[Standards-JIG] Re: proto-JEP: User Gaming

[Peter Saint-Andre]

Alex Mauer wrote:
> It seems to me that this JEP doesn't really cover real-life situations
> well enough.  Here are some use cases I can think of, which are mostly
> not covered by the JEP:
> 
> Join someone who's currently playing a game:
> Needs a URI to the game, such as http://chesspark.com/table/1234, or
> quake://123.123.123.123/.  The client may need to retrieve the IP from
> the game (e.g. if it's a third-party server) or it may be the client's
> external IP address (for a game where the publisher is running the
> server) in which case it needs a way to discover that info.  A "generic"
> url like http://www.chesspark.com/ (as in the example) really needs some
> sort of user identifier for that URI. (perhaps even embedded in the URI,
> such as http://username@chesspark.com/ [or whatever the appropriate
> syntax is] -- otherwise it could be provided outside the URI as a
> separate tag or attribute.)  This is the only use case covered in the
> JEP, and there it is inadequately so.

OK, so let's fix it. :-)

> Publish a list of games which you are able to play:
> Needs a list of URIs or protocols corresponding with games.  examples:
> http://chesspark.com/, quake://  Clients may need some way to discover
> installed games, or interact with user to define a game URI (i.e. it is
> not possible to discover whether the user has an account at
> http://chesspark.com) (Yes, this is maybe best handled with jep-0154,
> but the gaming jep should at least describe how to do it with jep-0154)

IMHO this is a JEP-0154 use case. But you're saying that perhaps we need
an easier way to find out what games someone can play (outside of their
profile)? Not sure that's necessary.

> These should be used to provide a list for the next operation:
> 
> Invite someone to play a [new] game with you:
> Needs a URI to the game.  May  need a user identifier, depending on
> game.  Clients may need to provide some method to launch the server
> before or after sending the invite (depending on game)  This should be
> sent as some sort of message/iq/whatever.  This case doesn't seem to be
> covered at all by the JEP.

I don't think it should be. That kind of invitation scenario should be
covered by something like JEP-0155 I think.

> Publishing the "name" of the game should be outside the scope of the
> JEP.  Saying I'm playing "chess" is useless, since if I'm playing chess
> on yahoo and you play chess on chesspark.com, we can't play chess
> together, even though the name of both would be chess.

Right.

> Publishing user profile information (such as "[skill] level" should also
> be left to the game itself, or to another JEP, (-0154?)), as this
> information varies far too much from game to game to be usefully
> published in this way. (see previous discussion about the
> game-determined level (e.g. "level 60" in World of Warcraft) vs. a
> user-evaluated skill level.

Agreed.

> If I understand what this JEP is meant to do, it should provide only
> enough information to find the remote user on any game.

Correct, I think that's the focus of this JEP. Perhaps it needs to be
stripped down to the essentials...

Peter

-- 
Peter Saint-Andre
Jabber Software Foundation
http://www.jabber.org/people/stpeter.shtml

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: smime.p7s
Type: application/x-pkcs7-signature
Size: 7358 bytes
Desc: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
Url : http://mail.jabber.org/pipermail/standards/attachments/20060906/5391d629/smime.bin