Virtual universes (VUs) are computer-based simulations of the real world where users interact with one another using online identities. These online identities, known as avatars, can be chosen by a user to graphically represent himself within the VU in a human-like form.
A VU is similar in many respects to the real world. VU's can have different geographical locations, time metrics, and assets that may be used similarly to those used in the real world. A VU stores all of this information, including avatar data, on a number of servers. In the past, each server has represented a geographic location within the VU and has also included all of the data for the avatars within the VU's geographic location. Presently, millions of users have participated in VUs and a number of different geographic locations have been created requiring numerous servers to handle the load.
The problem that arises with VUs is that it is difficult to control how much load is on any given server. For example, there may be thousands of avatars in one geographic location and only ten avatars in another location. This causes the server with thousands of avatars to overload and the server with only ten avatars to be underutilized. When a server becomes overloaded, the avatar interactions handled by the overloaded server appear slower than normal to the user. Depending on the degree of overload, the user will become frustrated with the slow speed and leave the VU. This results in fewer users and affects the amount of income that can be generated within the VU.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.