%0 Conference Paper %B 12th IEEE International Conference on Peer to Peer Computing 2012, Tarragona, Spain %D 2012 %T Peer-to-peer live streaming for massively multiplayer online games %A Christos Bouras %A A Shani %A Andreas Papazois %A S Ahmad %A R Hamzaoui %A G Simon %A Elyia Buyukkaya %A F Zhou %X One of the most attractive features of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) is the possibility for users to interact with a large number of other users in a variety of collaborative and competitive situations. Gamers within an MMOG typically become members of active communities with mutual interests, shared adventures, and common objectives. This demonstration presents a peer-to-peer live video system that enables MMOG players to stream screen-captured video of their game. Players can use the system to show their skills, share experience with friends, or coordinate missions in strategy games. %B 12th IEEE International Conference on Peer to Peer Computing 2012, Tarragona, Spain %P 67 - 68 %8 3 - 5 September %G eng %0 Journal Article %J International Journal on Advances in Networks and Services, IARIA, Vol. 4, No. 3 & 4 %D 2011 %T Community Tools for Massively Multiplayer Online Games %A Christos Bouras %A A Shani %A Andreas Papazois %A George Tsichritzis %A S Ahmad %A R Hamzaoui %A E Perelman %A G Simon %A J Liu %X One of the most attractive features of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) is the possibility for users to interact with a large number of other users in a variety of collaborative and competitive situations. Gamers within an MMOG typically become members of active communities with mutual interests, shared adventures, and common objectives. We present the EU funded Community Network Game (CNG) project. The CNG project provides tools to enhance collaborative activities between online gamers and offers new tools for the generation, distribution and insertion of usergenerated content in MMOGs. CNG allows the addition of new engaging community services without changing the game code and without adding new processing or network loads to the MMOG central servers. The user-generated content considered by the CNG project includes 3D objects and graphics, as well as screen-captured live video of the game, which is shared using peer-to-peer technology. We survey the state of the art in all areas related to the project and present its concept, objectives, and innovations. %B International Journal on Advances in Networks and Services, IARIA, Vol. 4, No. 3 & 4 %P 313 - 323 %G eng %0 Conference Paper %B The Seventeenth International Conference on Distributed Multimedia Systems, Convitto della Calza, Florence, Italy, 18 - 20 August %D 2011 %T Evaluating P2P Live Streaming Systems: the CNG Case %A Christos Bouras %A Vaggelis Kapoulas %A Andreas Papazois %A S Ahmad %A R Hamzaoui %A A Sahni %A G Simon %A Elyia Buyukkaya %X Many peer-to-peer (P2P) systems have been proposed for the provision of scalable live video streaming services over the Internet. While the literature contains surveys of the architectures of these systems, there is a lack of work on methodologies for their evaluation. We identify the main issues in the evaluation of P2P live streaming systems and use the Community Network Game (CNG) project as an ex- ample to illustrate them. The evaluation of the P2P sys- tem consists of two phases: a laboratory one using the ns-2 network simulator and an online field test with Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) players. %B The Seventeenth International Conference on Distributed Multimedia Systems, Convitto della Calza, Florence, Italy, 18 - 20 August %P 126-129 %G eng %0 Conference Paper %B NEM Summit Towards Future Media Internet, Barcelona, Spain %D 2010 %T The Community Network Game Project: Enhancing Collaborative Activities in Online Games %A Christos Bouras %A Andreas Papazois %A S Ahmad %A R Hamzaoui %A E Perelman %A A Sahni %A G Simon %X The EU-funded Community Network Game (CNG) project aims at enhancing collaborative activities between Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) players. This will be achieved by developing new tools for the generation, distribution and insertion of user-generated content (UGC) into existing MMOGs without changing the game code and without adding new processing or network loads to the MMOG central servers. This UGC may include items (e.g., textures, 3D objects) to be added to the game and live video captured from the game screen and streamed to other players. We present the objectives of the project, focusing on its main scientific and technological contributions. %B NEM Summit Towards Future Media Internet, Barcelona, Spain %8 14 - 15 October %G eng %0 Conference Paper %B CONTENT 2010: The Second International Conference on Creative Content Technologies, Lisbon, Portugal %D 2010 %T The Community Network Game Project: Enriching Online Gamers Experience with User Generated Content %A Christos Bouras %A Andreas Papazois %A George Tsichritzis %A S Ahmad %A R Hamzaoui %A E Perelman %A A Sahni %A G Simon %X

One of the most attractive features of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) is the possibility for users to interact with a large number of other users in a variety of collaborative and competitive situations. Gamers within an MMOG typically become members of active communities with mutual interests, shared adventures, and common objectives. We present the EU funded Community Network Game (CNG) project. The CNG project will provide tools to enhance col- laborative activities between online gamers and will develop new tools for the generation, distribution and insertion of user generated content (UGC) into existing MMOGs. CNG will allow the addition of new engaging community services without changing the game code and without adding new processing or network loads to the MMOG central servers. The UGC considered by the CNG project includes 3D objects and graphics as well as video to be shared using peer-to-peer (P2P) technology. We describe the concept, innovations, and objectives of the project.

%B CONTENT 2010: The Second International Conference on Creative Content Technologies, Lisbon, Portugal %8 November 21 - 26 %G eng