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and items are represented as ASCII characters in visualization and integer ID's in the inter-
nal representation. For scalability reasons it is recommended to map the virtual world into
a square (or close to a square) of subworlds, each mapping to one CPU, this ensures a rela-
tively equal load on each CPU (in average), except along the borders (where they have fewer
neighbours). A future revision of the platform will enable wrapping between the outmost
subworlds (like the game Asteroids).

Subworld

Player
Usage Logs

Master Node

Firewall

Subworld

Player
Usage Logs

Subworld

1+p

Player
Usage Logs

Subworld

n-p

Player
Usage Logs

NPC and Player

Agents

NPC and Player

Agents

NPC and Player

Agents

NPC and Player

Agents

Control of
Zereal

Figure 3: Zereal Macro Architecture

2.4

Item Models

Items

in Zereal can be of several types: doors, keys, food, potions and weapons. Items occupy

one square on the map, and except for doors, all items can be picked up by players. Doors
transports the agents from room to room or subworld to subworld. If all neighbouring squares
on the other side of a door is occupied, agents will not be able to move through them, but in
case of a door on the border, agents will be transmitted to the next world but end up in a
queue (limbo) untill some of the squares has been freed. Agents may need keys to open
locked doors. Food and potions increases or (if poisonous) decrease the players hitpoints and
strength when consumed.

2.5

Player Models

Zereal's player models are inspired by the typical player categories found in actual MMOGs:

1. Achievers - people who are entertained by building their avatar character with more skills,

hit points, strength etc.

2. Socializers - people who wants to build and maintain social relations such as friendship

and love, they are typically attracted to people with high intra-game status.

Paper C

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