Date of Award

1-1-2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Daniel Felix Ritchie School of Engineering and Computer Science

First Advisor

Chris Gauthier-Dickey, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Scott Leutenegger

Third Advisor

Nathan Sturtevant

Fourth Advisor

Mario Lopez

Keywords

Architecture, Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, MMORPG, Multiplayer online game, Networking, Peer to peer, Trading card games

Abstract

We present the first detailed measurement study and models of the virtual populations in popular Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). Our results show that, amongst several MMORPGs with very different play styles, the patterns of behaviors are consistent and can be described using a common set of models.

In addition, we break down actions common to Trading Card Games (TCGs) and explain how they can be executed between players without the need for a third party referee. In each action, the player is either prevented from cheating, or if they do cheat, the opponent will be able to prove they have done so. We show these methods are secure and may be used in many various styles of TCGs. We measure moves in a real TCG to compare to our implementation of Match+Guardian (M+G), our secure Peer-to-Peer (P2P) protocol for implementing online TCGs. Our results, based on an evaluation of M+G's performance on the Android (TM) platform, show that M+G can be used in a P2P fashion on mobile devices.

Finally, we introduce and outline a HYbrid P2P ARchitecture for Trading Card Games, HYPAR-TCG. The system utilizes Distributed Hash Tables (DHTs) and other P2P overlays to store cached game data and to perform game matchmaking. This helps reduce the network and computational load to the central servers. We describe how a centralized server authority can work in concert with a P2P gameplay protocol, while still allowing for reputation and authoritative account management.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Daniel Everett Pittman

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

158 p.

Discipline

Computer science

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