Where Gaming Might Go, Explained in 3 Minutes
What is a MILE and why do they matter?
Most multiplayer games allow anywhere from 25–150 users and aim to have a high range of interactivity and fully immersive experiences. A MILE, on the other hand, aims for a different experience: millions of users and collaborative storytelling. The most recent examples are Bandersnatch: Echo Vision and DC Heroes United, announced 5 days ago.
What is a MILE?
To explain what a MILE or Massive Interactive Live Event is, the Hunger Games is a common analogy that’s used — during the Games, audience members could send items to either aid their hero, or hinder opponents.
Similarly, in cloud gaming, a MILE is a singular real-time simulation in which a large number of viewers can influence or control the direction of a story, typically by voting. It’s important to note that the story is unscripted, so viewers have complete control over where the story goes.
Although not technically considered a MILE, Twitch Plays Pokemon is a proper example of how it works. The 2014 event allowed over 1.2MM viewers to vote on decisions, such as which characters were used in matches, which moves or items were used, where a character moved, etc. The choice with the most votes after a certain time period would then be implemented and could not be reversed.
A more recent example (it was announced 5 days ago) is DC Heroes United, which allows viewers to collectively make choices of morality, leadership, and sacrifice (e.g whether Lex Luthor follows a darker path or to what extent Batman and Superman trust each other). These choices then have larger implications, such as how the Justice League confronts problems, which characters fight for good, and why they do so. *Similar to Twitch Plays Pokemon, the decisions in DC Heroes United are irreversible, because, what’s the point in voting if decisions can be reversed anyway?
For reference, hybrid MILEs are those that contain multiple simulations. Rival Peaks, released in 2020 by Meta, is one example, as there were 13 simulations — one for each of the 12 contestants, and then a homescreen stream.
Why do MILEs matter?
The concept is still relatively early, as developers figure out how to best design them (e.g. what’s the most fun, does money play a role, how do players interact). However, they’re important because they solve most of the constraints that multiplayer cloud-based games face.
Games have high requirements for bandwidth and latency, many of which the internet doesn’t meet for various reasons: latency is relatively variable, copper-based transmission (which makes up 93% of US cable infrastructure) decreases bandwidth, sending data internationally or even nationally often involves unnecessarily long routes, and most importantly, it’s expensive and extremely difficult to address any of these issues and improve cable infrastructure. As a result, multiplayer cloud-based games are forced to do most of their work offline; this is why large downloads are required when a user first starts the game. With this, offline work can run most of the simulation. Expert Matthew Ball explains that any online work only sends where each player is (positional data) and their relevant input (e.g. opening a chest, shooting at a player) to each individual machine, and then manages any conflict related to that.
Ball notes that MILEs work under these constraints because similar to multiplayer, they don’t need to synchronize simulations, just inputs. (There’s only one simulation in a MILE to begin with). As a result, MILEs can have a lot more users compared to the typical cap for multiplayer games (25–150) while also displaying high-quality visuals and using sophisticated AI.
The potential entertainment value is also attractive to some — with MILEs, viewers could “watch a high-fidelity real-time rendered version [of The Hunger Games] played by our favorite actors, sports stars, and even politicians, each of whom participates via avatar.” In some cases, like The Walking Dead: The Last M.I.L.E., viewers could even create their own avatars which would then fold into the larger narrative.
