On the geographic distribution of on-line game servers and players

ABSTRACT

With a shift in the on-line gaming landscape from individually hosted game servers, to gaming services centrally hosted by game publishers, game console manufacturers, and third-party infrastructure providers, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the geographic distribution of current game servers and players. Much like content-distribution networks are key in improving user web experience, game server placement is key in improving game player experience. This paper explores the current geographic distribution of a global set of servers for several popular on-line games as well as the geographic distribution of a set of players for a particular on-line game server. Our results quantify the breakup of current game servers across continents and show, quite suprisingly, that players do not necessarily migrate to servers that are geographically close.

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