More About MMOs - Wizards and Warriors: Massively Multiplayer Online Game Creation - page 30

players will load up to connect to the MMO. The client PC is the machine that
the players will use to play the game.

The second thing that is required is a server, located somewhere on the
Internet. The server will be running a server operating system such as Linux
or Windows Server. The server holds all the information about the game, such
as the quest information, player data such as current gold or XP (experience
points). The server will also store the player

s location within the world. The
reason for having a server is two-fold; first, the server needs to be the central
logging on point for all clients, and second, the server will be security enabled.
If the MMO data was contained on the client PC, it would be easy for the player
to find out where the information of XP and gold was stored and amend it. This
would allow for wholesale cheating. To store information and data, the server
also requires a database; this could be MySQL or some other common database
application.

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Note

Experience points (XP) are values that players can accrue for completing tasks within a game. These
experience points can normally be traded in for skill points, which players can use to upgrade their
characters.

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For the clients to connect to the server, they need the server s location. Every

computer device that accesses the Internet must have an IP address. An IP
address contains information about the machine s location by country, the

service provider providing the address, and a number assigned to that particular
computer.

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An IP address consists of a set of four numbers separated by a dot; an example
of an IP address could be 127.0.0.1.

Note

The 127.0.0.1 address is called a loopbackaddress, as this is assigned automatically to your PC s

network card. It is used for testing that your network card is working correctly. If you go to a
command prompt and type ping 127.0.0.1 , you will get a reply.

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This IP address is not the same as the one given to your PC by your Internet provider.