On synthetic workloads for multiplayer online games: a methodology for generating representative shooter game workloads

Abstract

We present approaches to the generation of synthetic workloads for benchmarking multiplayer online gaming infrastructures. Existing techniques, such as mobility or traffic models, are often either too simple to be representative for this purpose or too specific for a particular network structure. Desirable properties of a workload are reproducibility, representativeness, and scalability to any number of players. We analyze different mobility models and AI-based workload generators. Real gaming sessions with human players using the prototype game Planet PI4 serve as a reference workload. Novel metrics are used to measure the similarity between real and synthetic traces with respect to neighborhood characteristics. We found that, although more complicated to handle, AI players reproduce real workload characteristics more accurately than mobility models.