Networking and Online Games: Understanding and Engineering Multiplayer Internet Games
Product Description
The computer game industry is clearly growing in the direction of multiplayer, online games. Understanding the demands of games on IP (Internet Protocol) networks is essential for ISP (Internet Service Provider) engineers to develop appropriate IP services. Correspondingly, knowledge of the underlying network’s capabilities is vital for game developers. Networking and Online Games concisely draws together and illustrates the overlapping and interacting technical concerns of these sectors. The text clarifies the principles behind modern multiplayer communication systems and the techniques underlying contemporary networked games. The traffic patterns that modern games impose on networks, and how network per… More >>
Networking and Online Games: Understanding and Engineering Multiplayer Internet Games
This book is an incredible waste of time for anyone even remotely interested in multiplayer games development. Much of the content is too general to be of use, and it varies from basic games knowledge, to basic networking principles. According to this book, Everquest was released in 1993…Needless to say that I wasn’t too impressed.
Rating: 1 / 5
I am still reading the book but it already gave me a very distinctive feel of a textbook, grossly overpriced because professors can MAKE students buy these.
First impression: the book is 232 pages. I know that this is not at all a criteria of quality but this was the first alarm – 232 page books rarely cost $100+ (I wish I looked at that when I was buying it).
Second impression: when you charge THAT much, can’t you get somebody to proof read the text? My English is lame at best but there are sentences that are incoherent, not even talking about constructs like “the sophisticated … (something) was sophisticated”.
Third impression… I don’t have it yet, I’m still reading the book, I didn’t get to the meat yet and I don’t want to judge technical level without reading (would be incorrect, don’t you reckon). I know that buy the time I end I will be too mellow about the money and bone idle and I will not post a review.
I assume there will be useful information but I already know this book won’t be in my favorites.
Rating: 2 / 5
Wiley has a habit of doing this. It commissions (ie. pays for and owns the copyright on) a technical book, puts it out in hardcover and charges over $100 for it. Sometimes, if the field is very narrow, this pricing might be ok. But, much of this book’s material is generic. I grant that the book is indeed a excellent overview of online games. With an accurate synopsis of its history, dating back to the MUD games of the 80s.
But several chapters cover material widely available in other computer books that are much cheaper. Like the chapter on the Internet Protocol, describing IPv4, the IP address formats and routing methods. Or the chapter on using widely available tools like tcpdump to find where the players are coming from. Then there is the chapter on broadband access networks. Addison-Wesley and O’Reilly have several books that treat these topics adequately.
Rating: 3 / 5