1 Web services for the management of persistent online game factions Author: François Deliège Advisor: Professor Esteban Zimányi Co-Advisor: Jehan Snyers d'Attenhoven ULB

2 Introduction Goal: Integration of an emerging technology into a new application field Technology: Web services Application field: Role playing games

3 Contents ➔ Star Wars Combine ■ Web services ■ Specifications ■ Solution design ■ Results ■ Conclusions

4 Star Wars Combine ■ MMORPG “Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game” ➔ Role Playing Game ➔ Thousands of players ➔ Virtual world ■ Persistence

5 Star Wars Combine ■ Game concepts Star Wars Universe Factions Characters

6 Star Wars Combine ■ Architecture evolution Direct connection

7 Star Wars Combine Direct Trust relationship

8 Star Wars Combine Indirect trust relationship

9 Contents ✔ Star Wars Combine ➔ Web services ■ Specifications ■ Solution design ■ Results ■ Conclusions

10 Web services ■ Definition “A web service is a software application identified by a URI, whose interfaces and bindings are capable of being defined, described and discovered as XML artifacts.” ■ Why web services? Interoperability Open Standards HTTP

11 Web services ■ Web services in the business world Google Amazon.com ■ Web services in games

12 Web services ■ How does it work ? 1.Finding a web service 2.Getting a web service description 3.Using a web service

13 Web services ■ Technologies XML SOAP WSDL UDDI WSFL...

14 Contents ✔ Star Wars Combine ✔ Web services ➔ Specifications ■ Solution design ■ Results ■ Conclusions

15 Specifications ■ Objectives: Create Integrate Prove usability Gain community acceptance ■ Features: Direct trust relationship Single Sign On ■ Issues: Client limitations Cheating

16 Contents ✔ Star Wars Combine ✔ Web services ✔ Specifications ➔ Solution design ■ Results ■ Conclusions

17 Solution design ■ Introduction of the client concept

18 Solution design ■ Web services component integration

19 Solution design ■ Authentication Password protection Single Sign On

20 Solution design ■ Authorization process Administrator permission ➔ Client authentication ➔ Client and user authentication User permission ➔ Packages concept

21 Solution design ■ Tools: Automatic documentation generation ➔ Web services interface ➔ Graphical interface Statistics Rules and packages management

22 Contents ✔ Star Wars Combine ✔ Web services ✔ Specifications ✔ Solution design ➔ Results ■ Conclusions

23 Results ■ 62,000+ uses since the 23 th of June

24 Results ■ 12 clients registered Galactic Empire Galactic Market ■ 50 web services created Galactic Map Inventories Character profile Galactic News Star Wars Combine messaging ■ User feedback I’ve got quite fond of Web Services. I’ve been able to greatly enhance the available features on my faction’s website, as well as create completely new ones. With the current development, who knows what I’ll be able to do next. –Togan Jano CenterPoint Space Station Developer A promising feature ! Expansion into asset authentication may be implemented. –Niels Galactic Market Developer I like web services a lot. It was really easy to work with all of the functions. Web services are a powerful tool. That simple link created by WS makes the entire community seem more like one object, rather than several. –Selatos PHP GTK client Developer I would like to, on behalf of the Galactic Market, its users and staff, thank Jolly for the work he has done on the new Star Wars Combine Web Services project. His additions to our arsenal against scammers and thieves has been invaluable. For that, we are very thankfull. Thanks again, Jolly, keep up the excellent work! –Niels Assistant Sim Master Star Wars Combine Web services quick development generated various questions but it seems they eventually earned their place into the Star Wars Combine concept. –Veynom Sim Master Star Wars Combine

25 Results ■ Platform independence: C++ Java C# PHP, PHP-GTK

26 Contents ✔ Star Wars Combine ✔ Web services ✔ Specifications ✔ Solution design ✔ Results ➔ Conclusions

27 Conclusions ■ Where do we stand today ? Web services are stable Web services are useful Community acceptance ■ Where to go from there ? More web services Web services management and specification team Indirect trust relationship ■ Becoming a reference

28 Thank you ■ Questions