Understanding Gaming: Part 1 – MMOGs

As the first part of our gamer series, we take a look at MMOGs (massive multiplayer online games) and how understanding web hosting can give you the edge against competition.
If you remember the days when playing video games was a mostly solo event, and unless you had two controllers, Mario hopped along the scrolling screen all by himself, prepare to be amazed. Gaming is now a $91.5 billion dollar-a-year industry where both men and women battle it out across the globe, playing each other online despite where they live. It seems only natural that with all of those millions of players, gamers would want to privatize their playtime. This is where MMOGs come in…
What is a MMOG?
MMOG stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Game. These expansive games are accessed through an internet connection that allows a large number of players to play simultaneously across the globe. By installing or purchasing the game software, players are able to access a shared world in which to play.
Behind each of these shared gaming worlds is a hosting structure that is composed of a client and a server. The client is your computer and software, and the server is Midphase (or someone like us) and the machines that we run for you to connect to. These two entities coordinate the flow of data that you need to play.
This is different from other computer games that are only run on your machine. For example, a user purchases Plants vs. Zombies and plays it on their machine: the movements of their plants and zombies can only be viewed on their screen because they’re playing a single player game. To allow multiple players, there is a need for a lot of processing power.
What’s the best hosting practice for MMOGs?
As said above, to send and receive all of these little pieces of information (your actions combined with other’s actions) without the processing power your game may appear glitchy or bogged down. In the gaming world, latency (a slow connection) kills. A robust and reliable hosting infrastructure is integral to MMOG uptime; if your machine isn’t powerful enough to deliver data to all of your gamers worldwide then the online gaming environment will be substandard, a no no in gaming world.
As the first M in MMOG suggests, attendance for these MMOGs can be massive, and the beauty of the internet as a concept means that players from all over the world could require data transfer from your server simultaneously – and in real time – to avoid being eliminated due to latency issues. It’s vital to create an online environment where all gamers are at an equal advantage.
In order to serve your content to gamers worldwide, you may want to consider investing in a Content Delivery Network. This works by replicating your data to various locations around the world and serving content to those who need it from the location which is geographically the closest. This way, your gamers aren’t waiting for their data to transmit to a location in a different hemisphere or continent.
Today’s games have some of the most life-like graphics the world has ever seen, and these can weigh in as data-heavy. To be sure to serve great-looking graphics in real-time in various locations, you’ll need a bandwidth-heavy hosting solution. This is where we can help.
Why Choose Midphase Dedicated Hosting?
Shared and VPS hosting can be troublesome when hosting a gaming server, so we recommend using a dedicated server. Dedicated doesn’t have to mean pricey; for just a little more than shared hosting you can have full access and dedicated space and bandwidth. With dedicated hosting you will also have increased security that you can customize as you see fit while avoiding lag time that you could experience with shared and VPS hosting.
As your audience grows you will need to upgrade your services, which can easily be done from the Midphase CHI interface. Before deciding on a dedicated server, make sure you take a look at our dedicated line featuring: top speeds, next generation technology, security, around the clock tech support and Root/Admin control.

For more info visit: Midphase.com/server-hosting/

Keep up with the latest from the Midphase blog for Part II in our

Understanding Gaming Series