Call
for Papers
Massively Multiuser
Online Gaming Systems and
Applications
Special Issue of
Springer’s Multimedia Tools and Applications
(MTAP)
Guest
Editors:
Shervin
Shirmohammadi, University
of Ottawa, Canada
Marc Claypool,
Worcester
Polytechnic Institute, U.S.A.
Massively Multiuser Online Games (MMOG) are now
widely used not only for gaming, but also for socializing, business and
commerce, experimentation, and many other practical purposes. One could
argue that
MMOGs are the “killer app” that can bring Virtual Reality into the
realm of
eSociety, creating an environment with millions of people taking part
in
various activities and daily life, but electronically. This is evident
from the
fact that real companies are opening “virtual branches” in these online
gaming
platforms, such as clothing manufacturers, IBM, and CNN, to name a few
companies present in Second Life. Virtual currencies such as Second
Life’s Linden
(or L$) is already
being exchanged for real-world money, as are virtual items and virtual
properties that are sold for real money. Massive number of users spend
their
time with their fellow players at online games like EverQuest, World of
Warcraft, and Second Life. World of Warcraft, for example, has over ten
million
(10,000,000) users with a peak of over 500,000 players interacting at a
given
time in the digital world. There is no doubt that MMOGs have a great
potential
to become the corner stone of an eSociety platform bringing the
massiveness of
the real society into the digital realm.
This special issue will cover enabling
technologies
and systems for MMOGs, as well as applications of MMOGs outside of
gaming. The
focus will be mostly on the “massive” aspect of games, but high-quality
papers
in real-time interactive multiuser games (albeit not massive) will also
be
considered if they address issues that can benefit massive games too.
Hence, topics
include, but are not limited to:
- Networking support for massive
number of players
- Networked games (non-massive)
- P2P architectures for better scalability
- Zoning techniques, Area of
Interest Management, and seamless
player movement
- Application-Layer Multicasting for
massive user support
- Performance evaluation and traffic/player
pattern measurements
- Audio/video conferencing in games
- Latency compensation techniques
- Content adaptation for players on
heterogeneous receivers
- Cheating: detection, avoidance,
and repair
- Multiuser mobile games
- Case studies about applications of
gaming in other disciplines such as business, pedagogy, biology,
psychology,
etc.
Only papers that have
not been
published and/or submitted elsewhere will be considered. Exception will
be made
for previously-published high-quality conference/workshop papers, as
long as they
have been substantially extended in terms of technical content and
evaluation.
Papers
should be no more than 20
pages, including figures and tables, formatted according to MTAP
guidelines, please
see:
http://www.springeronline.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,4-40109-70-35538244-0,00.html
PDF
submissions must be emailed
directly to BOTH the guest editors at shervin@discover.uottawa.ca
and claypool@cs.wpi.edu
before the submission
deadline below. If the submission is an extended version of a
previously-published conference paper, authors must also include
explanation of
what parts have been extended.
Important Dates
Manuscript Submission
January 15th 2009
Notification of Decision
February 15th 2009
Final Papers due
March
15th 2009
Tentative Publication date
before end of 2009