Article A dedicated gaming server can make a huge difference in your online gaming experience. But finding the right game server hosting solution can be confusing.
Players
normally choose a server with the shortest ping time and then connect
directly to the game server. As a result, hosting firms that offer game
servers need to connect them to the fastest and most robust network
connections available. Game servers also need to be tweaked for the
best operating system and application configurations, and security must
also be given due consideration.
Hosting
companies specializing game servers therefore provide supercharged
server and network deployments with applicable gaming software. Servers
available to gamers on the distributed model include popular games such
as Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, Day of Defeat, Doom 3, Half-Life,
Natural Selection, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Spearhead,
Battlefield 1942, Halo, Unreal Tournament 2003, America's Army, Quake
3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory.
Many
pure-play hosting companies have cropped up to deliver game server
offerings. Traditional hosting companies such as C I Host have also
launched their own gaming divisions to supply game servers to the
retail marketplace.
C I
Host and other hosting firms dedicated more directly to gaming have
invested in providing these services because the online gaming market
is poised for explosive growth.
In-Stat,
a research firm that covers the full spectrum of advanced
communications, predicts that the total online gaming marketplace will
grow from just over a billion dollars in 2003 to nearly $4 billion by
the end of 2008. The research firm expects that this revenue growth
will be fueled by advertising, and by millions of new players that are
expected to participate in online games by 2008. In-Stat believes that
roughly half of the US populous will participate in online games by
2008, with the massive multi-player online role playing game population
peaking by 2005.
"To
this point, OLG has been stifled by the fact that a typical gamer is
currently paying over a dollar an hour to play video games," Eric
Mantion, a senior analyst with In-Stat/MDR, "whereas the typical TV
viewer is paying about 13 cents an hour." Mantion believes that
advertising sales will be able to lower end-user costs in the online
gaming world in the very same fashion it has done for commercial
television. "When the costs of OLG per hour starts to approach the
level of TV, you can expect people to spend a comparable amount of time
gaming.
In-Stat/MDR
isn't the only company that believes online gaming will grow. The
foremost authority in TV ratings, Nielsen, has started to develop
metrics to analyze the use of ads in games. Once the metrics are in
place, the revenues will follow, says Mantion. "The secret strength of
online games will be when the volumes of people playing grow to the
point where advertisers will start buying ads that will not only be
interactive, but also targeted at specific demographics of players."
The
NPD Group looked at players and found that two-thirds of surveyed 13 to
44-year-old were using their personal computers instead of gaming
consoles. The study found that online gamers spent more time playing PC
games online than offline (60 percent compared to 40 percent), while
the opposite was true for connected console gamers.
With
so much growth and usage anticipated around online gaming, the sector
is expected to offer a revenue boom for service providers, and a range
of inexpensive server options for consumers. Presently, some gaming
servers can be leased for $30 per month, which is cheaper than many
entry-level dedicated servers.
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