Game operation query language for facilitating game server's FCAPS operation

Abstract

Game companies require successful game operation for their revenue maximisation. In an operation phase, they need not only operators who are experts in non-functional and operational issues but also developers who are experts in game development. Game server should manage several operational issues such as fault recovery, performance metering, and configuration management during game service period. However, most game server operators do not have programming expertise. To support successful fault, accounting, configuration, performance, security (FACPS) operation without programming expertise or development knowledge, we introduce domain specific language (DSL) operation approach for usual game operators. We design GOQLDSL, focusing on fault, configuration, and performance management issues. We experimented with 15 game server operators who are working in major game publishers. Experimental results show that GOQL was attractive to game operators because it is functional and does not require programming knowledge even in the situation that needs programming source modifications. For the future research, we will extend our textual version of GOQL to visual language version to give more convenience and intuitive advantage to game operators and novice developers. To cover this, we require study on visual notations, UX-related elements, and visual transformation of text.