I had a crazy idea a few days ago and am looking for some feedback. Does the following sound plausible and do you think it would succeed?:

Suppose a game were created for the cell phone that leveraged built in GPS and a data connection to the internet. Using these technologies, a virtual world could be built upon reality. So, for example, there could be these powerful creatures from another dimension that have descended upon a city like New York and are bent on destroying it. Agents (people with cell phones) can be equipped with tools to detect and battle these creatures by loading the game on their phone. The game then uses GPS data to provide a geospacial game layer mapped to their actual coordinates in the city. For example, Central Park could harbor one kind of monster while Manhattan harbors others. Players would load different "tools" to detect and battle the monsters. One tool might serve as a proximity detector. Another might show the weakness of different monsters. A third might give a defense bonus to everyone in a 50ft radius. By sharing their Agent IDs, players could group up and experience a synergistic effect by linking their tools together, thus fostering collaborative play. Furthermore, players could trap the creatures they battle for domestication and battle. A competitive element could be introduced where players could battle each other for sport. The essential idea here is a geospacial MMPRPG, played in realtime in the real world.

So could this work or am I just crazy?

There is a lot of very interesting dialog in this thread. I know the common consensus has been that EJB is not a game oriented technology, but a critical assumption has been made. J2EE may not be suitable for real time applications, but it looks perfect for turn-based games such as board games, text adventures, and turn-based strategy games. I am working on speccing out a complex web-based turn-based strategy game and can see applicable uses for almost the entire J2EE spec. JSP/Servlet for my presentation layer, EJB for my application logic and database abstraction, and possibly even JMS for talking to alternative I/O like SMS messaging. So, be careful when completely ruling J2EE out of the game world. Square pegs work wonders in square holes.

What kind of lessons have you learned in your project? Are the EJBs necessary?

Hello all.
I'm looking for input. I am about to start writing a web-based turn-based multiplayer business sim. You get to start your own software empire, and try to crush you opponents with underhanded business practices. My design outline can be found at http://www.nukesoft.org/stuff/vc.html . I intend to write the game using JSPs and Servlets. I am still on the fence about using EJB for the business logic. Please tell me what you think.

I am shopping around for a cell phone, and, being a Java developer, want something I can work on. What carrier do you all recommend as being friendly to Java developers. For example, Cingular seems low cost, but only has one Java enabled phone and I can't bring my own. So, what are your recommendations for a phone and a service provider? Thanks,
Delta

Absolutly. Here are some of my prior works.
www.nukesoft.org

Other ommited specifications:
Max number of people per zone: approx 500
Max number of people on screen at once: approx 75

I am writing this system singlehandedly for learning purposes. I have no illusions of creating the next SWG. Since I have started, I have learned a ton about threads and synchronization, the full screen graphics API, java sound, TCP/IP, protocal design, object serialization, JDBC, and SQL.

Hello all,
I need some help. I am working on creating a tile based, sprite based MMORPG engine. Think MMO Zelda. My system is three teared, with a client, a transaction server, and a database for persistence. I have come to the part where I need to handle player movement. Whenever a player moves, other players in the same zone need to be notified so they can draw the changes properly. Now, I was thinking, if every time an entity moved (player or NPC) all players were notified, the bandwidth would quickly add up, so I came up with the following idea:

A data structure will be maintained for each zone that stores the position of each active entity (player and NPC). Each active will have a list of other actives within its "square of influence" (a few grid squares past the edge of the screen). Whenever an active moves, it will first drop any references that have left the square of influence, then acquire any new references that have entered the square on influence, and finally notify all references within the square that the move has been made so they can update their respective client displays. This system works based on the assumption that active A can "see" active B if and only if B can "see" A. This data structure could also be extended to allow the passing of communication messages to everyone on the screen.

Does this all make sense? Am I on the right track? Thanks,
Delta.