[jdev] how to program a jabber game server

[Richard Dobson]

> Instead, I would opt for using a vanilla MUC service and write a bot
> that owns the room. That should allow plenty control.
>   
Exactly, which is what I am doing as part of it for the in game chat, 
the only problem with using MUC is that you cannot use it for the 
distribution of game state in most cases as a lot of games require that 
each player has only a subset of the complete state, i.e. in a scrabble 
game players cannot see what letters each of the other players has or in 
a poker game you cannot see what cards the other players are holding etc 
etc, so the game state in those cases needs to be distributed directly 
individually to each player, also move/actions in the game need to be 
sent directly to the "game host" (the bot or component) and cannot be 
just be broadcasted in the room by each player as the game host needs to 
verify those moves (and given the opportunity to reject them if they are 
illegal or wrong) before the game state is updated.

Also as pointed out by Michal the protocol needs to be able to support 
operation without a server so it would be better if it wasn't tied to 
MUC and would work without it, without the protocol being much if any 
different.

Richard