Tag Archives: 2013

Lamoth: A Message Dissemination Middleware for MMOGs in the Cloud [Poster]

Gascon-Samson J., Kemme, B., Kienzle, J. (2013) Lamoth: A Message Dissemination Middleware for MMOGs in the Cloud, NetGames 2013, Denver, USA
[Preprint] [Poster]

Abstract: Provisionning network resources for Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) poses interesting challenges due to the fact that the load can greatly vary depending on the time or other in-game factors. In this paper, we propose Lamoth, a cloud middleware for MMOGs that provides an interface for in-game message dissemination. Lamoth handles the exchange of game messages between nodes by making use of an arbitrary number of off-the-shelve pub/sub servers deployed in the cloud depending on the game scenario. In order to evaluate our platform, we implement Lamoth on top of Mammoth, McGill’s research-oriented MMOG, and conduct extensive experiments by triggering situations which would cause networks bottlenecks. Our evaluations show that Lamoth can allow a MMOG to scale to high numbers of players and can properly handle extremely-demanding in-game situations if enough resources are provided.

Watchmen: Scalable Cheat-Resistant Support for Distributed Multi-player Online Games

Yahyavi, A., Huguenin, K., Gascon-Samson, J., Kienzle, J., Kemme, B. (2013) Watchmen: Scalable Cheat-Resistant Support for Distributed Multi-player Online Games, ICDCS 2013, Philadelphia, USA
> Acceptance ratio: 13%  [Preprint]

Abstract: Multi-player online games are inherently distributed applications, and a wide range of distributed architectures have been proposed. However, only few successful commercial systems follow such approaches, even given their benefits, due to one main hurdle: the easiness with which cheaters can disrupt the game state computation and dissemination, perform illegal actions, or unduly gain access to sensitive information. The challenge is that any measures used to address cheating must meet the heavy scalability and tight latency requirements of fast paced games. We propose Watchmen, the first distributed scalable protocol designed with cheat detection and prevention in mind that supports fast paced games. It is based on a randomized dynamic proxy scheme for both the dissemination and verification of actions. Furthermore, Watchmen reduces the information exposed to players close to the minimum required to render the game. We build our proof-of-concept prototype on top of Quake III. We show that Watchmen, while scaling to hundreds of players and meeting the tight latency requirements of first person shooter games, is able to significantly reduce opportunities to cheat, even in the presence of collusion.