Should Online Console Games Have Dedicated Servers? 69
Thanks to GameSpot for its 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing the problems of online console gaming without dedicated servers. The author points out: "Let's consider the top upcoming shooters on both the PS2 and the Xbox: Killzone and Halo 2... the cold, hard fact is that these games will only offer a maximum of 12- and 16-player online multiplayer, respectively. In other words, if you can find a good nearby server, you'll be playing a game that isn't fundamentally different than what we've been playing for about eight years on the PC in Quake 1." He continues by contrasting this to the PC experience: "EA has promised that the upcoming Battlefield 2, currently scheduled to ship in the first part of 2005, will have more than 100 simultaneous players", before suggesting: "The bottom line is that console games need dedicated servers. As it stands today, only individual Xboxes are serving matches while simultaneously allowing the host to play. You simply cannot run a 24- or 32-player game with just a 733MHz processor and 64MB of system RAM available, hooked up to a potentially flaky cable or DSL line."
should they? yes. (Score:5, Insightful)
They should give the server software for people as well to run dedicated servers.. it's the normal way anyways.
Re:should they? yes. (Score:2)
Soooo (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Soooo (Score:2)
With that kind of architecture, the packets would be so thin that 32 players on a cable modem wouldn't be a real problem. Yeah, once you start getti
Re:Soooo (Score:2)
Aah...here [slashdot.org] we go...
In America, More = Better! (Score:5, Insightful)
Am I the only one who thinks that smaller servers are the most fun? First off, in my experience with games like Day of Defeat and the Battlefield series, larger servers usually equate to laggier servers, no matter what hardware you're running. Second, in team based games, one or two non-cooperative miscreants can ruin the fun for everbody. Let more people in a server, increase the chance that it sucks. Third, why turn a great, teamwork-oriented, strategic experience like you can get in Battlefield into an out-and-out Frag-a-thon by adding 32 players? I have really never, not once, ever, had as much fun in a 32+ person server in Battlefield as I have in an intimate 16-player game with even the most basic kindergarten-level teamwork going on.
I think the console powers-that-be should avoid larger servers at all cost. Don't give in to peer pressure!
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:1, Insightful)
Discipline.
Why do I want to run around with 100 12-year-olds who still think killing teammates is hilarious?
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:3, Informative)
For the uninitiated, basically you create characters and have to go through a single player training exercise in order to play at all. And the better you do on training and the more training you do (there is optional additional training for medic and special ops and such) the more abilities you have in the game. This makes it harder to have throwaway identities. Also you start out with 10 honor points, you if you
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:2)
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:1)
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, what they did made sense. Once you died, you didn't respawn, and you had to wait until someone either won, or the time ran out. Usually the timer was somewhere in the 8:00 range.
Sometimes you could die in the first 30 seconds. Or even the first 10 seconds if you were trying something new. And then you had to wait...7 minutes plus...to play again for another 30 seconds. Th
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:2)
As for me, I don't like America's Army because of the hoops you have to jump through before you can play (they call it "training"). The single player training is fine, b
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:5, Interesting)
For example, my FPS of choice at the moment, Enemy Territory [enemy-territory.com], has the option for limited lives. Once you've tried it, going back to unlimited lives anything is like being a Sumo wrestler beating up first graders: It's boring and far too easy.
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:1)
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:2)
I play the medic. I get shot a lot when trying to heal my team mates - I tend to be in the thick of the action. Sometimes I heal them, run off, then heal myself. More often than not I have to re-spawn.
Finishing a level will 20 kills and 30 deaths is not uncommon for me. Limited lives would suck.
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:2)
Come and join us sometime: 67.18.55.148:27965 (=SG= Clan ET server). We have a great crew of regulars, not to mention some of the best-ranked ET players.
Best of all, no freakin' panzers, so we have a very low percentage of idiots.
Give me shout if you plan on coming over, I'll try to be on and introduce you around. We're always on the lookout for new faces to join the fun.
A quick word of warning: the server runs the shrubmod and a few custom maps so
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:4, Insightful)
With the attempt of having more players on a server, the gameplay gets adjusted to require more players (ever tried to play a duel in RTCW?). This usually results in larger maps and vehicles that require more people to control. In UT2004 you have vehicles that can be controlled by a single person, but most games attempt to differentiate between driver and gunner(s) to "encourage team play".
Sometimes I wish for the days of Doom with four players max to return. Doom 3 seems to do that, but I expect people to prefer modding HL2 instead so they can continue making "truly teamplay dependant" mods.
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:2)
I still play old RTS games for just that reason - BattleZone 1 or Total Annihilation work fantastically with only 4 players, whereas I figure the
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:2)
the thing is that dedicated servers is the only way to have those bigger games without serious lag, with consoles even more so because the consoles simply cannot cope with the performance requirements and nobody of the players has a pipe fat enough for the serving.
sure it's funner to have teamwork and smaller teams, but fuck, you ain't getting tha ton public
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:3, Informative)
That said, on maps with a well defined structure like Tobruk and Battle of the Bulge, I find large games (~40-50 players) can be great fun. The structure of the map encourages some limited team work, so you end up with large-scale gunfights and semi-coordinated attacks.
Of course, large servers with stupid maps like Stalingr
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:2)
Well, I'm sure you're not the only one, but I certainly disagree with you. I LOVE the chaos of a massive battle. I was dying to play Planetside, but then learned that it required no real FPS skill to play.
Some truly cool games could be created if massive numbers of players were possible.
Imagine the battle of Helms Deep, where each enemy is a real person. Now, of course none of this will truly be possible until major leaps in computing
Re:In America, More = Better! (Score:1)
This is why... (Score:3, Insightful)
Let me tell you, there's no better way to play an online shooter than with 26 teammates..
Re:This is why... (Score:1, Insightful)
Seriously, in big 32+ public servers, do you ever see any real, cohesive teamwork? They're chaos, and basically the only thing that having 'teams' does is cut the number of opponents in half.
Except of course if you have TKers.
50 player games may be more STIMULATING, but I ask you to think critically whether they are FUN.
Re:This is why... (Score:1)
Re:This is why... (Score:1)
Re:This is why... (Score:2)
Re:This is why... (Score:2)
I do see teamwork possible in large servers (although the server I was on was technically around 16 players at the time.) There was one player using voice chat to order people to gather around and await an attack signal. From there, the entire team attemped a big rush to the next capture point.
This tactic failed tw
Re:This is why... (Score:1)
Microsoft reneging (Score:3, Insightful)
Basically it's paying for developers who are too lazy to impliment Jabber as a standard presence protocol for online gaming.
What are you talking about? (Score:5, Informative)
Consoles should have seperate servers because a console can ensure the integrity of the experience. I get no HPBs, headshot scripts, wallhacks when I play counterstrike on XBL.
I can get out-of-game invites that don't cause compatability problems or suck performance like Gamespy does.
I get voice comm in every title.
Then there's a myriad of new and smaller bells and whistles it's got - but those weren't there when I made my purchasing decision, and frankly - they're insignificant compared to the big 3 of quality/security, out-of-game invites, and voice comm.
That's the quality of service I pay $50 a year for. If you're going to slam the service, apparently without ever having tried it, or knowing much about it, you could at least get the numbers accurate.
Re:What are you talking about? (Score:2)
Yes, the broadband-only requirement keeps modem users from serving games, which is a Good Thing. Yes, the fact that you will be kickbanned from XBox Live if you connect with a mod chip is a G
Re:What are you talking about? (Score:3, Insightful)
And yet no PS2 game offers anything of the sort.
It can be done - but it hasn't. They haven't even tried.
In the meantime, the service means alot to me, the gamer - and I'm willing to pay for it. I don't particularly care who's delivering cheat-free gaming. All that matters is that it only exists on one platform today, that platform has games I want to play, and the price for the service is extremely reasonable.
If
Re:What are you talking about? (Score:2)
Which platform has no cheating online? There is cheating on XBL. Check out PSO for XBL. Full of cheaters. Also people can use glitches in the games to cheat without mods: for example, there is a glitch in Crimson Skies where a Gyrocopter can get INSIDE a buil
Easy answer , Yes. (Score:3, Interesting)
In an ideal world, this question should answer itself. The problems are simple, how many servers? You don't want to buy and implement 200 servers, when the game turns out to be received luke-warmly (LOL luke-warmly) it can easily turn into a huge time/resource waste. But if you don't have enough servers to meet demand, people get pissy quick and write off trying to play. Maybe they'll come back when you have more servers, maybe not.
Another poster had a great suggestion to allow the server software to be released, which seems like an easy answer as well. But, what will it take, 2 days before a hacked server first appears, then you opening up your customers to an experience that is out of your control and usually unpleasant. They would have to have some serious code verification to validate the server code when clients connect to make sure everything is (still) on the up and up.
Ideally yes, they should host the servers, but it would be with alot of risk
Re:Easy answer , Yes. (Score:2)
Even if it is easy to hack a server to be unpleasant, which I'm not so sure it would be for something not intended to be modified (unlike most PC FPS servers which welcome modification), its not the same as hacking a client. User joines server, user sees something is wrong with server, user simply leaves and never goes back. In all my y
The author seems to be jumping to conclusions (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The author seems to be jumping to conclusions (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The author seems to be jumping to conclusions (Score:2)
More players does not equal better (Score:4, Insightful)
I think we'd all agree that the constraints of previous systems actually meant that companies had to be more creative. The same is true here. I've had far more fun with the four player Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow than nearly any other online game. I'm not saying I don't run across my share of stupid people, but it's far easier to find 4 good people than it is 60-100. When you do find people that play fair, that don't camp, that play as a team, SCPT is an amazing multiplayer game - and usually lagless. I'm all up for more creative gameplay with what we have, not just adding more players.
Re:More players does not equal better (Score:1, Funny)
Distributed Server (Score:2, Interesting)
This may also be good for cheat detection as fragments of binary can be exchanged and compared (most matches is true code, no match == kick).
Downside: Bandwidth?
Patent this now!
Re:Distributed Server (Score:1, Informative)
You can establish a "portal" to other servers. You have them link back to you and your set.
The problem with dedicated servers. (Score:5, Interesting)
The big problem I have with dedicated servers is this: are the game development companies goin to still be running them years from now? 5? 10?
Probably not. However, what if I and a friend enjoy that game and want to continue playing online against each other past the date when the vendor decides to take their servers offline for a given game? We'd be SOL.
The big advantage of being able to run your own servers in such games is that you don't have to worry about such obscelesence. If five years from now I want to play Doom against my brother across town, we can do so. But if we want to play Amplitude or SSX 3? Probably not.
Yaz.
Re:The problem with dedicated servers. (Score:2, Insightful)
If I want to 1 on 1 with a buddy in UT2K4 either of us can use our systems as the client and server. If we want to go head first into a battlefield with two dozen people I can join one of the many dedicated servers up already. Most PC FPS have acted like this since forev
Re:The problem with dedicated servers. (Score:2)
Except that there aren't too many console games out there which prrovide such a service. The servers for PSS2 games such as Amplitude, SOCOM, and SSX 3 don't have publically available server software. What's worse, even if they did it wouldn't necessaily do you a w
Re:The problem with dedicated servers. (Score:1)
Re:The problem with dedicated servers. (Score:1)
Yes, for fair play reasons (Score:3, Interesting)
So yes, there should be dedicated servers. This doesn't mean it needs to be run by the company that sells the game (in fact, unless that company will guarantee X number of years of running the server, I would be worried if it did). You can distribute the dedicated server as part of the game.
Make the dedicated server more interesting than a terminal window. Allow the host to view players and chat as if he was in "observe" mode. Perhaps have an opt-in system where anyone who connects to the game and meets the pre-defined Hosting parameters can become part of a Hosting round-robin so that the hosts have the option of playing (sort of like moving the dealer button around in Poker). Perhaps find a way to give some sort of reward to the host (in a team-game you could allow someone who had just hosted to have their first pick in what class they want to play, in a single-player game the past-host might enter the game with X seconds of invulnerability, etc).
Besides, some people just like to watch. While you might not have enough people in this category, you would surely have -some- that would log in just to serve as the host. Especially if the game allowed the host to interact in some fundamental but non-player role (like a dungeon master).
I also think people are starting to see why the cell/grid technology folks like Sony have been positing could be a big step forward. Someone would still need to be the aggregation host, but all parties could assist in the processing. Might not be as useful in a traditional FPS, but I think the FPS has been fleshed out pretty well, time for the next round.
Tribes Arial Assault (Score:2)
This sort of thing really isn't a tricky thing for console game makers to do; they just don't want to let the players have that much control over the server environment.
yeah (Score:1)
Yeah, too bad Microsoft didn't think ahead and use a 800MHz processor or something.
*rolls eyes*
Re:Actually XBox does use dedicated servers of a s (Score:2, Informative)
In all honesty... (Score:1)
Re:In all honesty... (Score:1)
Whatever the case, it would be a very sad thing if Halo 3 was limited to 16 or 24 players, while PC gamers could blast away at 150 or 200 of their closest friends in another game.
150 or 200?! Holy crap, how many friends does this guy have? Let alone how many of them play video games? I have like 10-20, but 150?! Christ dude, why not go and form a small village of gamers with that many friends?
Rainbow 6: Raven Shield (Score:2)
More is not better (Score:1)
Don't forget Modern Combat (Score:1)
dedicated xbox (Score:1)
reduce the network overhead (Score:2)
Update packets for some FPS games seem to be un-necessarely complicated. They have to keep updating the models and the positioning.
Some packets should be always sent at an update on a clock.
PlayerID X Y Z HDirectionVector VDirectionVector
for where the player is and which way they're looking.
But everything else should be sent as a delta; established at the beginning of the match and assumed to stay constant the res