web based games...

Are you talking about games programmed to run under, say, Windows, but with netplay? Or games based to run in a browser (for instance, programmed with Java or PHP)?

Sounds like you''re talking about the former, so... Yes. You need a server. Games that are online only such as MMORPGs require a server to be up constantly. Mainly because the entire game is usually contained on such a server, and the client only contains the bare bones necessary to running the game (the graphics, the sounds, the music, the code to show the player what''s going on, and the code to tell the server what the player wants to do).

i''m talking about games that run in a browser...

A web-based game like the one you''re describing is built using server-side scripts and/or components called by those scripts, but other than the web server software itself and the supporting database, there isn''t anything running all the time.

A web-based game is not like an MMORPG in that respect. The interactions in an MMORPG are quite a bit more complex and performance-sensitive (e.g. they have to provide the impression of "real time" response, rather than round-trip transactional behavior like a web-based app), so they normally do have custom software constantly running on the server.

In a very abstract sense they''re equivalent, but for most practical purposes they''re very different.

You could have some mixture of the two, but generally people don''t expect MMORPG-style or -levels of interactivity from browser-based games.

hmm... but for example, imagine you have onw of these web based games where you control a city. You start of with 1000 citizens, but your city grows with time, evolves technologically, etc. Where is all this information processed?

Thanks again

All the information is stored in a database on the server side.
Where its also prossesed.

Taking what i know of how planetarion (www.planetarion.com)
When i played that. They used a custom made web server where
all the scripts where ifact made in native c++. And the load was spread over 3servers. Each server had a diffrent task.

Lets see, back in the day I worked for ColdfireStudios doing web games (WWII and Space). I can say that anything sensitive was done on the server. I.e. nation economy update, battle results, etc. We used C++ for performance sensitive routines, and Php for all else. We also had a client side 2d javascript map enigine that allowed a map view of the galaxy, moving fleets of space ships, etc.
Oh, and Absolutely never trust the client. Your users will cheat. Do not send sensitive info. Do not rely on client side checking alone.

If I were looking at doing this again today, I would consider a plugin of some sort if ''real'' graphics are desired (flash, shockwave, wildtangent(sp?) or even just rolling a real 3d enigine into and active-X control, etc.) There are trade offs of course, but our biggest hassles were usually in supporting all the bloody different browsers and versions. Once you moved beyond basic html, things got real ugly quick if you want to do something like our client side map.

Just an FYI don''t expect to make real $$$, unless ad revenues have miraculously improved since the .com bomb.