[Mycolleagues] Special Issue on MMOG Systems and Applications

Call for Papers

Massively Multiuser Online Gaming Systems and Applications

 Special Issue of

Springer’s Multimedia Tools and Applications (MTAP)

Guest Editors:
Shervin Shirmohammadi, University of Ottawa, Canada
Mark Claypool, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, U.S.A.

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Massively Multiuser Online Games (MMOG) are now widely used not only for gaming, but also for socializing, business and commerce, experimentation, and many other practical purposes. One could argue that MMOGs are the “killer app” that can bring Virtual Reality into the realm of eSociety, creating an environment with millions of people taking part in various activities and daily life, but electronically. This is evident from the fact that real companies are opening “virtual branches” in these online gaming platforms, such as clothing manufacturers, IBM, and CNN, to name a few companies present in Second Life. Virtual currencies such as Second Life’s Linden (or L$) are already being exchanged for real-world money, as are virtual items and virtual properties that are sold for real money. Massive numbers of users spend their time with their fellow players at online games like EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and Second Life. World of Warcraft, for example, has over ten million (10,000,000) users with a peak of over 500,000 players interacting at a given time in the digital world. There is no doubt that MMOGs have a great potential to become the corner stone of an eSociety platform bringing the massiveness of the real society into the digital realm.

This special issue will cover enabling technologies and systems for MMOGs, as well as applications of MMOGs outside of gaming. The focus will be mostly on the “massive” aspect of games, but high-quality papers in real-time interactive multiuser games (albeit not massive) will also be considered if they address issues that can benefit massive games too. Hence, topics include, but are not limited to:

• Networking support for massive number of players
• Networked games (non-massive)
• P2P architectures for better scalability
• Zoning techniques,  Area of Interest Management, and seamless player movement
• Application-Layer Multicasting for massive user support
• Performance evaluation and traffic/player pattern measurements
• Audio/video conferencing in games
• Latency compensation techniques
• Content adaptation for players on heterogeneous receivers
• Cheating: detection, avoidance, and repair
• Multiuser mobile games
• Case studies about applications of gaming in other disciplines such as business, pedagogy, biology, psychology, etc.

Only papers that have not been published and/or submitted elsewhere will be considered. Exception will be made for previously-published high-quality conference/workshop papers, as long as they have been substantially extended in terms of technical content and evaluation.

Papers should be no more than 20 pages, including figures and tables, formatted according to MTAP guidelines, please see:
http://www.springeronline.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,4-40109-70-35538244-0,00.html

PDF submissions must be emailed directly to BOTH the guest editors at shervin@discover.uottawa.ca and claypool@cs.wpi.edu before the submission deadline below. If the submission is an extended version of a previously-published conference paper, authors must also include explanation of what parts have been extended.

Please check the CFP website for possible updates and/or changes http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~shervin/mmogsi/

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Important Dates
Manuscript Submission             January 15^th 2009
Notification of Decision             February 15^th 2009
Final Papers due                       March 15^th 2009
Tentative Publication date          before end of 2009