Online games powered by serious technology
To the players it is fun and games, but there's a great deal of very complex "behind-the-scenes" technology at work in today's global online gaming environment.
The network architecture for online gaming is growing increasingly sophisticated as the genre evolves.
Industry observers note that in just a few decades, games have moved light-years away from gobbling pacmans and primitive graphics.
Today, they say, games like Everquest and Ultima employ artificial intelligence and complex client-server systems to enable their millions of subscribers to role-play in massively multiplayer online (MMO) environments.
A unique feature of MMO games is that they are "persistent" -- the fantasy gaming world is always available, and the plots and events continue to develop even while players are not playing their characters.
Games have already influenced the way movies and advertisements are designed, and experts speculate they may play a future role in the way online networks are architected.
