hi all, Hope this is the correct forum to post in. Anyways, is there any reasons why for most MMOGs, accout creation is often done from a webpage, instead of from the client itself, even for those that do not require credit card details on account creation? Doing it by the client should simplify the entire process of actually getting into the game, and hopefully increase the amount of new users. Only when they have to pay(and therefore diverge CC info), then do i see a point of using web. Could anyone advice if there is any special issues, such as maybe security or something that leads to just about all the commercial games that i have ever tried doing it via webpage? Appreciate any comments given.

It's probably a bit easier to design a webpage for that sort of thing. Of course, I've never written anything remotely close to an MMOG, so this is just speculation.

I've been doing this stuff recently. The main technical consideration is the ease of getting SSH and/or decent proprietary encryption into a client - most clients have encryption, but I think it's rarely up to the job of obscuring HTTP transfers sufficiently. Then your client and server would both need to have HTTP parsing functionality to deal with it, which is a pain in the neck when web servers and browsers are ready made with this functionality.

It also makes business sense to have account management on the web. A person needs access to their account outside the client, encase they have problems starting it, or need to administer it from a different PC than their game installed system. People are going to feel safer when setting up payment details and passwords on the web, it gives them plenty of feedback on the security of the connection. Finally, it's also a good idea to give people something to do while their game is being downloaded/installed/patched. Hope that helps [smile].

It is also easier to update the Account handling system if it is based on your server and accessed via a web page you can update. If the client software is used then you would need to patch all the clients.