The very definition of an “MMO” implies two things: you have an online presence, and you have (hopefully) a massive number of people showing up to play your online game. These two requirements create a variety of challenges for anyone responsible for delivering the technology and services needed to run the ‘back-end’ operations of an Online game. In this session, we will cover the basics involved in creating such an online environment, running it over time, and hopefully growing it as it becomes successful. We will also touch on some advanced methodologies for dealing with the special challenges unique to MMO’s.