Ken asks:
> why the question is that while I think price is the main factor
> people keep away from on-line games, I would like to know if there
> are other hurdles or there are no big problems.
>
> my idea is there are issues other than technical development.
>
> one observation is that people play on-line games for long hours,
> a luxury they usually don't have on the move. so the games should
> be attractive when played in short sessions, thus limits designs.
>
> is it a problem in reality or I just worry too much?
No, you are not worrying too much. It's a real issue.
My fav. PC Game, Battlefield 1942 has a startup time (to get into a
multiplayer game) that exceeds the time most people even have to play a
mobile handset game (2 minutes or so). Counterstrike is worse by a
factor of 3 to 5.
On the project I was on, we made sure that there was no data entry ...
authentication info. was stored in the applications memory. We managed
to get the time from launch to multiplayer game to around 20 seconds,
not bad considering the network latency of 4 seconds.
I also agree you want a persistent game you can drop in for a few
minutes ... that was the big economic game I was pitching.
I'm looking into implementing a SMS based invite system that will 'know'
the phone number of each user and when the game launches will go to the
right "game lobby" by default.
Bill Volk
BonusMobile
Received on Mon Apr 12 00:50:36 2004