Effects of User Behavior on MMORPG Traffic

Game traffic depends on two main factors, the game protocol and the gamers' behavior. Based on a few popular real-time multiplayer games, this paper investigates the latter factor showing how a set of typical game phases-e.g., player movement, changes in environment- impacts traffic. By understanding the nature of this impact an algorithm is introduced to grab specific events and states from passive traffic measurements. Further, a measurement example including a detailed analysis is shown from an operational broadband network. The collected data of player behavior in the gaming environment was analyzed and it was also shown that the long range dependence (LRD) property of gaming traffic is not due to the popular explanation based on the heavy-tailed periods of player activities.