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Every Time You Vote Against Net Neutrality, Your ISP Kills a Night Elf

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the legislation-from-smoking-a-series-of-pipes dept.

Perhaps one of the more overlooked problems that could arise out of a bad Net Neutrality decision is the impact to online gaming. In fact, any interactive communications could stand to take a dive (VOIP, streaming video, etc) with the advent of Net Neutrality legislation. RampRate has an interesting look at the possible fallout and where we are headed. From the article: "What will be murdered with no fallback or replacement is the nascent market of interactive entertainment - particularly online gaming. Companies like Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Sony Online Entertainment, and countless others, have built a business on the fundamental assumption of relatively low latency bandwidth being available to large numbers of consumers. Furthermore, a large -- even overwhelming -- portion of the value of these offerings comes from their 'network effects' -- the tendency for the game to become more enjoyable and valuable as larger number of players joins the gaming network."

4 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. It's all in the titles by robyannetta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This gets my vote for the most catchy title since Fark's 'ceiling cat' incident.

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    - Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
  2. the meaning of the word "gaming" by Speare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As has been mentioned before, to legislators and industrialists, "online gaming" is part of the much older "gaming industry," which is the politically correct word for gambling. This article refers to "online computer games" which has an entirely different stigma involved. You have to speak with policymakers clearly, so they don't confuse tempt-husbands-to-wickedness gambling and train-kids-to-shoot-up-schools computer games.

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    [ .sig file not found ]
  3. Re:It's all in the post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The post says it all : if they built a business out of it, they have to pay for it.

    Yeah, because Blizzard gets a free OC48 pipe, just for being such a good customer.

    Fucking idiot.

  4. Re:It's all in the post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Where's this guy's +1 Insightful...seriously.

    Why do people think individuals are the only ones paying for internet access? Just because you don't see Blizzard's bill from AT&T doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

    Blizzard already pays for bandwidth. Google already pays for bandwidth. Amazon already pays for bandwidth. TelCos just want a legal reason to extort more out of them cause they need another gold swimming pool.

    Fully agree. Fucking idiot.