Subject: SIG on Networked Computer Games

From: Martin Mauve <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 14:15:20 +0100

Hi all,

I'm posting this to rmt since networked computer games have already been
a topic here.

cheers,

Martin

                   Call for Participation

Special Interest Group on Networked Computer Games (SIG NetGame)

Over the past three to four years networked computer games have been a
tremendous commercial success. Games like Ultima Online, Everquest, Doom,
Quake, Diablo II and others have attracted an audience of several million players,
worldwide. They are one of the few Internet services for which end users are
actually willing to pay money. As the Internet becomes ubiquitous through wireless
and/or cheaper Internet access the the audience for networked computer games will
increase rapidly, creating a mass market with a multi-billion dollar volume.  

However, most - if not all - of the successful networked computer games have
encountered a large number of technical challenges that are inherent to this
application area. These range from inadequate support by network and transport
protocols to consistency problems and security breaches (or cheating as players
prefer to call it). At the same time scientists have begun to discover networked
computer games as an extremely challenging and rewarding area of research. What
makes this area of research particularly fascinating is that solutions found for
networked computer games tend to solve related problems in other areas such as
computer supported collaborative work, distance education and telemedicine. 

It is the aim of this SIG to bring together developers of commercial and
non-commercial networked computer games, service providers, scientists, and
interested individuals in order to discuss - and possibly solve - technical challenges
of networked computer games. Topics of interest include, but are certainly not
limited to: 

- network and transport protocols 
- application-level protocol design 
- architectures for service providers 
- consistency mechanisms 
- security / cheating prevention 
- middle-ware (e.g. Direct Play) 
- billing and charging 

... for networked computer games. 

You can subscribe to the NetGame mailing list through the NetGame 
webpage:

  http://www.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/netgame/index.html

or by sending a mail to:

  [email-masked] 

  with the following line in the BODY of the message: 

  subscribe

I'm looking forward to interesting discussions on netgame-l.

Sincerely,

Martin Mauve

Disclaimer: This SIG is currently not affiliated with any other
organization.