Apr 15, 2023 18:00:00

The database term 'sharding' may come from the MMORPG 'Ultima Online'

A database load distribution method that divides and records a single table across multiple database servers is called 'sharding.' Rough Coster, who was a game designer for Ultima Online, explains that the word sharding is derived from the long-established

large-scale multiplayer online RPG (MMORPG) ' Ultima Online '.

Database “sharding” came from UO? – Raph's Website
https://www.raphkoster.com/2009/01/08/database-sharding-came-from-uo/

According to Koster, the oldest Google search for examples of the word 'sharding' was written in 2009 by an engineer who was a former employee of Friendstar and Flickr . Flickr is now a photo sharing service, but it was originally developed as an MMORPG image sharing service called 'Game Neverending', and in fact it is not far from the MMRPG industry. Mr. Coster was asked to participate as an advisor by Mr. Stuart Butterfield, co-founder of Ludicorp, which developed 'Game Neverending', but he had to refuse due to the contract at the time. So, I'm not involved with Flickr.

Mr. Coster said, 'The word' shard 'is a word that has a very special meaning and history in MMORPG. While loading the same static template database, run different runtime databases to make the game world exist in parallel. This parallel database was simply called a 'server'.'

And Mr. Coster testifies that the word 'shard' was born to link with the world view of the game when explaining the parallel server in Ultima Online.

Mr. Coster seems to have read the settings of the computer RPG '

Ultima ' series, which is the original of Ultima Online, and tried to explain the situation in which multiple copies of the player are operated. I”, from the story that ``Mondain, an evil wizard who brings disaster to Sosaria, the different world where Ultima is set, tried to control Sosaria by trapping it in a jewel'', ``At the end of ``Ultima I'' defeated Mondain and smashed the orb, creating a distorted copy of Sosaria in each of the orb fragments.'

Mr. Coster said that it was important to name it because this 'fragment of the jewel' is a concept that does not exist in the original 'Ultima' series. The concept of 'multiverse' was already born in the world of American comics, but Mr. Coster, who thought that the word was not Ultima-like, named the jewel fragment 'shard'.

From this, each server of Ultima Online came to be called 'shard', and as the times progressed, it seems that it came to be used other than Ultima Online. People who played MMORPG in the 90's use 'server' and 'shard' interchangeably, and sometimes refer to parallel servers instead of physical servers as 'shards'.

However, Mr. Koster seems unable to show evidence that the word 'shard' originated in 'Ultima Online', saying, 'The word' shard 'was first born in 1996, when Ultima Online was being developed. Was it a document written in? Hmm ... I'm not sure. Maybe it's an interesting coincidence. Did you still have that document ...?'