6 ms·

Blizzard internals from GDC Austin

86 points by siculars 17y ago

patio11 17y ago
One interesting line out of many in this article: [WoW runs on] over 13,250 server blades, 75,000 cpu cores, and 112.5 terabytes of blade RAM, [...] 1.3 petabytes of storage.
- prakash 17y ago
  The RAM is the standout relative to everything else -- that's a lot of RAM.
  - harpastum 17y ago
    Not really. That's 1.5GB per core, and 8.5GB per slice. I'd say that's right about average, especially for a gaming server.
  - dkl 17y ago
    1.5G per core... not that much.
- bjelkeman-again 17y ago
  I read the parent comment out loud and my wife said "Wow, what a waste!" Which was kind of funny. Now, can we figure out something fun to do which will also make use of this type of capacity for something good? Actually, I have several ideas. Let me get back to you...
  - tdavis 17y ago
    Hey, here's a novel idea: how about we stop defining what is and isn't "something good" to use large-scale hardware for! Your wife's comment wasn't funny; it was pompous, pretentious and shortsighted. I don't play WoW myself, but apparently it serves as entertainment for millions of people. There is value in that -- if there wasn't, Blizzard wouldn't need nor could they afford all that hardware to run such "wasteful" software. WoW may not be feeding the whales or saving the homeless, but it's fun for a lot of people and that is something. And if you simply can't sleep at night thinking what a waste it is, remember all the people who are employed to run and develop it, not to mention the people who made all the goods and provide all the services it uses. And all the technological innovation required to make it possible, a large majority of which was funded by and first deployed to the gaming sector, due to its lucrative nature. There's a forest among all those trees, believe it or not.
    - mighty 17y ago
      http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourse... It's not necessarily a waste, but it's not unquestionably a good thing, either. There should be something other than blind acceptance or rationalization of its impact. Edit: I love how I'm getting downvoted for expressing a reasonable and non-mean opinion.
    - bdr 17y ago
      An idea that's not novel, but perhaps worth revisiting: your points are still valid without the insults and condescension.
    - xenophanes 17y ago
      the wife's comment was funny because it was a pun. otherwise i agree with you.
    - bjelkeman-again 17y ago
      Yes, I know this isn't Slashdot, where it is allowed to occasionally to make a pun or poke fun at something. If you knew me you would not react so strongly, but of course, it is unlikely that you would know me. But I think you mistake my comment as meant to ride in on my high horse and look down on all the "waste". I actually think there is tremendous potential in the breadth and the reach of the new computing platforms which offers nearly "unlimited" server capacity and access out in the periphery using anything from mobile phones to your average computer. We have barely started to scratch on the surface on the fun and the utility (if I dare say so) which this will offer us. But now I will go and toss and turn in my bed, worrying about all that waste! ;)
    - cma 17y ago
      Hey, here's a novel idea: how about we stop defining what is and isn't "something good" to use local garages for! Your wife's comment wasn't funny; it was pompous, pretentious and shortsighted. I don't do meth myself, but apparently it serves as entertainment for millions of people. There is value in that -- if there wasn't, Meth Labs wouldn't need nor could they afford all that hardware to run such "wasteful" operations. Your local Meth Lab may not be feeding the whales or saving the homeless, but it's fun for a lot of people and that is something. And if you simply can't sleep at night thinking what a waste it is, remember all the people who are employed to run and calibrate it, not to mention the people who buy the cough syrup that fuels it all. And all the technological innovation required to make it possible, a large majority of which was funded by Robitussin, due to its lucrative nature. There's a forest among all those trees, believe it or not.
- toodlestech 17y ago
  "[WoW runs on]" is actually an incorrect summary. It states the "Blizzard online network services", which includes starcraft, warcraft II(?), warcraft III, and WoW. Not to mention they may even host blizzards website?
- andreyf 17y ago
  "Blizzard online network services" includes Starcraft, Warcraft II, Warcraft III, as well as WoW.
pvg 17y ago
Another number that struck me as interesting is that the programming, art and design departments combined add up to fewer people (120) than the cinematics department (123). There's probably some explanation for this, perhaps that directing "the creation of sword replicas, statues, and other physical objects" takes a lot more manpower than I imagine.
- robotron 17y ago
  It does
- slyn 17y ago
  Even more surprising to me was this: "Brack went on to talk about the customer support staff, a group with 2,056 game masters, 340 billing managers, and a host of other background staffers." Programming, art and design, and cinematics adds up to maybe ~250 people. Supporting and monetizing what they make requires about 10x the manpower. Is that normal among all mega-corporations/projects, or is that something unique to MMO staffings?
  - endtime 17y ago
    Well, WoW is a service. A service with 10 (11?) million active subscribers. So 2056 GMs sounds pretty reasonable. (I've never had to interact with a billing manager and don't really know what they do.)
    - nihilocrat 17y ago
      Based on what I read, it's probably people devoted to account and billing issues, as well as fraud. There are an amazing amount of gold farmers from around the world who create fraudulent accounts with false credit card information, as well as average people who are trying to get a free ride out of Blizzard. Someone needs to take care of banning these people as well as dealing with any billing problems with legitimate customers, something which can require knowledge that's a world apart (literally) from Game Mastering.
  - pvg 17y ago
boredguy8 17y ago
123 people on cinematics? I've played WoW since beta, and until recently have seen all the content at all levels of the game raid-wise. This seems like a lot of people for how few cut-scenes there are, and for the few pre-rendered FMV scenes. Am I missing something, or wildly underestimating what it takes to produce 3 minutes of FMV?
- cdr 17y ago
  I was hoping it was a typo.
- jeffcoat 17y ago
  The groups responsibilities include "machinima sequences", which I take to include most pre-scripted in-game sequences that have NPCs doing something; triggered, say, by ending a quest. I suspect there are a lot of those. (I wanted to compare that number to the people writing the quests themselves -- it still does seem high -- but that group isn't explicitly mentioned. The keynote is definitely glossing over a lot, even at this level of detail.)
  - pvg 17y ago
    I think when he said 'cut scenes' he meant the 'machinima sequences' as opposed to the pre-rendered cinematics. And there really aren't very many of those, either, far fewer than you seem to think - it's a very rare quest that ends with or contains such a sequence.
    - fh 17y ago
      Not that rare, I remember a dozen or two across Northrend. Almost every major quest chain ends with such a sequence (and most of them involve the Lich King taunting you). Admittedly the many many quests along the quest chain typically don't have machinima sequences.
      - zyb09 17y ago
        Sorry what are you talking about? There's exactly one ingame cinematic in WoW (Wrath gate) and 3 prerendered once (intro video for each addon & maingame). That's it. The 123 people of the cinematic team at Blizzard produce videos for all Blizzard games and are currently heavily involved in Starcraft II, which is supposed to have an hour of ingame cinematics as well as several minutes of prerendered videos.
nihilocrat 17y ago
Brack singled out the tools team as a critical component of this group. They make tools not only for the developers, but for customer service as well. Hey, this is what I do! Well, for a different company, not Blizzard. It seems to be an afterthought for most companies so it's nice to see him point that out in particular.
lowdown 17y ago
Tom Chilton was a guildmate in UO. Great guy. It's cool to see him doing well.

86 points by siculars 17y ago

One interesting line out of many in this article: [WoW runs on] over 13,250 server blades, 75,000 cpu cores, and 112.5 terabytes of blade RAM, [...] 1.3 petabytes of storage.

prakash 17y ago
The RAM is the standout relative to everything else -- that's a lot of RAM.
- harpastum 17y ago
  Not really. That's 1.5GB per core, and 8.5GB per slice. I'd say that's right about average, especially for a gaming server.
- dkl 17y ago
  1.5G per core... not that much.
bjelkeman-again 17y ago
I read the parent comment out loud and my wife said "Wow, what a waste!" Which was kind of funny. Now, can we figure out something fun to do which will also make use of this type of capacity for something good? Actually, I have several ideas. Let me get back to you...
- tdavis 17y ago
  Hey, here's a novel idea: how about we stop defining what is and isn't "something good" to use large-scale hardware for! Your wife's comment wasn't funny; it was pompous, pretentious and shortsighted. I don't play WoW myself, but apparently it serves as entertainment for millions of people. There is value in that -- if there wasn't, Blizzard wouldn't need nor could they afford all that hardware to run such "wasteful" software. WoW may not be feeding the whales or saving the homeless, but it's fun for a lot of people and that is something. And if you simply can't sleep at night thinking what a waste it is, remember all the people who are employed to run and develop it, not to mention the people who made all the goods and provide all the services it uses. And all the technological innovation required to make it possible, a large majority of which was funded by and first deployed to the gaming sector, due to its lucrative nature. There's a forest among all those trees, believe it or not.
  - mighty 17y ago
    http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourse... It's not necessarily a waste, but it's not unquestionably a good thing, either. There should be something other than blind acceptance or rationalization of its impact. Edit: I love how I'm getting downvoted for expressing a reasonable and non-mean opinion.
  - bdr 17y ago
    An idea that's not novel, but perhaps worth revisiting: your points are still valid without the insults and condescension.
  - xenophanes 17y ago
    the wife's comment was funny because it was a pun. otherwise i agree with you.
  - bjelkeman-again 17y ago
    Yes, I know this isn't Slashdot, where it is allowed to occasionally to make a pun or poke fun at something. If you knew me you would not react so strongly, but of course, it is unlikely that you would know me. But I think you mistake my comment as meant to ride in on my high horse and look down on all the "waste". I actually think there is tremendous potential in the breadth and the reach of the new computing platforms which offers nearly "unlimited" server capacity and access out in the periphery using anything from mobile phones to your average computer. We have barely started to scratch on the surface on the fun and the utility (if I dare say so) which this will offer us. But now I will go and toss and turn in my bed, worrying about all that waste! ;)
  - cma 17y ago
    Hey, here's a novel idea: how about we stop defining what is and isn't "something good" to use local garages for! Your wife's comment wasn't funny; it was pompous, pretentious and shortsighted. I don't do meth myself, but apparently it serves as entertainment for millions of people. There is value in that -- if there wasn't, Meth Labs wouldn't need nor could they afford all that hardware to run such "wasteful" operations. Your local Meth Lab may not be feeding the whales or saving the homeless, but it's fun for a lot of people and that is something. And if you simply can't sleep at night thinking what a waste it is, remember all the people who are employed to run and calibrate it, not to mention the people who buy the cough syrup that fuels it all. And all the technological innovation required to make it possible, a large majority of which was funded by Robitussin, due to its lucrative nature. There's a forest among all those trees, believe it or not.
toodlestech 17y ago
"[WoW runs on]" is actually an incorrect summary. It states the "Blizzard online network services", which includes starcraft, warcraft II(?), warcraft III, and WoW. Not to mention they may even host blizzards website?
andreyf 17y ago
"Blizzard online network services" includes Starcraft, Warcraft II, Warcraft III, as well as WoW.

pvg 17y ago

Another number that struck me as interesting is that the programming, art and design departments combined add up to fewer people (120) than the cinematics department (123). There's probably some explanation for this, perhaps that directing "the creation of sword replicas, statues, and other physical objects" takes a lot more manpower than I imagine.

robotron 17y ago
It does
slyn 17y ago
Even more surprising to me was this: "Brack went on to talk about the customer support staff, a group with 2,056 game masters, 340 billing managers, and a host of other background staffers." Programming, art and design, and cinematics adds up to maybe ~250 people. Supporting and monetizing what they make requires about 10x the manpower. Is that normal among all mega-corporations/projects, or is that something unique to MMO staffings?
- endtime 17y ago
  Well, WoW is a service. A service with 10 (11?) million active subscribers. So 2056 GMs sounds pretty reasonable. (I've never had to interact with a billing manager and don't really know what they do.)
  - nihilocrat 17y ago
    Based on what I read, it's probably people devoted to account and billing issues, as well as fraud. There are an amazing amount of gold farmers from around the world who create fraudulent accounts with false credit card information, as well as average people who are trying to get a free ride out of Blizzard. Someone needs to take care of banning these people as well as dealing with any billing problems with legitimate customers, something which can require knowledge that's a world apart (literally) from Game Mastering.
- pvg 17y ago

boredguy8 17y ago

123 people on cinematics? I've played WoW since beta, and until recently have seen all the content at all levels of the game raid-wise. This seems like a lot of people for how few cut-scenes there are, and for the few pre-rendered FMV scenes. Am I missing something, or wildly underestimating what it takes to produce 3 minutes of FMV?

cdr 17y ago
I was hoping it was a typo.
jeffcoat 17y ago
The groups responsibilities include "machinima sequences", which I take to include most pre-scripted in-game sequences that have NPCs doing something; triggered, say, by ending a quest. I suspect there are a lot of those. (I wanted to compare that number to the people writing the quests themselves -- it still does seem high -- but that group isn't explicitly mentioned. The keynote is definitely glossing over a lot, even at this level of detail.)
- pvg 17y ago
  I think when he said 'cut scenes' he meant the 'machinima sequences' as opposed to the pre-rendered cinematics. And there really aren't very many of those, either, far fewer than you seem to think - it's a very rare quest that ends with or contains such a sequence.
  - fh 17y ago
    Not that rare, I remember a dozen or two across Northrend. Almost every major quest chain ends with such a sequence (and most of them involve the Lich King taunting you). Admittedly the many many quests along the quest chain typically don't have machinima sequences.
    - zyb09 17y ago
      Sorry what are you talking about? There's exactly one ingame cinematic in WoW (Wrath gate) and 3 prerendered once (intro video for each addon & maingame). That's it. The 123 people of the cinematic team at Blizzard produce videos for all Blizzard games and are currently heavily involved in Starcraft II, which is supposed to have an hour of ingame cinematics as well as several minutes of prerendered videos.

nihilocrat 17y ago

Brack singled out the tools team as a critical component of this group. They make tools not only for the developers, but for customer service as well. Hey, this is what I do! Well, for a different company, not Blizzard. It seems to be an afterthought for most companies so it's nice to see him point that out in particular.

lowdown 17y ago

Tom Chilton was a guildmate in UO. Great guy. It's cool to see him doing well.