Adam: Latency happens for lots of reasons. Server hardware isn't up to the task. Easy to solve -- add more hardware. Transfer rates aren't up to snuff. Easy enough add more bandwidth. The hard things to solve are packet transfer frequency and overall lag rate. We can minimize the packet transfer frequency due to the nature of Valhalla. More core game logic is on the server; therefore the client needs fewer updates. The overall lag rate can be controlled on the server by setting up lag stipulations. If someone is lagging too badly then his/her packets can be throttled.
tJY: Will this network be accessible from behind NAT or firewalls?
Adam: The network is accessible from behind our firewalls. The client side of things typically depends on the nature of the firewall/NAT system. As gamers we hate it when games don't allow for it, thus we have designed this ability into the system.
tJY: Can you describe the methods in which you plan to deal with users who decide to cheat or annoy other players?
Adam: We have a no tolerance system. New players are validated via their email account. Advanced members have to validate on a more personal level, meaning we know who they are. If members are causing unnecessary grief to the environment, then they will receive a warning. Beyond that they will be expunged. The nature of the system disallows cheating. If some how someone finds a way to cheat, we'll fix it and they'll also be expunged. We want pure gamers, not cheaters.
tJY: Any system on a large scale needs some means of authentication. In a multi-platform game with a variety of input devices (keyboards, controllers) such as Asgard, how will "passwords" be implemented?
Adam: Anything with a keyboard is a no-brainer. Other than that, most games these days have virtual keyboards that can be accessed with the standard game controller. We have played with idea of some form of quick digital format such as a dongle but found the idea could limit many and subsequently dropped it.
tJY: Can you give us an estimated release date?
Adam: We plan to go Beta first quarter of 2004.
tJY: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Adam: We think the gaming world is evolving. Community is the next step, and we expect Asgard will make that step a lot easier for a lot of people. Thank you for talking with us!
Final Thoughts:
The world of gaming is evolving and multiplatform gaming is where it's headed. TerraForge Inc. is designing some revolutionary software to allow gamers – regardless of their platform, to seamlessly play together. Yummiverse will be their debut game powered by the Valhalla game engine and the ODIN network along with the Asgard Gaming Community. It's quite a large endeavour to pull together so many platforms and varying technologies at once but we think TerraForge has what it takes and to break the boundaries of singular platform gaming and unite all-types of gamers together.
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