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Google and Ubisoft Are Teaming Up To Improve Online Multi-Player Video Games (fortune.com)
Google and Ubisoft announced on Tuesday they have a new project intended to improve the performance of fast-paced, online multi-player video games. From a report: The search giant said it teamed with Ubisoft -- the publisher of popular video games like Assassin's Creed and Far Cry -- to create a gaming developer framework intended for coders that work on online video games. The project is called Agones, which is Greek for "contest" or "gathering," and it will be available in open-source, meaning developers can use it for free and also contribute to the underlying technology. Google pitches Agones as a more cutting-edge way for developers to build multi-player games that don't crash or stutter when thousands of video gamers play at the same time.
Each time people want to play their favorite first-person shooter or other computer resource-heavy online video game with others, the underlying infrastructure that powers the online video game must create a special gaming server that hosts the players. The Agones framework was designed to more efficiently distribute the computing resources necessary to support each online gaming match, thus reducing the complexity of creating each special server while helping coders better track how the computing resources are being used.
Each time people want to play their favorite first-person shooter or other computer resource-heavy online video game with others, the underlying infrastructure that powers the online video game must create a special gaming server that hosts the players. The Agones framework was designed to more efficiently distribute the computing resources necessary to support each online gaming match, thus reducing the complexity of creating each special server while helping coders better track how the computing resources are being used.
what about letting us have lan servers and our own hosted ones that can run the mods and maps we want to run?
The amount of energy they invest into keeping tight control over their games to put them EOL ASAP should be rewarded by players, or better punished.
I miss the time, when dedicated servers were released with the games. And mod tools
Improved strip-mining of your private data, most likely.
So Google can "monetize" it.
Google and Ubisoft Are Teaming Up To Improve Online Multi-Player Video Games Data Mining
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Outside of a few enclaves, there's little push to make games connected online. Those enclaves tend to be centered around large media companies.
Don't get me wrong, I've done plenty of multiplayer, but I don't like it exclusively. I'd rather the devs spend an extra six months polishing gameplay over polishing netcode. Or give the networking funds over to the story devs so I can have some of my in-game actions reflected meaningfully in the story. None of this pallet-swapped outfit or "moral compass" bull. Meaningful reflection.
Pretty sure that would violate the trifecta of the TOS, EULA, and DMCA.
We're doomed.
Google - of the "always in beta, and dropped like a rock for a new idea" fame, plus
Ubisoft - "Buggy, grindy, repetitive with hellish DRM - but at least we're not EA".
There's no way this can turn out as anything good for users.
1) allow dedicated servers again that way we don't have to rely on some shoddy servers purchased on the cheap.
2) Ubisoft aren't exactly well known for their quality multiplayer games. They tend to be pretty broken network wise. Maybe another developer would have been a better choice.
Because that's what we needed. Another gaming network library that will once again abstract too many important things, be insufficiently tunable for different game genres, and impose an invasive obnoxious data un/marshalling scheme on every game object.
And have nothing whatsoever to do with anything profitable at Google, and so it will be abandoned a few weeks after it's published.
cause they want to be able to stuff microtransactions in your ass
LAN parties back in the days of the original Far Cry were off the hook. Once I got broadband at home I really wanted to have the same kind of fun with Far Cry online only to find it to be a complete shiatshow, even getting my account banned after some hacker stole my activation code remotely in less than half an hour. Fast forward 13 years and Ubisoft is still the worst of all AAA game publishers at online multiplayer. Google should cut their losses and run rather than be associated with that crap.
Don't be ridiculous. How are the supposed to datamine every move we make in game and force unwanted patches on us if we're allowed to run our own servers?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I've said it previously, but this really hammers it home. GOOGLE IS EVIL. Pairing with a purveyor of super obnoxious DRM. Ewwwwwww. Ubisoft is disgusting. I won't play their games anymore, even ones I legitimately purchased.
Those are not two names I usually associate with a good user experience... much less an improved one.
Unless, of course, you define a good user experience by not having to worry about lugging around that darned heavy wallet.
What? Give people some control back over the software they've boug... err let people pirate the multi-player? Are you mad?
I mean there's still a lot of games around that use P2P networks between the clients for multi-player. A lot of console games do it, where the connection to an actual server is only for things like game statistics. Even modern MMO type games do it. Take Elite: Dangerous as an example, there they do it most likely to cut server costs. But it's still an always online game. The offline mode they've promised during their kickstarter campaign got scrapped most likely for DRM purposes. If you didn't need the background simulation in that game, and for a lot of players it is almost utterly irrelevant, it would be able to run in a P2P fashion in your own LAN.
It's pronounced "agonies".
227-3517
I can't say that the first word that comes to mind at hearing about Google partnering with anyone is 'improvement'. Now your games' shitty DRM will also spy on you 24/7! What an improvement!
*clippy pops up* It looks like several people have called you a pleeb this match, would you like to buy a better weapon?
a.k.a. Ubishit and "that company that kills 3 out of 2 of their products"
P.S.: the 3rd is from acquisition
Let users have access to their own offical servers all over the world while the game is enjoying sales.
When the game is no longer supported push an update to let people host the game, use p2p. A way to keep multi player working within a user community.
Pushing a big brand party political data mining ad company onto a game is just not useful branding.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Ah, the two companies I love the most getting together
Buy out NCSoft.
Restart City of Heroes.
And the ecosystem is instantly 1000% better.
what about letting us have lan servers and our own hosted ones that can run the mods and maps we want to run?
There are still a handful of games which do this. The most recent release of Unreal Tournament does so, as does Civ VI. A great resource is this page:
http://www.langamelist.com/ind...
Which lists out games exclusively by the ability to do LAN-based multiplayer.
You sound bitter, bro.
CROFL!!! (Creimer Repeating Old Flat Lines)
I read that as "your round titties" and did a double take!!
Anyone who has played Ubisucks games knows they don't even fix their bugs -- I'll be surprised if this will be any different.
Google for "rb6 las vegas 2 sound bug" and you get tons of complaints.
Why would I trust them _this_ time??
Amen!
* Where the fuck is the map editor???
* Where is the mod support???
* Where is the ability to run our OWN servers?
* Where is the ability to set our own MAX players?
Ubisucks can't even do what Valve's L4D and Team Fortress was doing for over a decade ago.
It would be nice to see Google's developer power aimed at shared universe system design, as AR will ultimately need it. Right now, the most hardcore would probably be the systems underlying EVE, but even those are capped at several thousand players on a big iron server.
More than just data mining, for psych assessment, they will know more about you than you know about yourself and exactly how to motivate and control you. Of mixed mind about this, they will clearly target the playgrounds of the psychopaths and the narcissists, player versus player or as I like to call it purse versus purse. No point targeting pve player versus environment because that is cooperative game play, unless they have pvp elements. Now with passing off information to three letter agencies, individuals most certainly will be tagged for investigation, whilst the rest are simply triggered into spending more and more money.
I can see the day when pvp is actually in reality pve, just that the npc non-player characters, pretend to be player characters, that the psychopath and narcissists can abuse with their paid for in real currency overpowered weapons (cheaper on bandwidth and server power, do not have to allow free to play to bring in all the targets, players who do not spend money on free to play games, which you need to spend money on to win).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Don't trust 'em. Lousy customer support, actively hates their own customers, push DRM regardless of user experience, and then there is Uplay.
Add Google to the mix and we'll get ads for Ubisoft games that aren't compatible with our systems while spewing right wing hate.
I am starting to think that Ubisoft falling under the hostile takeover might well be a good thing. Maybe the entire company will suck into a hell gate, ala DOOM.
That's only an EA problem, though.
Nah, just file a "Toxic Behavior" report and have all those players banned.
Ubisoft games are notoriously spammy. Their obnoxious UPlay popups during games which you can't turn off, default cursor positions on DLC you don't own during menu navigation, fake in-game inbox full of notifications on DLC and promotional material, and start pages with promotional links you have to click through before actually getting to the proper game menu, what a shabby way to treat a customer who paid full price for their games.
Twinstiq, game news
More than just data mining, ...
More than data mining, being able to take the game back after the implied rental period has expired.