We are living a terrific OS wars with the rise of Linux over the last two decades. The big Google is also launching its Google Chrome OS. Microsoft and Apple are far from throwing in the towel with the Windows 7 and Mac OS X respectively. Well, as a wannabe game programmer, I feel it is getting difficult to choose a side. The will to reach the maximum audience could lead to code mainly for windows gamers. But then, there is still a trouble. Let’s talk about a very exciting field of gaming: Multiplayer online gaming. Suppose you build your game client using any Microsoft .net language, say C#. Are you compelled to code your server application in C# as well? I am asking because a C# server app will normally need to be hosted on a C# enabled web server (IIS is all I can’t think of at the moment).

See, the thing is in the game industry, I know they use a lot of Linux servers. But worldwide most of the gamers are running Windows. So I think either they are using the same language on the server and on the client (like C or Java) or there is a sort of conversion. I wonder how that conversion happens (for now, I would bet on web services).

Well, I don’t know how much C# is used in the game industry but how can it be used in collaboration with another language that would make the server app? Anyways which language would be suitable for a game server? Last doubt on this post: is it feasible to build a large scale game server (like a MMORPG) using C#? (I assume this would mean running it on IIS)

 

UPDATE: It's funny how, about 2 years after writing this post, I naturally got answers to my doubts. Yes, I think I am getting it now. I should probably write about what I found some time. More on that later (maybe).