A shared infrastructure, based on emerging on demand computing models, that supports multiple games offers an attractive option for large-scale multiplayer online game providers who want to avoid the risk of investing in dedicated resources. In this paper, we describe a prototype implementation of a service platform for online games. The platform design follows the on demand computing paradigm. It offers integration using open standards and off-the-shelf software and embraces virtualization and simplification to enable sharing resources across games. We describe our experience with identifying appropriate performance metrics for provisioning game servers and with implementing reusable platform components that provide useful functionality for a variety of games. The traditional approach taken by most publishers and providers of large-scale multiplayer online games is to install a dedicated infrastructure for each game. This approach has many drawbacks. It involves high risk and investment with little knowledge of how successful a new game will be. For example, an examination of subscriber populations of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs)
Shaikh, Sahu, Rosu, et al. REF describe the design of an on-demand service platform to enable sharing resources across online games.
On demand platform for online games &
IBM Syst. J.
IBM Syst. J.
Computer Science