EverQuest Sony’s online game Setting in middle age Can be a dwarf, troll, priest or warrior etc.

Goal Accumulate experiences and get rich Could get together with some other players The game is played around the clock –The virtual world keeps changing even if you’re not online

Profit In US, $11 billion per year on computer and video game (EverQuest, Xbox, relevant hardware) Expect $30 billion in 2009 For EverQuest, 600K gamers pay $13 to $15 per month. CD-ROM cost $50 Less than $3 million to bring to the market

Scaling up At any time, 150K gamers are online More than 1500 servers In one data centers, more than 30km wires connect computers

Scaling up In 1999, gamers flood into San Diego Force Sony’s ISP to add more lines Still remains long trench in the pavement of San Diego Now the transaction rates rival Visas and Wall Street

Death Star A room contains servers of Sony’s online game To prevent overcrowding, servers are divided into clusters Each cluster is a world of EverQuest, consisting of dual-processor computers

Each world can support 2500 players Now there are 52 worlds Sony has begun using blade servers Still a limit, need space to cool them down

Just in time system Allocates computer resources based on user demand System looks up the data and software in one machine and use other idle processing resources

If can’t beat them, join them NOC (Network Operations Center) handles all problems Bugs related to economy are the most bothersome Estimate size of underground market of virtual items: $150 million NOC in charge of checking hackers Official exchange site of Sony

How big? How big the market can be? The learning curve for a new player in EverQuest is tough, and tend to spend 20 hours a week on the game To increase, Sony recently tested a service to let players order pizza in the game