Game Server Research Articles

Game-o-Meta: Trusted Federated Learning Scheme for P2P Gaming Metaverse beyond 5G Networks.

The aim of the peer-to-peer (P2P) decentralized gaming industry has shifted towards realistic gaming environment (GE) support for game players (GPs). Recent innovations in the metaverse have motivated the gaming industry to look beyond augmented reality and virtual reality engines, which improve the reality of virtual game worlds. In gaming metaverses (GMs), GPs can play, socialize, and trade virtual objects in the GE. On game servers (GSs), the collected GM data are analyzed by artificial intelligence models to personalize the GE according to the GP. However, communication with GSs suffers from high-end latency, bandwidth concerns, and issues regarding the security and privacy of GP data, which pose a severe threat to the emerging GM landscape. Thus, we proposed a scheme, Game-o-Meta, that integrates federated learning in the GE, with GP data being trained on local devices only. We envisioned the GE over a sixth-generation tactile internet service to address the bandwidth and latency issues and assure real-time haptic control. In the GM, the GP's game tasks are collected and trained on the GS, and then a pre-trained model is downloaded by the GP, which is trained using local data. The proposed scheme was compared against traditional schemes based on parameters such as GP task offloading, GP avatar rendering latency, and GS availability. The results indicated the viability of the proposed scheme.

CLOUD GAMING

Cloud gaming, sometimes referred to as gaming-as-a-service, is a form of online gaming that allows users to access video games without having to install them on their own computers. It leverages the power of cloud computing to enable users to access games from remote locations, either on dedicated cloud gaming servers or through peer-to-peer networks. This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of cloud gaming, its current state of development, and the potential opportunities and challenges it presents. KEYWORDS Cloud Gaming, Gaming-as-a-Service, Cloud Computing, Stream Technology.

Challenges and Solutions of the Application of Data-Driven Technology in Network 3D Game Design

The development of online games is in full swing in recent years, and it is developing in the direction of 3D, exquisite, and has attained significant popularity. However, there are many challenges faced while designing 3D games that are targeted to specific user groups and can run stably. Data-driven technology can collect game preferences and identify common technical defects and other issues in game design for effective completion of frameworks. To solve the problem and difficulty of obtaining the data for 3D games and the possibility of flaws in the framework design, this paper adopts data-driven technology to descriptively analyze the obtained data through website log files, web beacons, and JS page tags and constructs a network after experimenting with the mathematical model of 3D modeling for gaming. For this purpose, a 3D game framework was successfully designed. After testing the data of the server for three cases while there are 4000, 8000, and 12000 players online at a given time, where each of which ran for 3 consecutive days, and it was concluded that the average CPU occupancy rate of these three cases was below 50%, especially in the range of about 30% for the majority of these players. Moreover, it can stably support about 10000 simultaneous online players for a relatively long period of time. For game servers and character servers, the results are excellent and have the potential to be adopted in future for 3D gaming industry.

Evaluating the Impact of Gamification on the Online Shop of a Game Server: A Comparison between the Portuguese and North American Contexts

Online commerce has been growing rapidly in an increasingly digital world, and gamification, the practice of designing games in a context outside the industry itself, can be an effective strategy to stimulate consumer engagement and conversion rate. This paper describes the design process involved in introducing gamification into an online shop that is supported by two game servers of the same kind, namely one in the United States of America (US) and another in Portugal (PT). Through the various phases of the design thinking process, a gamified system was implemented to meet the needs of various types of users frequently found in the shops. The gamification elements used were intended to increase user engagement with the shops so that they would become more aware of existing products and the introduction of new products, promoting purchase through intangible challenges and rewards. The impacts on server revenues and user satisfaction (N = 138) were evaluated one month after introducing the gamification techniques. The results show that gamification has a positive effect on users, with a significant increase in consumer interaction in both shops. However, from a business point of view, the results show only an increase in revenue for the US shop, while the Portuguese shop shows no significant differences compared to previous months. Of the two user groups analyzed, only those who frequent the US shop show receptivity toward intangible rewards, with tangible rewards (discounts) being a greater motivating factor for both groups.

Imaging in international sporting event: experience from the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022

To explain the design and delivery of diagnostic imaging and image-guided intervention services for an international games. The authors share their experiences from the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022. A retrospective analysis was undertaken of anonymised data from the Zillion, Easyvision (RIS and PACS), and Encounter platforms for image viewing, interpretation and reporting during the Games. The data collected included age and gender, type of sport, nature of the injury, and imaging findings with diagnoses. The number of individuals who had radiological investigations at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games was 518 and the vast majority of them were athletes (90 %). The average age of athletes who had imaging was 28 years and that of non-athletes who accessed imaging services was 46.4 years with male predominance. Magnetic resonance imaging was the most frequently used imaging technique and the lower limb was the most frequently imaged body part. Athletes playing netball and beach volleyball had the highest percentage of injuries. The authors share their experience from the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 regarding the nuances and challenges in radiology service provision for an international sports event that would be helpful for musculoskeletal radiologists in the design and delivery of similar international events in the future.

Resource Orchestration at the Edge: Intelligent Management of mmWave RAN and Gaming Application QoE Enhancement

Millimeter wave (mmWave) is a crucial component in 5G and beyond 5G communications. However, the dense deployment of mmWave transceivers would impose a heavy burden on the management of the radio access network (RAN). This challenge increases the need for leveraging intelligent network management techniques. Thanks to edge computing, machine learning (ML) based network management algorithms and other delay-sensitive user applications can operate at the network edge. But, due to the limited resources on edge servers, developing an orchestration scheme for intelligent network management and user applications is necessary. In this paper, we provide an edge-centric resource management framework for intelligent RAN management and applications with the awareness of the users’ quality of experiences (QoE). Specifically, we consider the scenario of a mmWave communication system equipped with an ML-based mmWave beam tracking algorithm. The users under this system request mobile edge gaming services. We formulate a game QoE aware orchestration problem as a non-linear integer programming and prove its NP-hardness. To reduce the complexity, we decompose the original problem into two subproblems, the service placement problem for mobile edge gaming and the configuration selection and placement problem for mmWave beam tracking. Then, we solve the two subproblems consecutively with heuristic approaches. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed orchestration scheme.

Measures to Promote Creative and Safe Online Games for Children and Youth Through a Collaboration Network

Nowadays, children and youth have easy access to online games. Inappropriate online gaming can be harmful to young people. As a result, the purpose of this research study is to study the situation of online games and online gaming among children and youth, and to create a network of collaboration in order to develop measures to promote creative and safe online games for youth through research and development (R&D). The findings revealed that Thai children and youth play more online games, and Thailand still has legal restrictions on online game services. The measures to promote creative and safe online games for children and youth are based on the principle of "controlling and promoting", which consists of (1) controlling the manufacturing process; (2) controlling the process of providing online game services; (3) surveillance and supervision (4) promoting the production of creative and safe games; (5) promoting secure gaming online. The implementation of measures requires mechanisms at both the policy and operational levels; It should be implemented in a network affiliate manner to promote the products and services of creative and safe online games for young people.

Модели и методы вычисления задержек при предоставлении услуг пользователем на сервисных платформах сеансовых инфокоммуникационных услуг

The purpose of this article is to develop methods for calculating the qualitative characteristics of infocommunication services whose workloads consist of user sessions. The scope of application of these methods affects the development and maintenance of infocommunication multi-user services, in terms of ensuring a high quality of user service. The quality of service (QoS) parameters under consideration determine the characteristics of both the system as a whole and individual elements of its architecture, and for this type of service, the qualitative characteristics are the waiting time for the start of user session maintenance, the load factor of server equipment, the number of user sessions simultaneously supported by the system during its error-free operation. Multi-user services are considered from the point of view of queuing theory as a network of queuing systems, with the duration of the user session and the time of receipt of requests for services by gaming services distributed exponentially. To evaluate the parameters of the models of infocommunication multi-user services, Jackson networks were chosen as a mathematical apparatus, which allow us to consider the necessary systems of the type M/M/v. As an approbation of the results, a mathematical analysis of multi-user gaming services was proposed, since their popularity, and hence the flow of users to game servers, is increasing at a tremendous rate. As an additional tool for assessing the qualitative characteristics of the session models under consideration, simulation modeling was proposed, which allows us to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed analytical method and analyze the characteristics of complex systems with time distribution laws other than exponential, for example, long-tailed distributions (Weibull, Pareto, etc.)

Determinants of Mobile Game Service Adoption in Generation Z and Millennials in Indonesia

Technological advances that are growing from time to time make game developers vying to create the latest games that attract the attention of game lovers. The emergence of various game genres encourages high usage intentions and usage behavior for true game lovers. This research is here to facilitate the factors that influence the adoption of mobile game services in the Generation Z and Millennials groups in Indonesia. The research instrument used an online questionnaire distributed to 210 respondents who were none other than users of mobile game services from the Generation Z and Millennial generations. The data collection process was carried out in the period from March to May 2021. Next, the researchers tested the hypothesis using a variant-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) called Partial Least Square (PLS) and the SmartPLS version 3.0 application as a tool to analyze it. This research concludes that perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and facilitating conditions have a positive and significant effect on usage intention. Then the results of this research also confirm facilitating conditions, habit and usage intention also have a positive and significant influence on use behavior.game developers, this can be considered for the improvement of mobile game services in the future. Suggestions for further research to increase the number of samples that are able to represent mobile game users as a whole and for further studies to use other approaches in predicting mobile game usage behavior, for example with the TRA, TPB, and UTAUT2 models. We believe that the characteristics of Generation Z and Millennials are user groups who are sensitive to technological developments, especially in specific game genres. This study explores the impact of the convenience offered by several mobile game service application.

Covid-19 And Its After-Effects On Macau’s Gaming Industry

This study measured the magnitude of Covid-19’s impact on the casino gaming industry in Macau, analyzed the current Asian gaming market, and provided an overview of the industry outlook in the post-Covid era. Using the Time Series analysis techniques, statistically significant decreases in all sections of the industry have been identified and quantified. In addition, quarterly gaming revenue for the future three years were forecasted. Based on current market conditions and the results of data analyses, this study suggests that: 1) a more diversified tourism and gaming service portfolio is needed; 2) collaborations with surrounding areas need to be established; 3) Macau’s gaming industry will need to explore new markets for future sustainable growth; 4) the rebound of Macau’s gaming industry in the near future will largely depend on China’s COVID policy.

A Bot Approach-Based Capacity Testing Automation for Online Video Games

Online games are a type of computer game that can be accessed using the internet network and played with other players to play the same game. With the advance in online game development, game developers are required to develop games that can be played by many players in one game, especially in the capacity of an online game server. Those needs can be achieved by utilizing bots. However, previous works only conducted bot-based testing for testing network capabilities. In this research, those works will be extended further ftotesting the capacity of a game server. The result of this research suggests that bot approach testing can simulate real players adequately. Other than that, the bot approach also can be scalable. However, the result also suggests that the bot approach still has some limitations as bots cannot simulate the dynamics shown by real players. Special attention is also needed towards clients utilized for executing the bots for them to be scalable.

Cloud Servers: Resource Optimization Using Different Energy Saving Techniques.

Currently, researchers are working to contribute to the emerging fields of cloud computing, edge computing, and distributed systems. The major area of interest is to examine and understand their performance. The major globally leading companies, such as Google, Amazon, ONLIVE, Giaki, and eBay, are truly concerned about the impact of energy consumption. These cloud computing companies use huge data centers, consisting of virtual computers that are positioned worldwide and necessitate exceptionally high-power costs to preserve. The increased requirement for energy consumption in IT firms has posed many challenges for cloud computing companies pertinent to power expenses. Energy utilization is reliant upon numerous aspects, for example, the service level agreement, techniques for choosing the virtual machine, the applied optimization strategies and policies, and kinds of workload. The present paper tries to provide an answer to challenges related to energy-saving through the assistance of both dynamic voltage and frequency scaling techniques for gaming data centers. Also, to evaluate both the dynamic voltage and frequency scaling techniques compared to non-power-aware and static threshold detection techniques. The findings will facilitate service suppliers in how to encounter the quality of service and experience limitations by fulfilling the service level agreements. For this purpose, the CloudSim platform is applied for the application of a situation in which game traces are employed as a workload for analyzing the procedure. The findings evidenced that an assortment of good quality techniques can benefit gaming servers to conserve energy expenditures and sustain the best quality of service for consumers located universally. The originality of this research presents a prospect to examine which procedure performs good (for example, dynamic, static, or non-power aware). The findings validate that less energy is utilized by applying a dynamic voltage and frequency method along with fewer service level agreement violations, and better quality of service and experience, in contrast with static threshold consolidation or non-power aware technique.

Security Concerns in MMO Games-Analysis of a Potent Application Layer DDoS Threat.

The application layer in the Internet protocol suite offers a significant degree of freedom regarding the orchestration of distributed denial-of-service attacks due to many different and unstandardized protocols. The primary focus of defending against application-layer distributed denial-of-service attacks has traditionally been Hypertext Transfer Protocols oriented while observing individual users’ actions independently from one another. In this paper, we present and analyze a novel application-layer DDoS attack in massively multiplayer online games that utilize the cooperative efforts of the attackers to deplete the server’s or players’ bandwidth. The attack exploits in-game dependencies between players to cause a massive spike in bandwidth while the attackers’ traffic remains legitimate. We introduce a multiplayer-relations graph to model user behavior on a game server. Additionally, we demonstrate the attack’s devastating capabilities on an emulated World of Warcraft server. Lastly, we discuss flaws of the existing defense mechanisms and possible approaches for the detection of these attacks using graph theory and multiplayer-relations graphs.

Videogames-as-a-service: How does in-game value co-creation enhance premium gaming co-creation experience for players?

The games as a service model have enabled game developers to reach worldwide audiences and regard games as services rather than products, opening up new avenues to establish value propositions. Freemium–premium gaming models of value co-creation have been studied in the past. Fostering the conversion of free users to premium subscribers and retaining those premium users are critical objectives for premium service providers. It is critical to effectively enable value co-creation through appropriate value propositions when the logic shifts from products to services such as depicted in the service-dominant logic. Since value propositions are the cornerstone of value, they must include insights about the customer's preferences, capabilities, and expectations, which can be gathered through the customer's value co-creation activities. Furthermore, little is known about the value realization that is assessed after using premium gaming services. The current study, which builds on the conceptual foundations of S-D logic, intends to investigate the gaming players' in-game co-creation experiences in the premium gaming setting through value co-creation activities. The model was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM)-based partial least based on survey data collected from 346 online gamers who used in-game premium services. The findings indicate that superior functionality, competition, sociability, personalization, and self-indulgence all have a substantial impact on players' desire to co-create with gaming service providers. Furthermore, the data revealed a significant outcome of value realization, which is appraised based on the premium gaming players' co-creation experience aspects. The findings of study 1 were further validated through qualitative intuitions to ensure the robustness of the valuable key insights, which confirms that different premium gaming motivations are necessary to enhance the value co-creation ties and gamer's overall co-creation experience positively. To improve premium players' co-creation experiences, online game service providers should route co-creation media into premium gaming settings.

PATTERNS OF FINANCIAL CRIMES USING CRYPTOCURRENCIES

The cryptocurrency market is rapidly gaining momentum and is becoming an alternative financial platform to the traditional financial trading market. Currently, cryptocurrency is of particular interest to criminals to make illegal profits, such as money laundering, terrorist financing, financing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, corruption. The main purpose of the study is to identify information signs that indicate the implementation of illegal financial transactions using cryptocurrencies. Empirical (observation, description) and theoretical (grouping, synthesis, abstraction) research methods were used for this research. According to the results of the study, it is established that the signs of illegal transactions with cryptocurrency are: non-transparent cryptocurrency contracts; encrypted cryptocurrency transactions; impersonal transactions; fragmented systematic transactions into marginal, limited amounts to avoid identification; transactions that do not comply with the approved transaction protocols; currency exchange transactions by unidentified traders; confusing cryptocurrency to other forms of electronic funds in order to withdraw such funds in cash. The authors of the article identify the main agents in the cryptocurrency economy (centralized and decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, token issuers, distribution services, gaming services, cryptocurrency wallets). The paper describes software products for the identification of illegal cryptocurrency transactions. The results of the study are of practical value to national regulators in strengthening financial stability and combating illegal financial transactions. management of financial institutions to improve the system of counteraction to illegal financial transactions using payment cards, namely the creation of separate bodies for analysis and regulation of fraud in the banking sector, strengthening responsibility for fraud at the legislative level, establishing a single authentication standard for customers, development of open banking.

EasySM: A Data-Driven Intelligent Decision Support System for Server Merge

As an independent social and economic entity, game servers plays a dominant role in building a stable, living, and attractive virtual world in massive multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs). We propose and implement a novel intelligent decision support system for server merge (SM) for maintaining the game ecology at the macro level. The services provided by this system include server health diagnosis, server merge assessment, and combination strategy recommendation. Specifically, we design an effective time series prediction algorithm to diagnose the health status of one server (e.g., user activity, online time, daily revenue) based on real game scenarios, and then select the servers with poor status from all servers. Moreover, to dig out the inherent development laws of servers from the historical merge records, we leverage a correlation measurement algorithm to find the historical merged servers that are similar to the servers to be merged and then evaluate the potential trend after merging, which can assist experts to make reasonable decisions. We deploy our system into practice for multiple MMORPGs and achieve sound online performance endorsed by the game operation team.

GraphRR: A multiplex Graph based Reciprocal friend Recommender system with applications on online gaming service

Reciprocal Recommender Systems (RRSs) are recommender systems specifically designed for people-to-people recommendation tasks, e.g., online gaming, dating, and recruitment services. They are fundamentally different from the conventional user–item recommendations. In RRSs, user interactions are usually directional, i.e., they are initiated by one side and not necessarily reciprocated by the other side. In the meanwhile, abundant multiplex user interactions, e.g., Friend Request and Send Message, are collated by the online services and can be represented into a large-scale multiplex user interaction graph. Despite the substantial progress of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) on capturing users’ multiplex interactions, naive GNNs are insufficient to capture the additional information implied from the directions of interactions, as they are usually not designed to preserve the asymmetric proximities between users.In the paper, we present a novel Graph neural network for Reciprocal Recommendation (GraphRR) to utilize the multiplex user interactions. Specifically, three ego graphs are augmented based on the directions of interactions for each user to capture his preference, attraction and similarity in a finer granularity. Then the multiplexity-aware GNN modules are further applied to measure the contributions of different interaction types. Extensive experiments are conducted in the datasets of the real-world large-scale online games from NetEase Games, a leading game provider for worldwide users. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of GraphRR over baseline methods and provide empirical evidence for the benefits of the proposed ego graph augmentation. The source code is also available online for reproductivity11https://github.com/changym3/GraphRR..

Legal Regulation of Cloud Gaming

The paper considers the problems of using cloud gaming technology. The author defines cloud gaming and explores three main models according to which remote access to games can be provided: software as a service, a platform as a service, and an infrastructure as a service. The author examines two blocks of issues that arise when using cloud services for games. In particular, taking several cloud gaming services as a case study, the author examines the following issues from the field of intellectual property: communicating to the public and reproducing computer games and contract law regulation of relations between a cloud services’ operator, a player and a rightholder. The paper highlights the legal nature of a relationship between the cloud services’ operator and the player and elements of the corresponding contract. It is concluded that the current legal regulation allows the parties involved to resolve most issues in this area.

Joint optimization of social interactivity and server provisioning for interactive games in edge computing

Distributed interactive applications (DIAs), like immersive virtual reality and multiplayer cloud games, where players team-up and form social communities to participate in collaborative virtual events, dominate the modern cloud multimedia industry. Still, due to the massive workload, intensive graphics processing and delay intolerance, conventional cloud-only models are increasingly becoming ineffective. Thankfully, with the shift towards Mobile Edge Computing, game providers can leverage existing cellular infrastructure to deploy edge servers that supply gaming services in a highly accessible fashion. One fundamental challenge, that naturally arises, is the discovery of the most suitable player-to-edge server assignment strategy, that achieves a balanced trade-off between conflicting objectives that refer to high social interactivity on the one hand and low-cost server provisioning on the other. In this article, the core properties of social interactivity for gaming DIAs are investigated through formal formulation under diverse social aspects and strict assignment rules, respecting, in the meantime, the provisioning cost and constraints of the edge servers. We call this the “Social Interactivity-oriented Edge Allocation” (SIEA) problem and prove its NP-hardness. Based on our theoretical analysis, we present SIEA-H, a two-phase heuristic algorithm to efficiently assign players to servers and then iteratively refine the edge allocation strategy. SIEA-H is evaluated using comprehensive trace-driven simulations. The results demonstrate how it surpasses the baseline and state-of-the-art assignment alternatives in reducing the total cost, especially as the number of servers and their capacity grows, or the coverage area expands, while for players it exhibits the highest admission rate and the best overall resource management.

Influence of adaptive video gaming on quality of life and social relationships

ABSTRACT In recent years, the field of adaptive video gaming has been growing rapidly. However, its acceptance as an integral service within the rehabilitation field has been slow to develop and no studies have examined the benefits of providing adaptive gaming services for individuals with disabilities. 110 participants with 6 months or more of adaptive gaming experience took part in a self-administered survey which comprised of questions assessing gaming habits, quality of life, and social relationships. Most participants either Agreed or Strongly Agreed that adaptive gaming has had a significant positive influence on their quality of life (90.9%), satisfaction with life (87.3%), and social relationships (67.2%). Two thirds of participants reported using their adaptive equipment for tasks other than gaming. Individuals who game more often, and with others, had significantly higher Social Relationship scores (p = 0.007; p = 0.044), and gaming frequency had a significant positive correlation with the overall influence of adaptive gaming (p = 0.002). There are possible quality of life and social benefits from participation in adaptive gaming, as well as translation to functional tasks. Furthermore, gaming more frequently, gaming with others, and using adaptive gaming equipment for other tasks seems to correlate with greater benefits from adaptive gaming.