Guest editorial for special issue on network and systems support for games

摘要

Computer games, now a significant economic sector and subject to both academic and industry research and development, continue to grow in popularity at a substantial rate. Multiplayer networked games, which enable hundreds of thousands of players to simultaneously interact with each other, are now widely used not only just for entertainment, but also for socializing, business, commerce, scientific experimentation, and many other practical purposes. Literally millions of people spend their time and money in game worlds such as World of Warcraft, which now hosts more than 10 million subscribers with a peak of 500,000 players online at a given time, or Entropia Universe, which holds the number 1 and number 2 record for the most expensive "virtual" real estate player-to-player sale, each over US$300,000 per virtual property.