Internet Gaming

For years people have been playing “live time” games over the Internet. If the game is checkers or poker, for example, each player must take his or her turn in proper order, so short delays are not a problem. Even when the game is a world-domination board game with multiple players, each player can submit moves at any time before the deadline. But many video games require simultaneous play by several players, so delays can mean life or death for a player’s combatant in a shoot-’em-up type of action game. One can hear comments by some action game players that they tried to make their move but the Internet was too slow. What is the possible truth here?

Answer

The Internet is usually not the culprit, being extremely fast compared to the hand-eye coordination of the player. The actual travel time between the major switching stations along the Internet is extremely short because the data packages travel at nearly the speed of light in a vacuum. So a data package can go 20,000 kilometers in about 70 milliseconds with no delays. Delays at the switching stations along the Internet are typically in hundreds of milliseconds, with your local Internet service provider (ISP) contributing most of the delay time, on the order of 300 milliseconds or so.

In contrast, your local computer and cable modem, for example, usually will be slower in responding to your input and getting the data out to your ISP and onto the Internet. The faster the equipment at your end, up to a certain speediness, the quicker your response will appear in the game. If your equipment delay time becomes less than the Internet delays, there’s nothing further to be improved by spending more money on a faster computer system.

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