Re: Online games

[Pierre Phaneuf <pphaneuf@sx.nec.com>]

Jan Ekholm wrote:

> > We have a meta-server (implemented as a CGI script) which keeps a list
> > of servers, with informations, current players and statistics for each
> > of them. A client gets the list, displays it to the player, who chooses
> > a server.
> 
> This is a handy feature. Really nice.

The idea of implementing it as a CGI is nice, because we can run it on
our web hosting provider site without hassle. They often do not like
users running daemons, you might not even have shell access and if the
daemon dies, you have to restart it, while with a CGI, it's business as
usual for them, the script is started anew by the HTTP server every time
someone connects and the provider monitor their HTTP server like hawks,
because it is the core of their business. They do all the job for you!

The downside is that a CGI is more passive. It cannot push information
to a client, the client has to poll it. This makes implementing a few
things like chat harder (sending the message to the server is easy, but
how does the message get to its recipient?).

We have chat once the client connects to a game server, but not before.
But you do have a list of the people in the game, the scores, the game
parameters, etc..., so choosing a server is not a shot in the dark for
the player.

-- 
Pierre Phaneuf
Systems Exorcist

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