1. The Community Network Game ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 1/22 The Community Network Game CNG D7.4.2: Project Presentation

2. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 2/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 Presentation Overview Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) Need for online collaboration Enhancing in-game experience: –User Generated Content (UGC) –In-game collaboration CNG’s vision and goals CNG’s innovative technologies: –In-game Graphic Insertion Technology (IGIT) –Enhanced peer-to-peer delivery of UGC Benefits from CNG Project’s Consortium

3. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 3/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 Need for Online Collaboration Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs): multiplayer video games capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously: –World of Warcraft, Lineage, Lord of the Rings –Roma Victor (RedBedlam, UK), Entropia Universe (Mindark, SE), OGame (Gameforge, DE), Age of Conan (Funcom, NO) MMOGs allow: –a large number of online players to interact and communicate in virtual environments simultaneously on the internet –formulation of active communities among MMOG players –exchange of User Generated Content (UGC)

4. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 4/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 Growth of MMOG Market MMOG: successful market growth –more than 21 million active subscriptions –annual revenue over $3 billion by 2015 (ResearchAndMarkets.com, 2010) (Source MMOData.net, 2009)

5. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 5/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 User Generated Content User Generated Content (UGC) refers to various types of media content: –publicly available –produced by end-users Examples of UGC are: –graphics, 3D, music, video –instant messaging –voice and video chat –game specific information (e.g. top scores, reviewing, polling) –etc...

6. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 6/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 Enhancing In-Game Experience Network already occupied by MMOG server-client data UGC traffic manipulation as a real challenge CNG to research and develop: –Peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay for the distribution of UGC –new sophisticated techniques for P2P UGC streaming that are “friendly” to the MMOG client-server traffic In-game Graphic Insertion Technology (IGIT) to allow the addition of new engaging community services –without need to change the game code –without adding new processing or network loads to the MMOGs’ central servers

7. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 7/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 What is CNG’s Goal? Enhance the capacity of MMOGs to support users in the collaborative development and sharing of UGC Enable MMOGs to encompass new UGC tools and support new business models Exploitation of the proposed IGIT and P2P technologies in the online PC games market Integration with external communities (e.g., Facebook and Twitter)

8. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 8/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 What is Innovative in CNG? An architecture for sharing UGC via P2P without interrupting the MMOG server-client data flow Use of IGIT on users’ local devices Use of P2P traffic for UGC Video/Graphical application functionality Development of new business models that capitalise on CNGs’ innovative approach

9. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 9/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 IGIT Overview IGIT can replace and insert content in the game: –in real time –without the need to change the game’s code in client or server IGIT includes: –in-game spot identification methods –in-game asset replacement and asset insertion –in-frame web browser for hosting Web 2.0 applications

10. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 10/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 IGIT Examples [1] The original game resolution was modified to enable an additional frame to hold in-frame objects. [2] MSN messenger window. [3] Web browser. [4] Another web browser window. [5] MMOG chat to enable cooperation among users. [6] In-game 3D UGC. [7] Video chat between casual friends or cooperative players.

11. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 11/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 IGIT Technology

12. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 12/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 Enhanced P2P Delivery Overlays for P2P User Generated Streaming Diffusion Organising the diffusion is an NP-hard problem –unlikely to obtain optimal solution in reasonable time –other approximation schemes exhibit good performance P2P traffic friendly towards MMOG –fair sharing of resources in a multi-threaded system –use of congestion control mechanisms –definition of Areas of Interest Efficient transmission of UGC over a P2P overlay –error control methods with incremental redundancy

13. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 13/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 CNG System Architecture The generic MMOG architecture is not modified Sandbox is added at the client side –responsible for modifying the game environment CNG Server added for the monitoring of the P2P UGC communication –act as tracker of the system –common point of communication for P2P overlay –user registration and authentication –organization of the P2P exchanges –storage of information

14. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 14/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 CNG System Architecture

15. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 15/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 Benefits to the End-Users Increased communication and interaction among MMOG players Customised MMOGs according to users’ preferences Development of new community building tools –collaborative creation and display of audio-visual material –in-game P2P file-sharing of documents and objects –in-game voting, reviewing and polling

16. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 16/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 Benefits to the End-Users CNG will enable the development of richer media user generated content: –collaborative –intuitive –enjoyable –shareable

17. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 17/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 Benefits to the Industry (1/2) For developers and operators: new community building tools without needing to redesign or recode current game offerings enrich user experience in their content bring ‘communities’ into the content lower network costs benefit from new income streams control how commercial and UGC content are displayed create positive-associations with brand values target rich media communications within the CNG client and the MMOGs

18. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 18/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 Benefits to the Industry (2/2) For advertisers: create positive-associations with brand values target rich media communications within the CNG client and the MMOGs

19. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 19/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 Benefits to the EU Boost the already growing EU game industry EU-based games development companies to gain competitive advantage from better network efficiencies Leading the way in new methods to engage with in-game advertising Creating a new market sector of 3 rd party community tool providers for MMOGs and online games generally

20. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 20/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 Partners List Exent Technologies Ltd. IL Research Academic Computer Technology Institute GR Institut Telecom FR De Montfort University UK Kaltura Ltd. IL RedBedlam UK European Game Developers Federation SE i2 media research limited UK

21. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 21/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 7 th Framework Programme The CNG project is funded under the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) priority of the FP7 FP7: European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development CNG project is a small or medium-scale focus research project (STREP) CNG project started on 1 st February 2010 It will be completed in 30 months

22. ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 D7.1.2 : CNG Project Presentation 22/22 Project ICT–248175 ® CNG Consortium Confidential 2010-2013 Project ICT–248175 Contact Information Project Co-ordinator: Mr. Alex Shani Exent Technologies Ltd. 25 Bazel Street PO Box 2645, Petach-Tikva 49125, Tel Aviv, Israel Tel.: +972 747 133 135 ashani@exent.com http://www.cng-project.eu