A knowledge-based approach to multiplayer games in peer-to-peer networks

Multiplayer computer games frequently rely on centralised (client-server) solutions, with limited scalability and a single point of failure. Replicating servers and performing load-balancing mitigate some issues, but create other problems like synchronising information among servers and controlling network traffic. In this paper, we present a fully distributed peer-to-peer approach to multiplayer computer games. Our approach uses explicit knowledge about the game to support a peer-to-peer mechanism for requesting and providing information to participants. Although we use games to explore our approach, the ideas can be adapted to many other knowledge-intensive activities such as decision-making and reasoning.