Game hosting evolved
Quake game servers were the first to hit the online gaming crowd in 1996. Multiplayer online gaming was a new drug for gamers, where Unreal Tournament on dialup was as good as online gaming was. To some, it still is.
While playing COD now on our XBOX might seem normal, or a right, 15 years ago the whole concept of playing against a friend in another room via a network cable dragged through two rooms was thrilling. Now, shooting someone in a different part of the world, or even more amazing, someone in another country was an amazing buzz.
Since then, game servers have evolved, rapidly. At the crux of growth for online gaming, arguably, Counterstrike was at its peak. Thousands of gamers across the world would pit their wits against each other. Counterstrike was the ultimate competitive game. In fact, watching people play COD is nothing compared to CS!
In 2003, Call of Duty hit shelves and was a massive success. All original game servers were unbiased in platform. The servers ran on Linux as well as Windows (although with the early Call of Duty series there was always a delay for Linux binaries!). Here, started a trend -Future game servers then often had a ‘Windows only approach’. And this was To the dismay of seasoned Linux admins, and linux game server companies, such as INX game server hosting. There has always been the argument that Windows game servers are easier to administrate, which makes them more friendly to manage. But on the other hand, hosting game servers on Linux gives so much more freedom and scope!
It’s only fair when talking about game servers, that we mention Valve. While Valve receive a lot of bad press (usually because then they release software updates it can cause problems with gameservers), they deserve an incredible amount of credit, they deserve an incredible amount of credit.
And with the recent blockbuster COD6, there were NO dedicated game servers for the game- instead Activision set up a ‘match making’ system- again, much to the dismay of the game server enthusiast. EA / Dice only allows a few number of ‘trusted partners’ to host their game servers.
Valve on the other hand have always provided Linux and Windows support for their gameservers. From the early days of Counterstrike, to the mega popular release of CS Source game servers. or TF2 and Left 4 Dead gameservers.
So where now for the future of gameserver hosting? Speculation says gameserver will be obselete, as they are in two years. While Valve continue to develop games on Windows and Linux, easy free control over the game files, game server hosting will never die. Console gaming will drown out PC gamers. Although expect game hosting to be around for another fourteen years.
