Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Registration
Registration is the process where new users create their account name and set their
password usually through a website. Although it is a common practice to implement
this functionality as a web-based application, players are often allowed to register
within the game. This has the advantage of players not having to go to another
screen, typing in the URL, and so on. Casual players just don't have the patience.
When a new user successfully creates an account, the backend web server creates the
database entry with the user name, password, and other collected information. This
database is called the authentication database or Auth DB for short.
The authentication DB is then used to authenticate users during the time when
players are attempting to log in to the game.
Other important information that the authentication database may store is the user's
place of residence, e-mail, date of birth, etc. This data often comes from the user
entry during the registration process. The other kinds of information that could be
automatically collected are data such as date and time of registration, the IP from
where the person is registering, etc. These data are valuable to collect in order
establish trends as the game progresses in its deployment stages.
Further, the authentication DB could also keep track of the login activity. Every time
a player logs in or out, a DB log is recorded along with other information such as the
IP. This kind of data is helpful in discovering the user trends of your community.
For example, this data can help you find out the last players activity in the week and
be designated as the server update period, or if the user activity was high at certain
periods of a week or day, it would allow yourself to be more cautious about server
stability during these times.
