I know this is a fair bit to ask....

[Stahlseele]

yeah me too . .
that's the next major thing for all massively online things i believe.
getting the programming right so every client does help with computing the whole world of the game.
or at least the part of the world the client is accessing just then . . maybe 50/50 between some servers for when people don't wanna go to a certain place and 50% from clients so the servers don't have to manage a whole world for several thousand clients all connected by chance to the same part of the world . .

[TimoBlastem]

yeah me too . .
that's the next major thing for all massively online things i believe.
getting the programming right so every client does help with computing the whole world of the game.
or at least the part of the world the client is accessing just then . . maybe 50/50 between some servers for when people don't wanna go to a certain place and 50% from clients so the servers don't have to manage a whole world for several thousand clients all connected by chance to the same part of the world . .

Interesting idea, but man lag would do some incredibly funky things then.  Could you imagine having a portion of the world affected by a bad connection instead of just individual players?  Information would travel across maps in waves.  Cool.

[Stahlseele]

i was thinking more along the torrent system with trackers and fixed servers.
servers that give the pure minimum needed and every little bit extra comes from the client-side.
so maybe not beautyfull animations and textures and glowy stuff, but only smooth running things.
and the animations and stuff comes from client-side.
problem would be, that the overall SIZE of these games would become so big that they would start selling them on HDD's . .
and still, lag could fapp shit up . .  it's a nice idea, but i have no idea how to accomplish this idea(maho?@.@).
in the technical department, i just don't think the infra-structure is ready for this yet

[PanzerBoxb]

Any processing done on a client system would be vulnerable to manipulation.

[Stahlseele]

not more so than it's now i'd guess.
if you can just alter the data SENT, then why alter the Data CREATED?
that's one of the most common ways to cheat in MMORPGS right now.
hard to notice, if you don't do something really stupid.
like a level 1 undead in WOW whipping out the dragons master spell.

[(TLL)KitLightning]

Having a constant stream of data sent from the server to itīs clients is a hackers paradise, this I am sure MWLL and all other would not see come true.
 Thou the idea of having the Client resolve part of the data might work in theory it is in general also stressing you comps, and unless your running a high-end comp, this might lower your comps performance in general.

[Stahlseele]

technically, that's about the point of my idea.
those with better computers won't mind so much and those with weaker comps can profit from it O.o
also, there will never be any online game where there is not a big heap of data sent from client to server and the other way around

[TimoBlastem]

^ yeah but it's all about efficiency.  The netcode of some games is just better than others and with good net code lag is less noticeable.  Cloud computing would increase data transfer 10X between client and server making lag much worse.  It would have to be done by having lots of data crunched on both the client and server, with as little communication between them as possible. 

Of course, as said above, the more control given to clients computers, the more hacks there will be.