Mobile MMOG

[larry]

theres a very nice article on mobile MMOG at gamasutra,
you will need membership to read it.

http://www.gamasutra.com/resource_guide/20030916/palm_01.shtml

This article nicely summarises the potential for mobile gaming and includes some notes on J2ME. Most importantly, J2ME remains buggy and limited in comparison to C++.

This reflects my experience too, however, MIDP2 opens up a lot of
possibilities and its just a matter of time before MIDP is robust and powerful enough to support enticing apps. I really did not enjoy the tedious Symbian coding.

I think bluetooth is a key element too, it fits the mobile gaming model perfectly.  ( mr Price... any word on that bluetooth demo

enjoy..
Larry

[gregorypierce]

Until there are enough bluetooth devices out there or unlimited data plans, MMOGs on wireless devices will remain a pipe dream.

[davidaprice]

Bluetooth is no good for MMOG, since it only supports up to 8 players. While it would be possible to have a massive deployment of Bluetooth 'access points' connected to the Internet, I don't see any evidence of that happening.

For mobile data, my operator charges 4.88 or 2.14 euros per MB, depending on the plan. Since typical network latencies are over 1 second, it doesn't make sense to send data more often than about once per second. Let's say the packets are 128 bytes (I typically send far less). Times 2 for both directions, times 60x60 for one hour, times rate = 4.29 or 1.88 euros per hour. (US people, remember 1 euro is close to 1 US dollar). For comparison, that's one beer or less than half a beer in my local pub.

So I think that the practicality of mobile MMOGs depends a lot on the design, and that the network latencies constrain you towards more affordable designs anyway.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Markus_Persson]

Since typical network latencies are over 1 second, it doesn't make sense to send data more often than about once per second.

.. wha?
I disagree. With 500ms latency in an FPS, you still send data more than two times per second.

[davidaprice]

In an FPS, you generally assume that data is free. 500ms latency is borderline-bearable for an FPS, and you certainly don't want to add to it by sending less frequent update messages.

Mobile network latency (average 1-2 secs, in my experience) is simply too much for FPS games, so you've already given up on that. For the sorts of games that work at mobile network latencies, the average 500ms increase in latency from sending updates once per second may matter less to your customer than the saved cost of lots of packet header data and lots of immediately-outdated incremental updates.

[Markus_Persson]

I agree that sending data more seldom on a mobile game than on a PC fps is a good thing, but I don't agree that it has anything to do with the latency.

[larry]

For clarity, I dont think bluetooth is appropriate for MMOg but added it as an aside for multiplayer gaming.
( 1-on-1 or team of 4)

Times 2 for both directions, times 60x60 for one hour, times rate = 4.29 or 1.88 euros per hour. (US people, remember 1 euro is close to 1 US dollar). For comparison, that's one beer or less than half a beer in my local pub.

I like the beer analogy. In south africa beer is about 50c euro. It takes 1 beer to put me out for an entire evening, so actually remains cheaper in my case