spectatorgames.docVIP

Spectator Games: A New Entertainment Modality For Networked Multiplayer Games Steven Drucker, Li-wei He, Michael Cohen, Curtis Wong, Anoop Gupta Microsoft Research Networked multiplayer games are becoming tremendously popular. At any given moment on the Microsoft Game Zone (), there are thousands of people playing Asheron’s Call or Age of Empires. Traditional board and card games are also increasingly being played online and will continue to gain in popularity. While networked games are certainly fun for active players, there is potentially a much larger audience: spectators. In most traditional games, such as football, the number of spectators far exceeds the number of players. The key idea presented in this paper is to tap this potential by making online games engaging and entertaining to non-players watching these games. The experience for spectators can be made much richer by employing techniques often used in sports broadcasting, such as a commentator providing analysis and background stories, slow motion and instance replay. For 3D games, cinematic camera movements and shot cuts be much more visually interesting than the first-person views often provided to the players. There is the potential to significantly increase the “eyeballs” on sites such as Microsoft Game Zone. Spectators can be more easily targeted for advertising. Finally, supporting the spectator experience will help drive sales of the games themselves as casual viewers take the next step to become players. Watching others play networked games has the potential to become a vital component to an overall entertainment/media strategy. The authors of this document have already developed significant technologies needed to support the online game spectator. We propose that new resources be devoted now to carry these technologies into practice. INTRODUCTION People play games and watch TV primarily for entertainment. There have been many attempts at making TV more interactive, but