Massively Multiplayer Game Development 2 (Charles River Media Game Development) (v. 2) [Hardcover]

Thor Alexander (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2005 | Series: Charles River Media Game Development

As the MMP game market continues to grow, new challenges and technology hurdles constantly emerge. Massively Multiplayer Game Development 2 is an all new volume in this successful series written to address the challenges faced by the entire MMP development team, not just the programmers. The articles include a wealth of unique knowledge acquired through the experiences of some of the online game industry's best and brightest developers. These developers have worked on the most successful and anticipated MMP games, such as EverQuest, Ultima Online, The Sims Online, Second Life, Asheron's Call, Star Wars Galaxies, and more. Programmers will find a wide array of technical tips and techniques throughout the collection, while designers and producers will find numerous articles filled with readable, informative insights to successful MMP design, along with time and costsaving production methods. Most of the articles are self-contained so they can be read in any order. There is also a companion Web site that will be updated frequently with development news and commentary from the biggest names in online game development. This collection will provide the entire team with ready-to-use techniques and innovative methods for solving all of your MMP challenges.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thor Alexander (California) has been working in the game industry for over twelve years as a designer, engineer and entrepreneur. He has held lead designer and senior programming positions at Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Xatrix Entertainment. He has contributed to titles such as Earth & Beyond and Freelancer as well as the Ultima Online game series. He has also contributed to the books AI Game Programming Wisdom and Game Programming Gems 3 as well as Massively Multiplayer Game Development.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 508 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (February 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584503904
• ISBN-13: 978-1584503903
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,127,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for game developers, November 6, 2005

By 

Ogel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Massively Multiplayer Game Development 2 (Charles River Media Game Development) (v. 2) (Hardcover)

Designing and developing massively multiplayer (MMP) games are very difficult endeavors that often require large teams and time/money investments. This book provides useful knowledge that can help identify and avoid potential development pitfalls.

The articles in this book are separated into three sections - design, engineering, and production techniques. Therefore, it isn't just for programmers - numerous development team members will find value in the book's articles. I think it's important for developers to read most or all of the articles - even those that aren't specifically intended for their position. This practice can increase understanding and communication between the members of interdisciplinary teams.

In each article, a member of the MMP development community explains his or her experience with a particular topic - telling stories in online games, automated testing, anti-cheat mechanisms, etc. While some of the technical essays supply pseudocode, most articles present examples from existing games and other ideas. Don't expect to build an MMP engine or even detailed designs based solely on the information in this book. Instead, these articles will provide insight and advice on many issues you will encounter as you plan and develop an MMP project.

Some of the essays feel a bit "thin", and the authors don't seem to sufficiently explain their topic. In some instances, the topics are simply too complex to fully examine in one or two articles. Nonetheless, the subjects in this book are important for developers to consider. For readers that want to delve deeper into a topic, most articles provide references to related information.

This book is intended for "intermediate/advanced" game developers (specifically those in the MMP industry), and my rating is based on that audience. For those unfamiliar with MMP games and/or software development, it will be difficult to appreciate the articles in this book.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heavy Hitters Write about Game Development, March 21, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Massively Multiplayer Game Development 2 (Charles River Media Game Development) (v. 2) (Hardcover)

Game development has become a big if not major part of today's programming environment. And the big massively multiplayer games (MMG) represent the peak of game development software. Finally, the authors of the articles in this book are people actively engaged at the leading edge of programming MMGs, they're the heavy hitters of the MMG world. Here is what it's really like, here is the depth of skill it takes to build one of these games.

This book is broken down into three major parts:

Design Techniques - 11 Articles from Why People Play to Examining the Gap between Theory and Reality.

Engineering Techniques - 15 Articles From Testing to Rendering Massive Quanities in Real-Time.

Production Techniques - 8 Articles from Project Management to Mass Market for MMP Games. Of particular interest in this section is the article on how a small company, CCP Games, used guerilla marketing techniques to bring EVE Online to the market in the face of competition from the big guys.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good overview and nice detail information, September 7, 2005

By 

wibe "wibe" (Erlangen. germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Massively Multiplayer Game Development 2 (Charles River Media Game Development) (v. 2) (Hardcover)

This book offers a very nice overview for multiplayer game developers. It is split in three parts: First part has about 10 articles answering the question, what people play multiplayer and how to bind them. Second part contains about 15 articles about the technical aspects such as how to reduce message transfer with thousands of players to 1-2kB per second. The third part describes how marketing can be done.

Very nice book !

The only thing is that there is no red line between the articles, since every article was written by independent author.