Lectures 13 and 14 (31 October 07, 1 November 07)
Understanding
Online Game Industry in the United States (Past-Present)
Abstract: This lecture focuses on overall trends
in the U.S. game industry over the past 20 years. Emphasis is
directed to identifying lessons learned and best practices that can help inform and
guide how best to develop online games for the U.S. and other global
markets. Topics include:
- Game types
- Game engines
- Game systems
- Game play experiences
In addition, there is a separate document that lists citations to Reference materials used in preparing the materials below
Game Types
How many different types of
computer/video game are there? This is a simple question, with a less
than simple answer.
A dozen
different types of games are identified, with no
significance to their order of presentation. Though this list of
categories is not exhaustive, it is
representative of the types of games that have been available in the market
during the past 10-30+ years.
- Action
- games that focus on
(near) real-time game play, often involving players with in-game
characters that engage in player actions at a rapid pace.
- The action
features highly competitive activity like pursuing, avoiding, or
shooting at opposing players.
- Effective action game play requires
fast-paced game play, and thus a sufficiently fast game system
processor and low-latency data communication network, when multiple
players are supported.
- Player actions affected through the
player control interface must be quickly visualized, transmitted, and
received by opposing players, since in game characters move quickly
to strike, dodge, block, or retreat.
- The most popular action games
are “first person shooters”, which were first made popular by
the game DOOM starting in late 1993 [Hall 1992, Kushner 2003].
- Action
games tend to require substantial computer processing and graphic
display capabilities, so there are comparatively few found on
handheld or mobile game systems.
- Adventure
- games that focus on
providing game players with a navigational journey into unfamiliar
territories or places of fantasy.
- Players oftentimes must discover
which path to take, what game objects to pick up or drop off along
the journey, which game objects can be used to solve puzzles or open
barriers along the journey path.
- Early adventure games relied on
simply presenting textual descriptions (narrative vignettes) of
locations, conditions, and events along the journey, together with
puzzles (word problems) to solve along the way.
- Player actions are
thus simple, much like turning the page in a novel (Adventure games
are sometimes described as “interactive fiction”).
- Adventure, was the first widely used computer adventure game. It was created in 1973 by Will Crowther on a DEC PDP-10 computer, and coincidentally had earlier also worked on the ARPANET IMP. The game was then significantly extended in 1976 by Don Woods at Stanford
University.
- The
first MUD, an adventure game with multiple players, was developed
by Roy Trubshaw and Richard Bartle at Essex University in England in
1978.
- Adventure and MUDs were also influenced by Dungeon and Dragons (D&D), which first appeared in 1974
- Later
adventure games sought to provide the game player with ever more rich
and immersive visual displays of the locations, conditions, and
events encountered in the course of navigating the games journey.
- Text based adventure games require legible displays for presenting
narrative segments, so they are not commonly found on handheld or mobile game
systems, due to their small display screen size.
- Fighting
- games where player
action focuses on control and engagement in simulated hand-to-hand
combat as its most prominent game play feature.
- Player actions
control their in-game character, which repeatedly encounter opposing
player characters individually or in groups that “gang up” on the
player.
- Fighting games often focus on close quarters combat,
and thus player actions and control interfaces require deft
manipulation of game controls to affect subtle/complex punches, jabs,
body twists, jumps, flips, and other forms of combat choreography
that may or may not be possible in the real world.
- Fighting games are available for use on handheld/mobile game
systems.
- Racing
- games where player
action focuses on control of an in-game vehicle (car, boat,
motorcycle, plane, etc.) that navigate either a predetermined course
or open-ended space, with the goal of being the first to finish, or
to score the most points along the way.
- Game player action focuses on
steering, maneuvering, turning, etc. one’s vehicle, while striking
or avoiding opposing players vehicles during the race.
- Racing games are available for use on handheld/mobile game
systems.
- Role Playing Games
- games where
a player controls in-game characters that possess complex properties
or attributes that define their role in the game.
- Dungeons and
Dragons, (D&D) originated in the early 1970’s, following
from the fantasy worlds of literary authors like J.R.R. Tolkein
(author of Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, etc.), as the
modern role playing game.
- A company called Wizards of the Coast
currently owns the rights to the D&D (d20) computer game engine,
and they license this game engine and associated game play artifacts.
- D&D games were originally played with pencil and paper, an odd
shaped die, and other artifacts, and both game and role play were
monitored by a “dungeon master” who acts as an overlord or god in
determining what kinds or conditions of game/role play can follow
from a given point in game play.
- The dungeon master is not an in-game
play character, but the person who plays it can in effect determine
the rules of game play, as conditions change.
- This is a powerful,
specialized, and comparatively uncommon game play concept.
- Different from things like sports games, where game play may
include non-playing in-game characters like “referees” or
“linemen” in football and soccer, who officiate and enforce the
established and unchanging rules of the sport’s game play.
- Role
playing games do exist for handheld/mobile game systems, but they are
primarily oriented to single user game play, or multiple player
variations where one game system is handed off between players.
- Simulations
- games where player
act to explore, engage, manipulate, and experience a synthetic
environment, apparatus, or setting as the purpose or goal.
- Simulations games can act like an “electronic doll house” where
there is no pre-determined end state or winning condition, so game
play can continue until abandoned.
- Simulation games may also allow
game players to assemble and control elements within a synthetic play
world (e.g., a home, a roller coaster park, a manufacturing business,
or an urban metropolis), and the simulation game engine provides for
in-game control, processing, and manipulation of the play world
(trash accumulates at home, roller coasters crash, manufacturing
business runs out of building materials, city is attacked by
fire-breathing monster, etc.).
- Simulation games do exist for handheld/mobile
game systems but they are primarily oriented to single player game
play.
- Sports
- games that seek to
reasonably recreate the experience of managing a sports team in
well-known athletic events or competitions.
- Game play is split
between choosing in-game team characters and their performance
attributes, and playing the sports game against an opposing team
controlled either by the game system, or by another person.
- Sports
games like football and baseball involve extensive turn-taking
(reciprocal player action) in game play, whereas sports game for
soccer, basketball, and hockey involve continuous action (mutual
player action) in game play.
- Continuous player-vs.-player sports
games are available for use on handheld/mobile
game systems.
- Strategy
- games where player
action controls and manipulates an array of in-game resources (game
pieces) on a game board or virtual game play terrain.
- Strategy games
may be real-time, where game play entails constant player attention
and control of in-game resources in response to opposing players
(human or computer) actions to gather, harvest, produce, use, or
destroy in-game resources that are in the focus of the current game
scenario.
- Strategy games may alternatively be turn-taking, where
players spend time setting and configuring the position and
composition of in-game resources in order to attack or defend attacks
from opponents.
- Turn-taking strategy games are
available for use on handheld/mobile game systems.
- Music, Rhythm, Dance/Movement/Exercise
- games where
player action evokes or control the game system to present musical
content in a rhythmic manner.
- Currently available music&rhythm
games are primarily oriented to single player game play, or multiple
player sharing a common game system who take turns playing the game.
- Parlor, Card and Board Games
- games
where common, well-known card or board game play is the focus.
- Card
games are available for use on
handheld/mobile game systems
- Board games like Checkers
and Chess are also available for use on handheld/mobile game systems.
- Parlor, card, and board games are most popular type of casual games
- Puzzle
- games where game play
focuses to manipulation or placement of game pieces into specified
patterns that define a winning or end of game objective.
- Multiple
player puzzle games are typically turn-taking games, where each
player controls usually controls or places a single game piece per
turn, much like board game like Checkers.
- Puzzle games
are available for use on handheld, mobile, and casual game systems.
- Massively Multiplayer Online
Games
- games that support in-game role playing by large numbers
of concurrent players across a wide-area network.
- MMOG may be based
on any of the preceding game types, but most typically appear as
role-playing games (i.e., massively multiplayer online role play
games—MMORPG).
- MMORPG are not yet available in the commercial
marketplace for handheld/mobile game systems
- this situation is likely
to change in the near future.
- also, expect to see casual MMOGs
Observations across game types:
- One type of game (e.g., role playing games
like Dungeons and Dragons) do not subsume, contain, nor
provide the game play experience, player control interface, game play
scenarios, or player actions found in other types of games.
- Being
skilled in the art of one type of game software development (e.g.,
building a turn-taking RPG) does not imply ability or competent skill
in developing another type of game software (e.g., a continuous play action game).
- Conversely, games of a common type,
like card of board games, raise the obvious possibility for a single
game engine to be developed and shared/reused to support multiple
game kinds of a single type.
- For example, the games Checkers and
Chess both are played on an 8X8 checkerboard.
- being skilled in
the art of developing a Checkers game can suggest the ability or
competent skill in developing a similar game like Chess, especially
if both games can use the same game engine.
- Game
engines can be designed for reuse
- not always an obvious
engineering choice
- reuse increases the initial cost of
game engine development
- enables the creation or rapid development of multiple, related games
- Developing the software for
different kinds of games of the same type, or using the same game
engine, requires a higher level of technical skill and competence in
software development than designing an individual game of a given
type.
Game engines
-
Game types have game engines associated
with them [Abrash 2000, Bishop, Eberly, et.
al., 1998]
- Early game engines were specific to one
game
- This began to change with the
appearance of the Doom game in 1993 [Abrash 2000, Kushner 2003]
- Doom's design and implementation as
software separate the game processing engine from the content (i.e.,
game play rules, in-game pieces, graphic appearance of game space,
in-game characters and pieces, etc.) specific to a game.
-
Game engines thus could be designed to
support a family of related games (a game “product line”) for
games of a given type.
- Game engines suitable for multiple
types of games were also designed [Bishop, Eberly, et al.,
1998]
- performance of the resulting games usually fell
short of those games built using a game engine for a specific type of
games (like networked, first-person shooter action games [Abrash
2000, Sweeney 1999]).
-
Game engines that support
multiple player game play have taken one of four architectural
forms over the past 10-15 years [Abrash
2000, Smed, et al, 2002, Sweeney 1999]
- single node
- peer-to-peer, point-to-point
(all-to-all)
- client-server
- distributed server-network
-
client-server or distributed network
server types now dominate networked multiple player games played on
local-area networks, wide-area networks, or the Internet [Abrash
2000, Smed, et al., 2002, Sweeney 1999].
Example Game Engines
- Example open source software game engines (free, and with source code)
- OGRE -- open source
graphics rendering environment (NOT a game engine) that can be used in
the development of games or game engines supporting the development of
game families for action, racing, simulation, sports, role-playing, and
simple MMOG games.
- Irrilicht -- open source software engine and graphic modeling tool (IrrEdit
-- real-time 3D world and scene graph editor) supporting the
development of game families for action, racing, simulation, sports,
role-playing, and simple MMOG games.
- Crystal Space
-- open source, portal based real-time 3D game engine supporting the
development of game families for action, racing, simulation, sports,
role-playing, and MMOG games.
- Panda3D -- open source game engine, originally developed by Disney Interactive for building Web-based MMOGs like ToonTown, but also supporting the development of role-playing games, virtual worlds, educational and corporate training games.
- Delta 3D -- open source game and simulation engine supporting the development of games for corporate/military training applications.
- OpenNeL -- free/open source software for developing MMORPGs and persistent online virtual worlds
- for Windows and Linux platforms
- was used to develop moderately successful MMORPGs
- can be used to develop commercial MMORPGs or persistent virtual worlds
- development/production status unclear!
- Commercial game engines (for sale, with source code)
- Low-cost game engines (generally for single player or some multi-player games)
- Torque --
a "complete" 2D or 3D game development environment popular with
independent game developers (starting cost, $100-$750/developer with
source code)
- family of game engines supporting either beginner through professional game developers
- supports game development for Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, Microsoft XNA and Nintendo Wii platforms
- dozens of commercial games developed using Torque
- C4 Engine -- a direct competitor to Torque (starting cost, $200/programmer, with source code)
- supports game development for Windows, Mac OSX, and PlayStation 3 platforms
- 3D Game Studio
-- 2D or 3D game development or interactive presentation development
environment for developing action games, role playing games, side
scrollers, flight simulators, board games, sports games, real-time
presentations, and virtual exhibitions (cost $150, NO source code).
- Unity -- 3D game development environment for Windows and Mac OSX (cost $200-2000/programmer)
- High cost, high quality AAA game engines for single player,
multi-player, or massively multi-player, for PC and console platforms
- ID Tech 5 from Id Software
- Unreal 3 from Epic Games
- Gamebryo from Emergent Game Technologies
- CryENGINE 2 from Crytek
- Renderware from Criterion (now owned by Electronic Arts)
- Web portal for 3D game engines
- 3D Engines -- Web portal identifying both commercial and open source 3D game engines -- hundreds of game engines listed!
- Game engines for Mobile devices (including cell phones)
- EDGELIB -- claims support for multiple cell phone devices to develop 2D or 3D games
- Mobiola 3D -- another 3D game engine supporting game development for Symbian OS, Windows Mobile, Linux and BREW-based mobile devices.
- M3GE -- open source 3D mobile game development library in Java
- Automatic 2D Board Game Generator
Game systems
The type of game systems used to
support game play can determine or constrain the possible modes of
game play and player action.
-
Mainframe-based game systems
were the earliest available [Samuel 1960, Spencer 1968].
- Game play on
these computer systems required the player to have access to
mainframe operator console.
- Historically, this was limited to a very
small number of potential players.
- Early game play on these systems
was focused primarily on board games (like Chess [Samuel 1960,
Schaeffer 2001])
- later, “third-person
shooter” games such as SpaceWar [Brand 1972].
- In the past few years, the rise of MMOGs and MMORPGs now employ mainframe-class enterprise computing systems (or system
clusters) to support massive scale networked game
play.
- Network-based game play starting in the
early 1980s, introduced multiple player networked gaming and game
play across data communication networks [Berglund and Cheriton 1985].
- Networked-based game play and game systems have also become the basis for networked virtual
environments used in military simulations, business applications, and
scientific research [Singhal and Zyda 1999].
- Networked game play
accommodating multiple players (i.e., at least two players, each with
a distinct player control interface, like a computer terminal) has
approximately a 20 year history.
-
Arcade-based game play using
dedicated computer game systems located in arcades date to the early 1970’s and to games
like Pong [Kent 2001].
- In many ways, arcade games (also called “video
games” because of their use of a video display of the game board or
play space) defined the contemporary game play style and player
control user interface that we see today.
- This includes game play and
player actions experienced through game action control buttons and
focus mechanism, like joystick or similar player controlled device.
- Arcade/video games up through the mid-late 1980’s relied on fairly
modest processors and graphics
- Many games for
handheld computers and PDAs resemble arcade games of the 1980s and
beyond
-
Console-based game play has
taken over the commercial market for game systems formerly dominated
by arcade game systems.
- Contemporary game consoles have sold
millions (or tens of millions) of these respective game systems.
- Consoles represent an important milestone in the development of
computer game systems in that their vendors control the
specification, design, and operation of the software operating system
and networking capabilities (if any), application program interfaces (APIs), and
software development kits (SDKs).
-
Internet-based game play is
often attributed to have originated or made popular due to the game
Doom [Hall 1992, Kushner
2003].
- The LAN version was designed to exploit
the network data communications protocols commonly available for
developing Internet applications, like the TCP/IP protocol stack. Doom
employed network data communication techniques for “point-to-point”
networking that were well known in the academic research community
[Smed, et al., 2001].
- Many networked multiple player games have been developed and deployed
for use over the Internet, and industry figures and common Web
surveys now indicate over 10,000,000 players per month are playing
multiple player networked games over the Internet
- the vast
majority of these players play one game, Half-Life or
Half-Life: Counterstrike from Valve Software Inc.
- Internet-based game play relies on the common and widespread use of
“game servers” (i.e., a distributed server-network) that game
players must connect (using persistent network connections and
network protocols like TCP/IP) and configure their game system
“client” to utilize such servers, in order for networked multiple
player game play to commence [Smed, et al., 2002, Sweeney
1999].
-
Handheld personal game systems
seem to have become popular with the advent of the Nintendo Game
Boy in 1989
- Other handheld personal games systems have appeared as general-purpose computer systems
(e.g., PDAs)
- Similarly, the user interface controls of these devices (e.g.,
keyboards, buttons, stylus and touch-sensitive display screen) must
also be programmed to specifically enable a player control interface
- Atari LYNX--major innovation in handheld gaming!
- first handheld
game console with color graphics
- supporting multi-player (4 max.)
capabilities via “wired networking using the ComLynx port”
- built-in 3D graphics chipset
- “reversible” user controls.
- Conceived 1987 by Epyx Inc., then licensed for production and
marketing by Atari in 1989.
- Nintendo's GameBoy, also released in 1989
cost less, but lacked the Lynx's features identified above.
- Other major handheld game systems that include major technological advances include the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS (dual screens)
- Mobile/cell phone-based game
systems that operate much like handheld personal game systems
- capable of transmiting and receiving game data
via wireless telephone services.
- networked multiple player games
will need to be designed to accommodate the capabilities and
limitations of the cellular phone system as a data network.
On review of the capabilities for
different types of games and game play for these game systems, a
number of trends over the 40 or so year history of computer games can
be observed and noted. These include transitions:
- from classic pre-computing era
games (board games, card games) to diverse array of game categories
and game genres
- from text-based or low-resolution
graphic displays to the emergence of games as immersive interactive
simulations or simulated experiences
- from game play on large enterprise
computers to game play on smaller, and ever more powerful
computer-based game systems;
- also from large, enterprise mainframe
computers to small, networked, multi-media game/communication
devices
- from isolated single user systems
to both single user and networked multiple player game systems
- from static text-based displays to
immersive high-resolution, rich color, animated graphic displays
- from typewriter keyboards
associated with computer terminals to haptic devices (joysticks or
mice, multi-button arrays, keyboards, touch-sensitive displays),
high resolution computer graphic displays and video input/output
capabilities
- from general purpose computers to
both dedicated purpose and multi-purpose computer-based systems.
- from standalone enterprise systems to broadband data communication networks
for single or multi-user game, and also standalone personal systems.
- from standalone to wired networked
game systems, to wireless short-range and then long-range networks.
Game play experiences
Based on the types of games (i.e., the
software that enacts game scenarios) and game systems identified
above, it becomes possible to recognize a variety of visually
observable modalities of game play expressed as player actions
affected through the game system’s player control interface. These
include:
- discrete turn-taking game play
- as found in common multiple player board or card games (also
physical mechanism-based games like pinball and slot machines),
where each players acts to play a card (or many cards) or move a
game piece (or pieces) per turn
- goal-oriented, winner-loser
game play
- found in action games, fighting games, sports
games, parlor games and others (including Pong), where one or more
players mutually act via their respective player actions to defeat
or overcome the actions of another player (or players).
- exploration, climatic game play
- found in adventure games where players action traverses or
navigates the game play space in search for a pre-determined end
state, final outcome, or end of journey marker, much like a story or
book.
- mediated game play
- found in role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons where
one/more non-playing characters (dungeon master, grand wizard, or
other external game administrator) affects judgments on game play,
arbitrates in-game disputes, provides in-game advice, or changes
rules or conditions of game play during game.
- exploration, experiential game
play
- encountered in simulation games or other “electronic doll
house” games, where there is no pre-determined end state, so that
game play and player action can continue until abandoned.
- collaborative, team-based game
play
- where multiple players must participate in teams to engage
opposing teams (team v. team play) , or to face common opponents
(team v. ominous game-presented opponent(s)—monsters, giants,
ogres, demons, vampires, etc., as may be found in team-oriented
action games (e.g., Unreal Tournament, Quake Arena)
and strategy games.
- intense continuous
reactive/proactive game play
- found in action games,
fighting games, and some back-and-forth sports games like hockey,
soccer, or basketball.
- game play in immersive
interactive simulations in virtual worlds
- typically
incorporating one/more of the other game play modalities within an
online virtual world that need not operate or behave in a manner
similar to the physical/real world as we know it, as increasingly
found in massively multiplayer online games.