Re: [Mod-pubsub-developer] Intent to do damgage

[<kr...@po...>]

Tom writes:
> This [each participant, not a single server, having the state] would
> work out great for the game idea. Many games often require that some
> of the other players units, hands, etc, remain hidden to the other
> players. Thus each players state is all that is known localy to
> them, When the state info of each player comingles at the server
> level(?) the new states for each player can be computated and sent
> off.

If the players trust each other, then their web browsers can all know
everybody else's state.  

If the players don't trust each other, but individual players have no
reason to share information about their hands with another player, a
single trusted central server --- which can run in somebody's web
browser and talk to everyone else through mod_pubsub --- can hold
everybody's information.  (Cryptographic algorithms can also help in
some cases.)  

If the players don't trust each other, and individual players have an
incentive to share their hands with other players (e.g. bridge), then
you can't play over the Internet, or phone, or postal mail, because
they can contact each other without the other players knowing.  Sorry.

BTW, in 2000, Adam (or Rohit?) spent about half an hour taking some
random JavaScript connect-four game and converting it to a real-time
networked connect-four game, using what we now call mod_pubsub.  It
rocked.

-- 
<kr...@po...>       Kragen Sitaker     <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/>
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra died in August of 2002.  The world has lost a great
man.  See http://advogato.org/person/raph/diary.html?start=252 and
http://www.kode-fu.com/geek/2002_08_04_archive.shtml for details.