|
Update: December 22, 2003
Commerce services (integration of online shopping services within application); additional documentation and tutorials detailing new commerce API; improved example game; performance improvements.
What is Business Integration for Games?
Business Integration for Games provides a highly specialized client that game developers bind into their games. This client provides an API for accessing IBM® WebSphere® products that co-ordinate user-defined business logic. This business logic connects the game to Web services, allowing new content to be dynamically located and made available, payments to be co-ordinated, items to be traded between players, and secure messages to be passed between games and IBM's e-business environment.
How does it work?
Business Integration for Games addresses the problem of separating business logic from game logic. It places all the business logic outside the game, therefore trades can be coordinated with payments and players with auction bids, all within the game experience (not on eBay).
For online game companies, Business Integration for Games reduces development costs and enables a continued, incremental revenue stream in some other fashion than a monthly subscription (for example, charging for new expansion packs or access to new parts of the virtual world, new weapons, magic, etc.). These charges could be captured from within the game itself. It can also allow them to combine separate functions, potentially provided by third-parties, into single function calls from the game (for example, combining capture of a payment transaction with allocation of a DRM license for a digital asset and downloading of content).
The key value of Business Integration for Games is that it serves as the framework within which multiple parties can easily be connected by a game developer.
Further information is available:
Note to users of Release 1
Some of the file and network protocols have been modified in Release 2, so it is no longer compatible with Release 1. The server running at alphaWorks is being upgraded to support Release 2 clients. In order to continue using the technology, it is necessary to upgrade to Release 2. During the server upgrade, all account data will be deleted from the alphaWorks server; therefore, during the client installation process, do not specify an existing account.
|
