I am wondering what kind of sdk, support, parts are already available for licensing for games like Ultima Online. We would be intersted in things like: - customer handling, includes credit cards handling, database and login verifications - unix based server software and sdk''s handling massive players and everything around those type of games. Usually this kind of stuff should be available from other industries (eshops etc.), but does anyone knows what UO or Everquest uses? Teut/Wings www.panzerelite.com

We handle all of that stuff ourselves. We contract with 2 different credit card processing companies ( http://www.kagi.com and http://www.digibuy.com ). Both companies send email notification of payments. These are processed and the players'' accounts are updated. We don''t do recurring billing, so you''re on your own with that. I have the accounting setup simple enough that I run it out of a handful of Excel spreadsheets.

We wrote our own "SDK" for Unix/Linux that handles the login and verification of players. For the hardware, we find companies with good connections and reasonable server co-location/leasing options and use them.

At present, I''m unaware of any "turn key" solutions to these issues. Right now we''re still in the "roll your own" stages. As more of these games come online, I''m sure the "tools" and knowledge required will stabilize and become more common.

DavidRM
Samu Games