapidly emerging as a core element of human socialising, as evidenced by the growth of the games industry and the expansion of social networking sites in the last ten years. MMOs represent just one type of virtual environment but also some of the most exciting, since they allow the presentation of multiple versions of self in a fantastical social environment. The thesis adds to the literature through its examination of the presentation of self, in illustrating how and why playe3rs experience and represent their offline self in MMOs. This has not been achieved in any other previously published work and is an original contribution to the literature.
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Wolfe, Amanda. "Massively Multiplayer Online Gamers: Motivations and Risks." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2012. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/cps_diss/74.
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Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are a popular type of online video game. While these games and their players have been studied previously, there is gap in the literature that examines the relationship between one’s motivation to play MMOGs and loneliness, depression, and problematic use. For this study, 440 players of World of Warcraft (WoW), a popular MMOG, completed a demographics questionnaire and four measures, including Williams, Yee, & Caplan’s (2008) motivation measure, Peter’s & Malesky’s (2008) World of Warcraft-specific Problematic Usage-Engagement Questionnaire, UCLA’s Loneliness scale, and The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. Results from quantitative analyses suggest that MMO players who are motivated to play for reasons of achievement and immersion are more likely to experience problematic use than those persons who play for social motivations. Loneliness and depression were only positively related with immersion motivated players, and there exists a significant negative relationship between social motivation and depression. These results suggest that gamers who play WoW for immersive reasons are the most at-risk in comparison to their peers. Implications for counseling, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.
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Strong, S. A. "Gamer-generated language and the localisation of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2018. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10046921/.
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Video game localisation has received increased academic attention over the past few years. Despite the call for user-oriented research, few researchers have chosen to focus on issues that are central to end-user experience and its relation to the localised text. With the increased connectivity of gaming in general, and certain game genres in particular, gamers’ language use has become an integral aspect of the game experience. As a result, gamers have become innovative, creating and re-appropriating language, often using non-standard forms to coordinate their gameplay. This innovative and non-standard language, that I call gamer-speak, is the object of my research. In particular, the focus is on the gamer-speak generated by French gamers during group play of two localised Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs): World of Warcraft and WildStar. The main aim is to investigate the phenomenon of gamer-speak in MMORPGs and examine its significance for MMORPG localisation. I achieve this through a linguistic analysis and comparison of gamer conversations, analyses of localised texts and its original counterparts, and from survey data collected from active MMORPG gamers regarding their language use. In this thesis I devise an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework for the study of gamer-speak and its influence on MMORPGs which draws principally from Translation Studies and Games Studies. This framework is used to describe the salient features of gamer-speak generated by French gamers when playing the two MMORPGs chosen in the context of Polysystem Theory and Descriptive Translation Studies. The familiarity with and knowledge of French MMORPG players of gamer-speak is determined through surveys. I also examine localised MMORPG text, translated from English into French, paying attention to the role of gamer-speak. Finally, I address the social and cultural implications that gamer-speak has for the target audience of localised MMORPGs. This work adds to our understanding of gamer culture and has implications for game localisation and translation studies.
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Westerlund, Anton. "Using Video Communication in Online Multiplayer Games : The effects of adding a video chat overlay on the game experience in online multiplayer video games - a quasi-experimental design." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för datavetenskap och medieteknik (DM), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-105928.
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The focus of this thesis is to investigate whether adding video communication inonline multiplayer video games will affect the game experience. The work uses usercentered design and a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Literaturereview, pre-study questionnaire and semi-structured interviews are used to create aprototype of a video chat overlay that can be used in games. The prototype is thenused in a quasi-experiment to test if adding a video chat will result in better gameexperience. Participants in the experiment play the same online multiplayer videogame without and with video chat overlay and fill out a game experiencequestionnaire after each condition. The GEQ scores after the two conditions arecompared using a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test. Results showed that adding videochat did not improve the game experience significantly. If a video chat would becreated for use in video games, it is important to keep it simple and easy to use.Regarding the effect of video chat on game experience, with the prototype designedfor this work, the null hypothesis could not be rejected since there was no significantdifference in the game experience.
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Bozcan, Selcuk. "A Tool For Network Simulation Of Massively Multiplayer Online Games." Master's thesis, METU, 2008. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12609985/index.pdf.
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Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) have become highly popular in the last decade and now attract millions of users from all over the world to play in an evolving virtual world concurrently over the Internet. The high popularity of
MMOGs created a rapidly growing market and this highly dynamic market has forced the game developers to step up competitively. However, MMOG development is a challenging and expensive process. In this study, we have developed a network simulation tool which can be used to model and simulate typical MMOGs that have client-server architectures. The main objective is to provide a simulation environment to MMOG developers that could be used to test, analyze and verify various aspects of the MMOG network architecture. We have also implemented a graphical user interface which allows constructing the simulation model visually. We have demonstrated the use of simulation tool by experimental simulations.
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McFarlane, Roger D. P. "Network software architectures for real-time massively multiplayer online games." Thesis, McGill University, 2004. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=18200.
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A real-time massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) is a networked computer or video game in which tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of consumers may interact with one another in real-time in a shared environment, even though these users may be separated by vast geographic distances. Game industry analysis highlights trends indicating that online game usage and market penetration will grow significantly over the next five to ten years. As such, game developers and entertainment companies seek to offer subscription based mass-market online games. However, the risks, costs and complexity involved in the successful development and operation of a scalable online game service are high, in part due to lack of well established and understood models for the network software architecture of such a product. This thesis explores the literature and research regarding distributed military simulation, academic networked virtual environments, and commercial online gaming in search of patterns for network software architectures which are applicable to massively multiplayer online games. It is the hope of the author to contribute to this cross pollination of ideas by providing a thorough review of the techniques and approaches for the design and implementation of large scale distributed systems having properties similar to those found in a massively multiplayer online game system. In this way, perhaps the cost, complexity, and risk involved in building a massively multiplayer online game service can be reduced.<br>Un jeu en ligne massivement multi joueurs en temps réel est un jeu vidéo ou d'ordinateur géré en réseau dans lequel des dizaines à des centaines de milliers de consommateurs peuvent interagir entre eux en temps réel dans un environnement partagé, et ce même s’ils sont répartis dans des régions géographiques très distantes. Les analyses de l’industrie du jeu démontrent que l'utilisation et la pénétration de marché du jeu en ligne se développeront de manière significative au cours des cinq à dix prochaines années. Ceci explique que les développeurs de jeu et les compagnies de divertissement cherchent à offrir à un marché grand public des jeux en ligne basés sur un abonnement. Cependant, les risques, les coûts et la complexité impliqués dans le développement et l'opération d’un service de jeu en ligne sont élevés, dû en partie au manque de modèles bien établis et compris pour l'architecture de logiciels de réseau de tels produits. Cette thèse explore la littérature et la recherche concernant la simulation militaire distribuée, les environnements académiques virtuels gérés en réseau, et le jeu en ligne commercial à la recherche de modèles pour les architectures de logiciels de réseau qui sont applicables aux jeux en ligne massivement multi joueurs. C'est l'espoir de l'auteur de contribuer à cette pollinisation d’idées en fournissant un examen complet des techniques et des approches utilisés dans la conception et l'implémentation de systèmes répartis à grande échelle ayant des propriétés semblables à celles que l’on retrouve dans les systèmes de jeu en ligne massivement multi joueurs. De cette façon, peut-être, le coût, la complexité et le risque impliqués dans la réalisation d’un service de jeu en ligne massivement multi joueur pourront être réduits. fr
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Grimes, Sara M. "Online multiplayer games: a virtual space for intellectual property debates? /." Burnaby B.C. : Simon Fraser University, 2005. http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/handle/1892/2163.
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Vowles, Amy. "The psychology of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG's)." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2012. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/6875/.
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This paper reviews the literature on the psychological predictors of the problematic use of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). Nineteen studies were included in the review and results are discussed in terms of seven broad areas; Play time, Demographic differences, Psychological wellbeing and mental health, Personality, Cognitive factors, Physiological factors and Gamer experience and motivations. As a new area of research, the literature at present shows some limitations and inconsistencies across studies. Often factors have been considered in only one published paper, or findings are variable. The most consistent evidence suggests that increased play time is a significant risk factor for problematic use, along with mental health problems and poor psychological wellbeing. The strongest and most consistent predictor of problematic use identified so far appears to be the immersive use of MMORPGs in escaping from real life. Further research should replicate these results and continue to investigate alternative possible risk factors. Longitudinal studies are imperative to differentiate confidently between risk factors and outcomes of problematic gaming, and group comparison studies should include problematic gamers, non-problematic gamers and a non-gaming control group to establish factors associated with problematic gaming specifically as oppose to gaming in general. Studies should consider the impact of age and location of the target population so that results are generalisable to the MMORPG population as a whole. Implication for prevention and intervention of problematic gaming are discussed along with the implications of research in this area on the gaming industry.
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Wong, Christopher M. Eng Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Kid's Survey Network : teaching data literacy with multiplayer online games." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/53130.
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Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2009.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 66).<br>Current advancements in technology have permeated modern society, especially among the younger generations of computer users. Today's youth have grown up accustomed to video games and online social networking as standard elements of life. In contrast, many people of all ages today do not have a good grasp of data literacy. Many people simply do not understand statistics, charts, graphs and other survey data, which are all very commonly used in all aspects of everyday life. Kids' Survey Network is a large project that aims to focus the comfort and proficiency that middle school students have with web technology into an effective education tool to teach data literacy. This thesis project entails the creation of a suite of multiplayer learning games that reinforce the various other components of Kids' Survey Network.<br>by Christopher Wong.<br>M.Eng.
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Munir, Sundas, and Mirza Sanam Iqbal Baig. "Challenges and Security Aspects of Blockchain Based Online Multiplayer Games." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för informationsteknologi, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-38771.
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Video gaming has always been a blooming industry. With the emergence of online multi- player video games , this industry’s worth have sky rocketed. Online multiplayer video games store data of player’s credentials, in-game progress, in-game virtual assets and payment details etc. Which mean security threats to these systems are nothing new and securing these games have always meant to protect player’s data from unauthorized breach. Integration of Blockchain technology in online multiplayer video games apart from other amazing features, provides a way to prove digital ownership of virtual assets with their verifiable scarcity. Trade of these in-game virtual assets have always been a goal for online multiplayer gaming companies, but there was none enough trust-able infrastructure available which can be relied on. Blockchain just solved that problem. It provided a platform for these asset’s secure and transparent transaction between players. Topic for our research not only consider the security challenges in online games but specifi- cally blockchain based online multiplayer games. This adaptation is still new and there is need of consideration of new security challenges. In this dissertation we try to bring out some important challenges related to security of blockchain based online multiplayer video games. There are currently no studies around security concerns and challenges of the integration of the online multiplayer video games in the emerging blockchain systems. In order to fill in the gap, this dissertation discusses and identifies two main security concerning questions related to this domain. Also this dissertation provides basic steps for expanding future research and application in this joint domain.
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Mansikkamäki, E. (Eetu). "Meaningful real-life relationships in massively multiplayer online roleplaying games." Master's thesis, University of Oulu, 2014. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-201412022038.
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Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games are extremely popular with millions and millions of players spending large portions of their free time in these virtual environments. Still the social value and the meaningfulness of the relationships formed within them are questioned by most non-gamers and even some gamers. In the past even academia was mainly concentrating on the negative aspects of gaming but lately the value and meaningfulness of these relatively new social environments have been getting more and more attention.
This thesis presents a phenomenographic study on how the participants experience meaningful real-life relationships in MMORPGs and how they perceive the effect of the game as the channel for those relationships.
The gathered data revealed four qualitatively distinct ways the participants experienced meaningful real-life relationships in MMORPGs: in-game friendships, beyond the game friendships, comparable to real-life friendships and romantic relationships. These levels have a hierarchical relation in the sense that the previous level has the potential to develop to the next.
Likewise, four distinct ways to perceive the effects of MMORPGs as the channel for relationships were identified in the data. The participants expressed views spanning from one end of the spectrum to the other, ranging from highly positive to potentially negative. MMORPGs could be seen to have a highly positive effect by making different aspects of the relationships easier. In other cases MMORPGs could be seen as just another place to meet people, just a means to an end same as any other medium. MMORPGs could also be considered to be limited when compared to the physical world as a channel and as a result the connections were perceived to be less real in purely online setting. Additionally, MMORPGs were noted to have the potential to become harmful to relationships.
The main contribution of this study are the categories; the levels of relationships and the categories of the effects of MMORPGs as a channel. They can provide a fresh approach into the topic for academia. As for practice, they validate the MMORPG developers’ efforts of encouraging formation of social relationships.
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Ponsford, Matthew J. "The Mutual Interaction of Online and Offline Identities in Massively Multiplayer Online Communities: A Study of EVE Online Players." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1480426506465534.
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Bawa, Papia. "Game On| Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) as Tools to Augment Teaching and Learning." Thesis, Purdue University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10681049.
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<p> The study investigated the use of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) in English and Business classrooms in Higher Education from the context of learners’ performance outcomes, as well as stakeholders’ (learners, administrators, and faculty) perceptions pertaining to their experiences when using an MMOG based curriculum. The findings strongly suggest that MMOGs helped enhance learner performances in statistically significant ways, and provided valuable insights into elements of interest and concerns of stakeholders about MMOG usage in classrooms. Based on these insights, I designed a practitioners’ guide to assist future scholars interested in this curricular approach. This guide provides innovative tips on show how faculty, administrators and institutions may imbibe this cutting-edge technology in easy and affordable ways within classrooms, while dealing with several concerns such stakeholders may have regarding the use of such games. Given the rise in popularity of game based technology and the existing literature on the value of game based education, coupled with a paucity of studies examining applicability and implementation issues in the context of using MMOGs, I hope that this submission will be a valuable contribution to the literature.</p><p>
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Goodman, Joshua. "A hybrid design for cheat detection in massively multiplayer online games." Thesis, McGill University, 2009. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=32384.
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Massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) have become an extremely popular genre of gaming boasting millions of subscribers. Focusing on cheating, game designers often implement client-server network models which ensure that authority over the gamestate is retained by the game providers. Due to scalability limitations of such architecture the transition to the more scalable, yet less secure, peer to peer (P2P) models has become a more attractive option. Concentrating on cheat detection, the IRS hybrid network model is proposed. It combines positive features from both network designs and represents a reasonable trade-off between security and network efficiency. The IRS model's centralized server acts as the authority over the game-state, managing peer to peer matching and monitoring client behaviour. This allows for a reduced computational load by enabling clients to resolve messages for others. Intermittent peer auditing which compares two client's computation of the same request message also allows for the discovery and elimination of cheating behaviour. By simulating the proposed hybrid model in an abstract game environment designed to incorporate parameters of actual gameplay it is shown that malicious clients are purged extremely quickly and with minimal impact on non-cheating clients, while still ensuring continued benefit and scalability from distributed computation. Since cheating has a very serious impact on gaming it is essential that any study into the improvement of MMOG network models strives to preserve security.<br>Les jeux en ligne massivement multi-joueur (MMOG) sont un genre de jeu devenu extrêmement populaire, avec des millions d'abonnés. Pour éviter les situations de tricherie, les concepteurs de jeux favorisent le modèle réseau client/serveur (C/S) parce qu'il garantie que l'autorité sur l'état du jeu est conservée par le fournisseur du jeu. Cependant, l'évolution de tel modèle est limité. Malgré leur lacune au niveau de la sécurité, les modèles pair-à-pair (P2P) sont une alternative intéressante. Nous proposons un modèle de réseau hybride, l'IRS, qui se spécialise dans la détection des cas de tricherie. Ce modèle exploite les aspects positifs des deux types de modèle réseau (C/S et P2P), tout en proposant un compromis raisonnable entre la sécurité et l'efficacité. Dans le modèle IRS, un serveur centralisé possède l'autorité absolue sur l'état du jeu, tout en assurant la gestion des communications pair-à-pair et la surveillance du comportement des participants. En permettant aux participants d'exécuter des messages pour d'autres participants, la charge d'exécution sur le serveur est réduite. Les cas de tricherie peuvent être découverts et éliminés à l'aide d'audits intermittentes qui comparent les résultats d'exécution d'un même message par deux participants. Des simulations du modèle hybride proposé ont été effectuées dans un environnement jeu visant à reproduire des situations de jeux réelles. Les résultats démontrent le modèle expulse les participants malveillants très rapidement du jeu avec des impacts minimaux aux autres participants, tout en conservant les avantages d'extensibilité des modèles distribués. Puisq
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Triebel, Tonio [Verfasser], and Wolfgang [Akademischer Betreuer] Effelsberg. "Netzwerkdienste für Massively Multiplayer Online Games / Tonio Triebel. Betreuer: Wolfgang Effelsberg." Mannheim : Universitätsbibliothek Mannheim, 2014. http://d-nb.info/106000657X/34.
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Juve, Kambra. "The use of massive multiplayer online games to evaluate C4I systems /." Monterey, Calif. : Springfield, Va. : Naval Postgraduate School ; Available from National Technical Information Service, 2004. http://library.nps.navy.mil/uhtbin/hyperion/04Mar%5FJuve.pdf.
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Juve, Kambra R. "The use of massive multiplayer online games to evaluate C4I systems." Thesis, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/1667.
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Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited<br>Human Systems Integration Report<br>In the past few years, Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) have gained in popularity in the gaming industry, the public and the Department of Defense. Improvements to computer technology and the increased data transfer rate over networks have caused the potential applications for networked environments to blossom. MMOGs are a product of these improvements, as technological advancements have made it possible for the masses to gain access to virtual environments and participate. The ability to communicate and interact within the virtual environment has the potential to make MMOG technology an ideal tool for evaluating C4I systems. The design and evaluation of C4I systems with MMOGs has the potential to allow for exploration in the areas of warfighter effectiveness, emergent behavior, collective decision making, human systems integration and effective information flow. This thesis strives to illustrate how a C4I system modeled in an MMOG can aid designers in gathering insights on the effectiveness of the system in various combat situations. The insights will be gathered through the interactions of players with the modeled system in the virtual environment. The human interaction with the modeled C4I system provides the ability to capture the effects of the C4I system on the warfighter. The resultant effects of the C4I system on the warfighter directly contribute to the overall combat effectiveness of the deployed military forces. The background of MMOGs and C4I systems, and attributes of MMOGs that are desirable in evaluating C4I systems are introduced and discussed. FORCEnet, a global C4I architecture still in the conceptual phase is then used as an example to illustrate the potential rewards to using MMOGs to evaluate C4I systems.<br>Lieutenant, United States Navy
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Bopp, Stacey-Lee. "A phenomenological study of problematic internet use with massively multiplayer online games." Thesis, Nelson Mandela University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/13757.
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Massively multiplayer online games (MMOG’s) are a specific form of online computer games that allow for millions of people to simultaneously play online at any time. This form of online gaming has become a huge phenomenon worldwide both as a popular past time and a business endeavour for many individuals. There are more than 16 million people worldwide who subscribe to fantasy role-playing online games. Although such games can provide entertainment for many people, they can also lead to problematic Internet use (PIU). PIU has also been referred to as Internet addiction, and can cause significant problems in an individual’s functioning. The study aimed to enhance a greater understanding of the phenomenon of male adults’ experiences PIU with MMOG’s. More specifically the study aims to identify if PIU with MMOG’s can be considered a form of Internet addiction within South Africa. Furthermore, assisting in the further development of online addiction diagnosis and treatment strategies. The study utilised an interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) and participants were purposively sampled. The data was collected using semi-structured individual interviews. Furthermore, Braun and Clarks thematic analysis was used during data analysis while incorporating the four major processes in phenomenological research, namely 1) epoche, 2) phenomenological reduction, 3) imaginative variation and, 4) synthesis. Themes that emerged from the analysis of the participants’ experiences included, initial description of use, motives for continued use of MMOG’s, consequences of PIU with MMOG’s, perceptions of PIU with MMOG’s, and treatment considerations. This study provided a thick description of South African and international literature and combines the literature with the themes that emerged from the participants experiences in order to produce discussions based on the findings of this qualitative study. Conclusions, recommendations, and limitations of this study informed future research on cyber citizenship by providing a detailed understanding of the context of South African male adults’ experiences of PIU with MMOG’s.
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Bilir, Tanla E. "Real economics in virtual worlds a massively multiplayer online game case study: Runescape /." Thesis, Atlanta, Ga. : Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/31657.
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Thesis (M. S.)--Literature, Communication, and Culture, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010.<br>Committee Chair: Pearce, Celia; Committee Member: Burnett, Rebecca; Committee Member: Do, Ellen Yi-Luen; Committee Member: Knoespel, Kenneth. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.
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Diao, Ziqiang [Verfasser]. "Cloud-based support for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games / Ziqiang Diao." Magdeburg : Universitätsbibliothek, 2017. http://d-nb.info/112872653X/34.
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Lim, Chong-U. "Modeling player self-representation in multiplayer online games using social network data." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/82409.
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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2013.<br>Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-105).<br>Game players express values related to self-expression through various means such as avatar customization, gameplay style, and interactions with other players. Multiplayer online games are now often integrated with social networks that provide social contexts in which player-to-player interactions take place, such as conversation and trading of virtual items. Building upon a theoretical framework based in machine learning and cognitive science, I present results from a novel approach to modeling and analyzing player values in terms of both preferences in avatar customization and patterns in social network use. To facilitate this work, I developed the Steam-Player- Preference Analyzer (Steam-PPA) system, which performs advanced data collection on publicly available social networking profile information. The primary contribution of this thesis is the AIR Toolkit Status Performance Classifier (AIR-SPC), which uses machine learning techniques including k-means clustering, natural language processing (NLP), and support vector machines (SVM) to perform inference on the data. As an initial case study, I use Steam-PPA to collect gameplay and avatar customization information from players in the popular, and commercially successful, multi-player first-person-shooter game Team Fortress 2 (TF2). Next, I use AIR-SPC to analyze the information from profiles on the social network Steam. The upshot is that I use social networking information to predict the likelihood of players customizing their profile in several ways associated with the monetary values of their avatars. In this manner I have developed a computational model of aspects of players' digital social identity capable of predicting specific values in terms of preferences exhibited within a virtual game-world.<br>by Chong-U Lim.<br>S.M.
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Cecin, Fábio Reis. "Peer-to-peer and cheat-resistant support for massively multiplayer online games." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/131877.
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Em geral, jogos classificados como ‘jogos online maciçamente multijogador’, ou massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) são simulações interativas, competitivas, em tempo real e em larga escala, de mundos virtuais gráficos. Atualmente, a maioria (se não todos) os MMOGs lançados comercialmente são implementados como serviços centralizados, onde centenas ou até milhares de máquinas servidoras, mantidas pelo provedor do serviço do jogo, são responsáveis por executar quase toda a simulação do mundo virtual. Isto implica em gastos significativos em equipamentos e comunicação por parte dos provedores do jogo. Vários trabalhos tentam reduzir o custo de hospedar um MMOG propondo modelos de distribuição da simulação mais descentralizados (peer-to-peer), onde a simulação é movida parcialmente ou totalmente dos servidores (máquinas dos provedores do jogo) para os nós clientes, tipicamente PCs de jogadores conectados por banda larga residencial. Porém, a tentativa de descentralizar um MMOG cria problemas de segurança, na medida em que a simulação passa a ser delegada a nós clientes, que são nós intrinsecamente não-confiáveis que ganham a oportunidade de trapacear no jogo, burlando as regras, visto que as regras da simulação serão executadas por estes. Existem vários tipos de trapaças, mas nós mostramos nesta tese que é possível argumentar que a trapaça de estado (state cheating) e ataques de negação de serviço são as ameaças mais significativas para MMOGs peer-to-peer. Como consequência, nós propomos o FreeMMG 2, um novo modelo de descentralização de MMOGs baseado na divisão do mundo virtual em células que são mantidas individualmente por grupos separados de peers voluntários que executam um processo daemon, não-interativo de simulação. Cada peer de uma célula contém uma réplica completa do estado da célula e se sincroniza de forma tanto conservadora quanto otimista com cada outro peer (réplica) da célula, enquanto ao mesmo tempo recebe comandos de jogo e dissemina atualizações de jogo para as máquinas ‘cliente’ dos jogadores do jogo. Devido à replicação e à seleção aleatória de peers para as células, nós mostramos que o FreeMMG 2 é resistente a trapaça de estado. E, devido ao uso de um peer back-up secreto para cada peer réplica primária da célula, nós mostramos que ataques de negação de serviço contra os peers não irão aumentar de forma significativa a probabilidade de ocorrência de trapaça de estado ou de perda total do estado da célula atacada. Através de simulação de rede, nós mostramos que o FreeMMG 2 é escalável e que utiliza a largura de banda dos clientes de forma eficiente. Assim, mostramos que uma abordagem baseada em replicação de suporte a MMOGs, considerando clientes com conectividade à Internet realística (sem IP multicast e com banda larga doméstica), é viável.<br>Typically, games classified as ‘massively multiplayer online games’ (MMOGs) are competitive, real-time, large-scale interactive simulations of graphical virtual worlds. Currently, most (if not all) commercial MMOGs are implemented as centralized services, where hundreds or even thousands of ‘server’ machines, maintained by the game service provider, are responsible for running almost all of the virtual world simulation. This incurs a significant equipment and communication cost for the game providers. Several works attempt to reduce the cost of hosting a MMOG by proposing more decentralized, peer-to-peer models for distributing the simulation among client (player-owned PCs with consumer-grade broadband) and server (provider-owned) machines, with some going as far as eliminating the need for provider-owned machines altogether. Decentralizing a MMOG, however, creates security issues, as the simulation is now delegated to untrusted client nodes which gain opportunities to cheat the game rules, as the rules are now executed by them. There are several types of cheats, but we show in this thesis that a case can be made for considering state cheating and denial-of-service attacks as the most significant threats for peer-to-peer MMOGs. In light of this, we propose FreeMMG 2, a new MMOG decentralization model based on the division of the virtual world into cells that are maintained individually by separate groups of volunteer peers that are running a non-interactive, daemon simulation process. Each peer of a cell contains a full replica of the cell state and synchronizes both conservatively and optimistically with every other peers (replicas) of the cell, while at the same time receiving game commands and disseminating game updates to actual player machines. Due to its cell replication and random peer selection, we show that FreeMMG 2 is resistant to state cheating. And, due to the use of one secret back-up peer for every primary replica peer of the cell, we show that denial-of-service attacks don’t significantly increase the odds of either state cheating or cell state loss happening. Through network simulation we verify that FreeMMG 2 is scalable and bandwidth-efficient, showing that a replication-based approach to peer-to-peer MMOG support, considering peers with realistic Internet connectivity (no IP multicast and consumer-grade broadband), is a viable one.
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Ratti, Saurabh. "A distributed location-aware routing architecture for P2P massively multiplayer online games." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28524.
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Populations in contemporary Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) continue to grow, a trend that current client-server architectures are hard pressed to sustain. Application of peer-to-peer concepts and technologies to the domain of MMOG communications can address the issues of scalability and single points of failure associated with the client-server model. A proposed system takes an existing peer-to-peer network overlay as a foundation for peer connection management, and adapts it to have location-awareness by applying the Hilbert Space-Filling Curve. The new routing architecture's location awareness is done with respect to the virtual environment, in order to achieve area-of-interest updates to interested peers with the latency of a single hop. This is done in manner that is fully distributed, thus sharing the work load as evenly as possible across peers without requiring centralized servers. This thesis reviews existing approaches, details the proposed system, and finally presents a proof-of-concept and associated evaluations.
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Wendel, Erik. "Cheating in Online Games : A Case Study of Bots and Bot-Detection in Browser-Based Multiplayer Games." Thesis, Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Institutt for telematikk, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-19510.
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The video and computer gaming industry has seen a significant rise in popularity over the last decades and is now the worlds biggest digital entertainment industry [market-gamingvsmovies]. Where games meant Space Invaders and Doom in the old days, gaming is now everything from ultra-realistic shooter games to farm management simulators integrated in the Facebook platform, to games on our smartphones and tablets. This popularity has brought with it the attention of hackers and exploiters, and game cheats flourish in the shady parts of the internet. This thesis has two parts. The first part presents a background study, an oveorview of today's situation in regard to cheating and anti-cheating in online games. The second part is a case study about bots and bot detection in Browser-Based Multiplayer Games (BBMG).In the background study, the main finding is that there are over twenty websites selling cheats or cheat subscriptions, and that the type of cheats available for a game is heavily dependent on the game genre. Most or all first-person shooters (FPS) have available aimbots and wallhacks, and all major massively multiplayer online games (MMO) are exposed to bot programs. The cheats are being sold either alone or through monthly subscriptions, allowing free use of all cheats for all supported games by that vendor. There have been many anti-cheat actors over the past decade, but three known services being continually developed. The two biggest are Valve Anti-Cheat, used by most games managed through Valve's online gaming platform Steam, and PunkBuster, which protects amongst others the Battlefield series. The last big anti-cheat software is the proprietary Warden, used only in Blizzard's own games like the Diablo. Warcraft and Starcraft games. Many cheats are still able to bypass the security mechanisms provided by these, and it is a continuos arms race between cheat developers and anti-cheat developers, just like in the virus and anti-virus industry.In the case study, two bots were written for a non-disclosed BBMG and their performance was tested quantitatively by playing several game accounts in parallel. It showed that bot use yields large performance gains both in the early game stages and for advanced players. As a result of the case study research on bots in online games, a Bot-Detection System (BDS) is created and presented in the last chapter. The goal of the BDS is to detect the use of bots in BBMG by identifying a set of attributes and comparing these to average human behavior. A score system ranging from 0 to 100 is introduced, where the average human behavior is defined as 0, while increasing non-human behavior is given a score >0, with max 100. The BDS is then employed on the two bots and returns scores of 64 and 52, while the six human play testers receive scores of 1 or 0.
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Tucker, Staci. "Griefing: Policing Masculinity in Online Games." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12140.
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vii, 124 p.<br>Despite the rise in participation and economic importance of online games as a media phenomenon, ever-growing virtual worlds that seemingly exist as "third places" for social interaction and relationship formation, there is little research on the experiences of gamers with harassment, discrimination, and hate speech. Though changes in the industry serve as evidence of shifting attitudes about female, GLBTQ, and non-white gamers, harassment and use of hate speech based on sex and sexual orientation continue to flourish unchecked in online games. This study explores the prevalence of homophobia and sexism in online games as expressed through "griefing" behavior used to police competitive spaces traditionally dominated by white, heterosexual men. This thesis employs qualitative research methods to illuminate the persisting homophobia, sexism, and racism as experienced by gamers in online console and PC games.<br>Committee in charge: Carol Stabile, Chair;
Pat Curtin, Member;
Gabriella Martinez, Member
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Lee, Wai Yu. "Understanding problematic use of massively multiplayer online games: instrument development and theoretical model testing." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2015. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/186.
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Problematic use of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) is an emerging societal challenge worldwide. There are increasing numbers of incident of problematic use of MMOGs and even reported cases of death from playing MMOGs excessively. With its prevalence, problematic use of MMOGs has received increasing awareness from the scientific community, the general public, and the media. Since information systems (IS) research traditionally emphasizes the positive and productive values of system usage, relatively few published studies on problematic use of MMOGs are found in mainstream IS journals. In addition, research on problematic use of MMOGs is hindered by a lack of uniform conceptualizations, valid measurement instruments, and theory-guided study. As a step towards bridging these gaps and fostering the understanding of problematic use of MMOGs, this study aims (1) to conceptualize problematic use of MMOGs and distinguish it from its counterparts, (2) to develop and validate an instrument of it using a rigorous approach (Study 1), and (3) to propose and empirically test a theory-driven model explaining the development of problematic use of MMOGs (Study 2). Study 1 aims to conceptualize problematic use of MMOGs, and develop and validate an instrument of it. First, drawing on the literature of problematic use of MMOGs and behavioral addiction, this study distinguishes among the often interchangeably used terms of “addiction, “problematic use, “excessive use, and “dependence, suggesting that their use requires careful consideration of the research scope and context. Second, following the robust paradigm in the IS literature, the instrument development process is carried out in three stages, including item generation, scale development, and instrument testing. The instrument is empirically validated with 517 active MMOG players. The final instrument, consisting of 37 items, exhibits adequate levels of reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and nomological validity. The validated instrument adds to the repertoire of rigorous research instruments available to future IS researchers, helping to establish a tradition of IS research on problematic use of MMOGs and other hedonic technologies. Study 2 aims to advance theoretical understanding of the development mechanism of problematic use of MMOGs. Drawing on the hedonic management model of addictions, this study proposes a theoretical model explaining how the duality of hedonic experiences, mood enhancement and emotional relief, derived from playing MMOGs lead to problematic use. The research model is empirically tested with 468 active MMOG players with the majority of the hypotheses supported. The findings suggest that both mood enhancement and emotional relief are important mechanisms leading to salience of gameplay, which in turn, explains the development of problematic use of MMOGs. This study adds to the growing body of knowledge on technology usage-related problems and advances theoretical understanding of development mechanism of problematic use of MMOGs. In addition, the findings provide MMOG developers, policymakers, and educators with insights on how to alleviate problematic use of MMOGs
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Humphreys, Alison Mary. "Massively Multiplayer Online Games Productive Players and their Disruptions to Conventional Media Practices." Queensland University of Technology, 2005. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/16119/.
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This thesis explores how massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), as an exemplary new media form, disrupt practices associated with more conventional media. These intensely social games exploit the interactivity and networks afforded by new media technologies in ways that generate new challenges for the organisation, control and regulation of media. The involvement of players in constituting these games - through their production of game-play, derivative works and strong social networks that drive the profitability of the games - disrupts some of the key foundations that underlie other publication media. MMOGs represent a new and hybrid form of media - part publication and part service. As such they sit within a number of sometimes contradictory organising and regulatory regimes. This thesis examines the negotiations and struggles for control between players, developers and publishers as issues of ownership, governance and access arise out of the new configurations. Using an ethnographic approach to gather information and insights into the practices of players, developers and publishers, this project identifies the characteristics of the distributed production network in this experiential medium. It explores structural components of successful interactive applications and analyses how the advent of player agency and the shift in authorship has meant a shift in control of the text and the relations that surround it. The integration of social networks into the textual environment, and into the business model of the media publishers has meant commerce has become entwined with affect in a new way in this medium. Publishers have moved into the role of both property managers, of the intellectual property associated with the game content, and community managers. Intellectual property management is usually associated with the reproduction and distribution of finished media products, and this sits uneasily with the performative and mutable form of this medium. Service provision consists of maintaining the game world environment, community management, providing access for players to other players and to the content generated both by the developers and the other players. Content in an MMOG is identified in this project as both the 'tangible' assets of code and artwork, rules and text, and the 'intangible' or immaterial assets of affective networks. Players are no longer just consumers of media, or even just active interpreters of media. They are co-producing the media as it is developed. This thesis frames that productiveness as unpaid labour, in an attempt to denaturalise the dominant discourse which casts players as consumers. The regulation of this medium is contentious. Conventional forms of media regulation - such as copyright, or content regulation regimes are inadequate for regulating the hybrid service/publication medium. This thesis explores how the use of contracts as the mechanism which constitutes the formal relations between players, publishers and developers creates challenges to some of the regimes of juridical and political rights held by citizens more generally. This thesis examines the productive practices of players and how the discourses of intellectual property and the discourses of the consumer are mobilised to erase the significance of those productive contributions. It also shows, using a Foucauldian analysis of the power negotiations, that players employ many counter-strategies to circumvent the more formal legal structures of the publishers. The dialogic relationship between players, developers and publishers is shown to mobilise various discursive constructions of the role of each. The outcome of these ongoing negotiations may well shape future interactive applications and the extent to which their innovative capacities will be available for all stakeholders to develop.
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Andrivet, Sébastien. "Customer research, customer-driven design, and business strategy in Massively Multiplayer Online Games." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39531.
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Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2007.<br>This thesis is a part of an exploration of how the relationships between the customers of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) shape customer experience, and can be used to diminish customer churn and improve customer life expectancy, two critical drivers for any subscription-based business model. MMOGs are a very complex product, with a massive level of interaction within the customer base - in fact those interactions constitute a significant part of the appeal. Thus, MMOGs combine aspects of particularly tough online community management, online customer service, and game design/content creation. To be successful, all of those elements need a fine understanding of the customer, their needs and their virtual 'life' and relationships within the game world. This thesis explores the usefulness of detailed, sophisticated interview to gain a fine understanding of customer needs and of the tools necessary to organize communication with, and among, customers. From this knowledge, it projects examples of strategic thrusts necessary to achieve or maintain leadership within this recent, but very powerful and lucrative, business model.<br>by Sébastien Andrivet.<br>M.B.A.
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Johnsson, Fredrik. "Mobility Gaming - Social Interaction in Massive Multiplayer Online Games within a mobile context." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Institutionen för konst, kultur och kommunikation (K3), 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21461.
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“Mobility Gaming” entails research done on how the social interaction within MMOG / MMORPG can be brought into a mobile context. The central issues in the research how MMOG players communicate and interact with each other today and how it can incorporate user mobility. Based upon this the research is focused on how the connection between non physical space, game world, and the physical space can be interconnected to enable the interaction to still occur. A prototype environment is created in with the user interaction can be tested and experienced. Cellphone and PDA clients have been developed alongside a server service to facilitate user based testing within this environment. The research done during this thesis have shown me that the user desires to reach each other is a very viable but not developed area for interaction within game environments.
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Kogan, Ilya. "An Analysis of Cheat Prevention in Peer-to-Peer Massively Multiplayer Online Games." Ohio University Honors Tutorial College / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouhonors1276273302.
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Loh, Benjamin Y. "Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) in Malaysia: The Global-Local Nexus." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1375663397.
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Parsons, Jeffrey Michael. "An examination of massively multiplayer online role-playing games as a facilitator of internet addiction." Diss., University of Iowa, 2005. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/98.
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Fan, Lu. "Solving key design issues for massively multiplayer online games on peer-to-peer architectures." Thesis, Heriot-Watt University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10399/2270.
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Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) are increasing in both popularity and scale on the Internet and are predominantly implemented by Client/Server architectures. While such a classical approach to distributed system design offers many benefits, it suffers from significant technical and commercial drawbacks, primarily reliability and scalability costs. This realisation has sparked recent research interest in adapting MMOGs to Peer-to-Peer (P2P) architectures. This thesis identifies six key design issues to be addressed by P2P MMOGs, namely interest management, event dissemination, task sharing, state persistency, cheating mitigation, and incentive mechanisms. Design alternatives for each issue are systematically compared, and their interrelationships discussed. How well representative P2P MMOG architectures fulfil the design criteria is also evaluated. It is argued that although P2P MMOG architectures are developing rapidly, their support for task sharing and incentive mechanisms still need to be improved. The design of a novel framework for P2P MMOGs, Mediator, is presented. It employs a self-organising super-peer network over a P2P overlay infrastructure, and addresses the six design issues in an integrated system. The Mediator framework is extensible, as it supports flexible policy plug-ins and can accommodate the introduction of new superpeer roles. Key components of this framework have been implemented and evaluated with a simulated P2P MMOG. As the Mediator framework relies on super-peers for computational and administrative tasks, membership management is crucial, e.g. to allow the system to recover from super-peer failures. A new technology for this, namely Membership-Aware Multicast with Bushiness Optimisation (MAMBO), has been designed, implemented and evaluated. It reuses the communication structure of a tree-based application-level multicast to track group membership efficiently. Evaluation of a demonstration application shows i that MAMBO is able to quickly detect and handle peers joining and leaving. Compared to a conventional supervision architecture, MAMBO is more scalable, and yet incurs less communication overheads. Besides MMOGs, MAMBO is suitable for other P2P applications, such as collaborative computing and multimedia streaming. This thesis also presents the design, implementation and evaluation of a novel task mapping infrastructure for heterogeneous P2P environments, Deadline-Driven Auctions (DDA). DDA is primarily designed to support NPC host allocation in P2P MMOGs, and specifically in the Mediator framework. However, it can also support the sharing of computational and interactive tasks with various deadlines in general P2P applications. Experimental and analytical results demonstrate that DDA efficiently allocates computing resources for large numbers of real-time NPC tasks in a simulated P2P MMOG with approximately 1000 players. Furthermore, DDA supports gaming interactivity by keeping the communication latency among NPC hosts and ordinary players low. It also supports flexible matchmaking policies, and can motivate application participants to contribute resources to the system.
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Mattsson, Annette. "Learning by gaming : A comparison of how Swedish upper secondary male and female students learn English." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för utbildning, kultur och kommunikation, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-49113.
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Earlier research has suggested that online gaming can be an effective way of acquiring English as a second or foreign language. It can both increase language proficiency (vocabulary or oral proficiency) and have a positive impact on affective filters such as motivation or willingness to communicate. The present study further investigates if habitual playing of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games results in achieving higher grades in English as a foreign language (EFL) for the Swedish upper secondary students. Possible gender differences regarding the acquisition of English and grades in the subject are also investigated to see if the female students play MMOs to the same extent as the males do and if the female students’ higher grades can be connected to gaming. 78 upper secondary school students answered a questionnaire about their English-language-related activities in their spare time and their online gaming habits in particular. The students’ most recent grades in the English subject were gathered to see if the habitual gamers achieved higher grades. The results show that most of the males play MMOs and that most of the females do not. The males also engage more in other English-language-based activities in their spare time than the females do. Still, the informants’ English grades are similar between the genders. Females seem to learn more English in school and the males more in their spare time. However, the group of gamers playing MMOs 4-8 hours a week or more achieved higher grades than the rest of the student informants.
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Larsson, Emil. "Movement Prediction Algorithms for High Latency Games : A Testing Framework for 2D Racing Games." Thesis, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Institutionen för kreativa teknologier, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-12916.
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Context. In multiplayer games, player information takes time to reach other players because of network latency. This can cause inconsistencies because the actions from the other players are delayed. To increase consistency, movement prediction can be used to display other players closer to their actual position. Objectives. The goal was to compare different prediction methods and see how well they do in a 2D racing game. Methods. A testing framework was made to easily implement new methods and to get test results. Experiments were conducted to gather racing data from participants and was then used to analyze the performance of the methods offline. The distance error between the predicted position and the real position was used to measure the performance. Results. Out of the implemented algorithms, Input Prediction had the lowest average distance error at all latency. All methods tested did better than Dead Reckoning when above 600ms. Stored data algorithms did not do worse when predicting on a curvy part of the track unlike the other algorithms tested. Conclusions. Different methods are supported by different games and applications. Movement prediction should be tailored to its environment for best accuracy. Due to Input Predictions simple nature and its results here, it is a worthy contender as the go-to algorithm for games.
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Zhang, Christina Yan. "The use of massively multiplayer online games to augment early-stage design process in construction." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2012. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/9924.
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Traditional 2-D contour models, Physical Models, Computer-Aided Architectural Design (CAD), Virtual Reality models, Google SketchUp, and Building Information Modelling (BIM) have all greatly enhanced the design process by enabling designers to visualise buildings and the space within them prior to their construction. A recent development is Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) such as Second Life (SL). These offer users the opportunity to interact with other participants in real time, and so offer an excellent opportunity to experience the environment, layout and form of virtual buildings. However, the effectiveness of such applications to some extent depends upon how realistic the interactions of those using virtual spaces are in relation to interactions within the real world. This research examines the potential of this technology for enhancing and informing the early stage building design process. Initially, the tools currently used by architects at early stages of the RIBA Plan of Work were evaluated through interviewing architects. Then, the advantages of using MMOG over current tools at early-stage design were evaluated through interviews in SL. A virtual model was developed to examine how realistic the visualisation and interaction between end-users in an MMOG was. This was used to propose and validate guidance to incorporating MMOG into the early stages of the RIBA Plan of Work. It revealed that the virtual model created, the validated guidance and a successful example combining 2D sketches, Google SketchUp and MMOG at early-stage design can be used to guide architects to manage the complex decision making process in a simple, easy, cost-effective way, while effectively engaging both professional and non-professional stakeholders.
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Mendoza, Sean Henry Veloria. "Massively multiplayer online games as a sandbox for leadership| The relationship between in and out of game leadership behaviors." Thesis, Pepperdine University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3619793.
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<p> Given society's increasingly technology centric play and workplace environment, Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOs) can be an excellent sandbox to develop future leaders of teams, which are the lifeblood of any organization. MMOs like World of WarCraft provide rich immersive experiences that allow leaders and followers the ability to create highly complex ecosystems that can mimic some of the largest out of game organizations. In game they can potentially gain valuable insights, which can later be applied to the workplace. This study explores Leadership characteristics appearing in and out of game. A combination of identity theories and leadership characteristics provide a greater understanding of possible relationships that may be occurring between leaders and followers; and in and out of multiplayer video game environments. Using transformational leadership as a framework, 6 leaders were interviewed, and assessed with the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). Also, their guild communities were examined for evidence of leadership behaviors. The results found relationships between a leader's in and out of game characteristics with values and contexts in the workplace between leader, community, and follower. These relationships create and shape the lived experiences of leaders providing them the insights to create connections between relevant contexts in game with their workplace environment. This study identifies leadership stories, that can been employed in the workplace for the benefit of the organization; and the use group play spaces as a place to practice leadership operations of a business. Through these narratives, leaders can better understand the values that shape their identity; the relevant contexts that enabled the appearance of leadership characteristics in and out of game; and an opportunity to connect with a community aligned to teach leaders how to be.</p>
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Mallon, David Timothy. "Bringing community to the holodeck : interactive narrative and the massively multiplayer online role-playing game." Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/19687.
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