Next Generation In-game Message Interfaces

Instant messenger tools, such as AIM, MSN or ICQ have become fairly popular within the gaming community in the last years. On pair with the intensive use of game specific forums, these tools offer the player the keen advantage of having an individual buddy list with communication options outside the game. However especially next generation MMORPGs with full-screen playing option force the player to completely focus on the in-game chat mechanism. In order to create a satisfying solution for the current situation the parallel use of both applications at the same time is ineffective. This paper presents an integration of the AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) into the Eve-Online client. The integration includes an overview about the underlying network protocol OSCAR as well as a framework with interfaces towards game-engine and chat-protocol. With the very flexible and generic implementation the interfaces can basically be customized for any other games/ chat-client. Furthermore an online-survey concludes the most important information about player in-game chatting behavior.