[MUD-Dev] Retention without Addiction?

[Kwon Ekstrom]

From: "Koster, Raph" <rkoster at soe.sony.com>
> From: Matthew Dobervich

>> If there are any PC game developers that could prove me wrong, I
>> wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard could, and they aren't
>> completely wet behind the ears when it comes to the challenges of
>> large scale networked games.

> What they have done, and done pretty well, is build a large-scale
> lobby.  This lobby connects many instances of small-scale
> networked games.

I agree that they have a massive lobby, although I doubt that it
connects to each small scale game.  From my experience, it appears
to be p2p with a central repository.  Or I suppose several central
repositories (since they split battle.net into separate locations).

Which I suppose would be equivalent to several "instances" would it
not?  It's a technology they're good at, I doubt they would abandon
it for the more conventional centralized server approach.

The only question is... can they maintain the network traffic
required?

I don't know about other people but I've had trouble with battle.net
during peak hours because the servers were so jammed.

If they required paid access, I imagine they could maintain the
network better.  I agree that Blizzard does make excellent games,
they're one of the few companies that has multiple titles on my
shelf.

-- Kwon J. Ekstrom


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