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The PLAYXPERT is made up to two key components: the client and the server.

The PLAYXPERT Client Tier - The client software serves as the core of the user interface to the gaming system. The client tier is a small executable that runs on your PC. Think of it as an IM client on steroids.

This client provides a platform for PXP widgets (the widgets actually do the interesting stuff). It also handles all of the in-game overlay technology in a seamless manner no matter what game you play. In short, the core purpose of the client is to:

* Provide an in-game and out-of-game User Interface
* Provide a common 'Dock' for all loaded/configured pxp widgets
* Serve as a delivery mechanism for pxp widgets

(The following images show the PXP bug appearing on a quick-key stroke or mouse-over hotspot. Once selected, the PXP dock expands, revealing all installed widgets.)



Most of the functionality the user sees is built into the pxp widgets themselves. The widgets expose interfaces to the Core / Widget Manager module, and the Core exposes its own interfaces to the widgets. This means that inter-widget communication is possible. If you are familiar with this technology, you'll understand that this feature is very, very cool!

Because the community can build widgets - and have them interact with server-side components as well as with other widgets- the community can create widgets that work with other standard or community-based widgets. For example: somebody writes a TeamSpeak widget, hooks it into PXP and allows users to call friends in their friend list without any special work from us. Widget developers are really given an open environment to make the modules inter-connect and facilitate the users game experience so that everything mashes together into an end-solution.

The PLAYXPERT Server Tier – The server tier is our back-end. We have more information about how this has been put together. We use web services and a web-tier to both visualize gamer information for users and their clans - but also to allow our client tier to interact with the server components in the same seamless way.

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beta 1

The purpose of Beta 1 is to deliver an initial "unit of work" that both demonstrates the possibilities of the PLAYXPERT as well as provides real in-game assist for World of Warcraft.

Beta 1 is scheduled to include the following features/functions and is being delivered to help the WoW community via in-game thottbot support and inter-game/inter-network chat support. Supported features include:

* Core engine - The core technology providing an installer, in-game overlay technology, widget architecture, and auto-update capability (important as we release beta 2).
* Chat Widget - Support for inter-network chat communication with the YIM, AOL, and XFire chat. networks
* Thottbot Widget - This is really the focus for beta 1 - to demonstrate the flexibility and power of our widget architcture, manifested into a widget that all WoW users need.
* User Browser Widget - This will only be an initial release, not all of the final features will be included in Beta 1 - but we need to get the first generation of the user browser out there so people can start seeing the power of the toolset. There are loads of cool things in this user browser that will make you wonder why every IM tool doesn't have them.

beta 2

The purpose of Beta 1 is to deliver an initial "unit of work" that both demonstrates the possibilities of the PLAYXPERT as well as provides real in-game assist for World of Warcraft.

Beta 1 is scheduled to include the following features/functions and is being delivered to help the WoW community via in-game thottbot support and inter-game/inter-network chat support. Supported features include:

* Feature completion - All items from Beta 1 will become feature complete (where they were only partially completed in Beta 1).
* Server Browser Widget - Browse the servers out there, and join friends playing.
* Game Scanner Widget - In association with the Server Browser Widget, release of the game scanner allowing key game stats and metrics to be discovered and understood.
* Diagnostics/KPI Widget - Widget providing in-game system/network diagnostics so you can better understand your system before going into a frag-fest.
* Music Widget - Control your music while in-game
* Reputation Manager Widget - Give feedback and gain a better understanding of who you're playing with using this independent 3rd party system that tracks reputations. The Reputation manager is like digg for gamers - integrated into the user profile subsystem of the PLAYXPERT. It's also cross-game!!!
* Web-System Completion - Our web tier will be feature-complete, allowing user and clan information to be accessed via the web-tier.

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pxp widgets

Widget Overview
PXP widgets deliver the majority of the PLAYXPERT functionality and are built on top of a very robust widget api. This api allows (among other things) users to quickly and easily download and employ the widgets for their intended use.

The following are a list of widgets that we are going to be releasing with the PLAYXPERT between the first and second betas. For more information about what will be in each release, go to product release. For information about what we've been thinking about for future widgets, go to future widgets. And finally, we want your feedback - contribute to the forums and make it yours by letting us know what you think.

* User Browser & Clan Tools
o Allows users to view and manage their friends online. Added component of our friends directory is the integrated clan tools. Don't you want to manage your clan in an integrated way to your buddy lists?
* Chat
o Allows users to chat with their friends, clan mates, and other users both on PLAYXPERT at off. What was that?!? - work with other chat networks? YEP. You can chat with friends on Yahoo, AOL, XFire, and others. Awesome, right?

* Server Directory
o Think of it as a classic server directory that aggregates all of the games out there - and who's playing on them. Because of our integrated architecture, we can allow for things that you have only dreamt of. Find people playing your favorite game? No problem. How about filtering the game servers in the directory by clan memberships of the users that are on them? We've got that too.
* Thottbot
o Allows users to search the Thottbot website directly from within WoW!!! No more alt-tab. This is a killer capability that is sure to get a lot of use as the expansion pack is released.

* Game Scanner
o This Widget uses both PLAYXPERT and community defined game signatures to detect installed games, and detect when games are being played. A Game Signature file will consist of an XML file containing all known information for identifying a given game, whether installed on the user’s hard drive, or actively being played. These signatures can be contributed to the community and posted in our scanner manifest list on our site (released with launch).

* Download manager
o The download manager will help reduce the load on the users internet connection while downloading application updates. This will not be a general purpose download manager. However, it will allow other widgets to use its services. We are considering using it as a general purpose download manager for patch updates and file downloads for users.

* System Diagnostics
o This widget is really cool. It provides all of the key performance indicators of your machine (memory, cpu, network, etc) and provides it as a widget for your use while in-game. About to get into a raid? You can check your vitals while in game and kill off rogue processes that may impact your performance!

* Music
o This widget will allow the user to control the playback of music. This feature will particularly useful in-game when you are getting ready to battle- and all of a sudden, Marvin Gaye comes on. Who wants to get out of game to fix that? With the PLAYXPERT, you wont have to.

Widget Distribution
PXP Widgets can be distributed via two primary means:

* Automatically via the PXP Network
* Manually via web download, email, ftp, or sneaker-net

We will always provide a means for users to download and use a widget that they find on the Internet (built by some individual out there). But, just like any code that you randomly find on the internet - there is a certain amount of risk that you will be taking in using that widget.

Once we release, we will be providing a web-driven library of widgets that the community has built. If you want to build a widget, you can post it in the library. From there, users can download the widgets manually, or subscribe to the widgets via the PLAYXPERT client (which auto-downloads the widget and installs it). This library will also provide a means for users to vote and make commentary on the widgets.

In addition, we are hiring a team of interns (and distributed 'helpers') who will be reviewing widgets on their machines to check for various things. Namely, we want to review widgets and make sure they aren't being used as a means to cheat or introduce trojan horses and viruses onto your machines! If you create a widget, and you want it reviewed to become 'trusted', we may need to review the source and confirm that there are no components that will aid in cheating or introduce any malicious code.

Given this, we have two categories of widgets that will be available: Trusted and Non-Trusted.

Trusted widgets will be signed using our internal signing tool. Non-trusted widgets will require prompted agreement from the users that they indeed want to use the widget even though it isn't trusted.

Widget Code Signatures
We're using an internal signature system to authenticate that widgets are trusted versus non-trusted. If a widget is not 'Trusted', then it will not be auto-deployed and auto-installed via our network. In addition, if it is not 'Trusted', we will prompt the user to notify them when they attempt to install the widget.

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game scanner

Game Scanner, what's that?

Basically, its a 'discovery mechanism' to find what games you play (or simply have installed) on your system.

Although our game scanner technology is manifested as a widget, we are breaking its description and use-cases into a separate section for further description. This is because we want to get your feedback on both the structure and style of how we're doing things.

Game scanner technology is like an engine. Engines are only useful provided you have a fuel to feed it so you get the intended value from it. In gaming, game scanners feed on the fuel of game definitions. There is no open standard for defining how games should be described, scanned, and probed; we believe it would be a great idea.

The second best thing to having an open standard is to have a community-driven standard. This is why we want to expose our game scanner 'fuel' to the community and allow anyone to build and refine the definitions of how games are characterized. As a community characterized database, we will be able to distribute these signatures via the PXP network so that everyone using the PLAYXPERT benefits from the community-driven definitions.

This is of major value because games undergo massive change on a regular basis in revision and patch modifications. As this happens, a game can be characterized and described in a more meaningful way and may behave differently between one patch and another. There is no better group to keep these definitions up to date than the gaming community itself.

What does this mean for PLAYXPERT? We must build the technology in such a way that we don't impede the natural progress and behavior of the community. We have to make it simple for people to contribute to the signatures and make it easy for people to leverage the signatures without having to tweak their instance of the PLAYXPERT in some endless fashion to make it all work. So basically, the gaming community will be able to add and edit game definitions and share them with each other, instead of having to configure their system to work with our predetermined game definitions. Its a problem we've had with other 'in-game' tools and its too much trouble.

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future widgets

The following is a list of widgets that we've been kicking around as good ideas. We're posting these up here so that you can let us know if you want to build one of them. More people building widgets means more in-game tools available to MMO players! These widgets are in no particular order or priority.

* Web Mail Widget
o Description: This is either one or more widgets that provides access to Hotmail, Yahoo mail, Google mail, etc... and it useful if you want to have a small real-estate window that can: 1.) Check if email has arrived, 2.) Use the PXP automation engine to notify of new mail in a semi-transparent alert (while in-game), 3.) Allow the user to click the alert to read and/or respond to the mail using our embedded web browser in the widget architecture.
o Use Case: While gaming, you use an alternative identity for your in-game persona. That identiy has a yahoo mail account (for example), part of the strategy game calls for out-of-game communications that require you to make sure you know what's happening IRL while you're in-game.
* Game Specific Widgets
o Description: Widgets built by PXP, a game publisher/developer, or the community, this is more of a 'catagory' of widgets that allow users to leverage in-game tools that are specific to the game itself. Because the widget architecture allows complex widgets or simple http pass-through widgets, someone could build a web-app that is a great in-game assist, and then build a widget for that web-app that wraps all of the functionality and delivers it in-game. This is all seamless when you develop widgets. Are you a publisher and you want a game-specific widget built to promote your game and game community? Contact us and we can see about working together in partnership.
* Patch Downloader Widget
o Description: Pretty self explanatory. Although everyone can guess what this is - we have no interest in being the one-stop-shop for file download. Rather, we believe that all of the major file-download players in the ecosystem should have Widgets that run in the PLAYXPERT. The problem with us being a file download company is that it removes our focus from what we do best - the PLAYXPERT. Why not have the ecosystem provide widgets that users can use. IGN and Viacom shouldn't be the only in-game file download tools which rely only on their inventory of *things* to be downloaded. If you're an independent, let us know if you want to build a widget for file download so we can serve the gamers best.
* Strategy Handbook Widget
o Description: Strategy playbook provided while in-game so you can have in-game assist at your fingertips. This one is going to be cool.
* Search Widget
o Description: This is your standard google, yahoo, msn, ask.com widget that allows users to search for things or concepts while in-game.
o Status: We're currently buliding these widgets on our free time.
* Ventrillo or TeamSpeak Widget
o Description: Pretty self explanatory. People already use various voip tools - no need to make yet another. Why should in-game community management mean that you have to also be a VOIP provider. We need to mesh together the tools that the community already uses, and allow the community to control the tools from a single-pane-of-glass (the PLAYXPERT).
* Bio-Metric Feedback Widget
o Description: This is really cool. We got this idea at a recent gaming talk in Palo Alto. A company providing gyro-technology similar to (they illustrated how it was better than) the WII handsets provoked a lot of questions from the audience. The questions were really about how real-life movement is going to translate into the virtual environment of MMO's and PC Games. The result, why can't we have a widget that hooks into some USB port that checks heart-rate, perspiration, and other key metrics about your body. Then, that data is not only being tracked with your other gaming metrics (how well do you keep your cool) it is also shows in PXP on PvP sessions. What if you could see how enraged you were making your competitor! That would be really interesting... We're not in the hardware business - but someone is. We can build this widget - or the community can. If you make hardware like this and you want to promote it with a widget, we think it's a novel idea and would love to promote it.
* Other
o We have a few (very select few) that we're keeping hush-hush about. They are widgets that we're actively working on - but not even in the Inner Circle. We think they're going to make things really interesting in the future for gaming and gamers. Let's see what happens, you may see new widgets appear in your widget browser (let's you install new widgets)

'[R-DEV wrote:TheRealFritz']Be aware that Battlefield 2's PunkBuster does not like overlays, at all. It tends to look at them as hacks.

Cool stuff, though.