Latency and player actions in online games

Reviewer: Guenter Haring

The growth of broadband network use in the home has pushed the development of online games played over the Internet. The best-effort Internet is a challenge for the real-time interaction required for most online games. This paper discusses how player interactions are sensitive with regard to network latency. To this end, player actions in a game are categorized along two dimensions, precision and deadline, where precision is the accuracy required to complete an action successfully, and deadline is the time required to achieve the final outcome of the action. The precision and deadline requirements for a player action determine the effects of latency on that action. These requirements are also determined by the interaction model, and by the player's game perspective. The interaction model defines how a player interacts with the game world, whereas the game perspective defines how a player views the game world on a screen. The authors first discuss the categorization of player actions along those dimensions, in a very understandable way; nevertheless, more examples with different action types would have improved this part. In the second part of the paper, the authors present the quantitative results of a number of studies where the effect of latency on the performance for player actions was measured, using a network test bed for the careful control of network latency. The results show the influence of latency on player actions, depending on the interaction model and the game perspective. Results are presented in a graphical and descriptive way; unfortunately, the authors did not discuss or interpret the results. Aside from this drawback, this is a nice, well-written paper on a topic that is getting more and more important, from a theoretical as well as a practical point of view. Online Computing Reviews Service