Overview

There are two primary goals in network communication:

1. Making sure the client view is “in sync” with the server view
   • The flower at coordinates (X, Y, Z) just grew
2. Giving the client a way to tell the server that something has changed about the player
   • the player pressed a key

The most common way to accomplish these goals is to pass messages between the client and the server. These messages will usually be structured, containing data in a particular arrangement, for easy sending and receiving.