Has online lag ever been formally studied?

[Zeekfox]

We all lag sometimes. We can feel it as players. You press a button, and things just don't happen quite as fast as you'd like. However, experiences in For Glory can't really produce hard data, which is something we as Smashers enjoy.

So like, testing. Set up two Wii U's side by side and have them connect through different networks. Through routing, it should be possible to create artificial distance if needed. But because you have the systems right next to each other, you can see if they're reacting to the lag exactly the same, test out the input delay, etc.

Has anyone done this before and I just haven't seen it? I feel like this sort of experiment could yield some interesting results that could possibly do some mythbusting toward online lag where players may feel as though their opponent is free to react to things while the player themselves tries to react and their buttons just don't come out fast enough. After all, we can't very well just go ask our random FG opponent if they felt like the game was giving them as much input delay, and even if we could ask an online friend, answers from players not using measuring tools will be subjective.

 

[Pommgreen]

While this is a great experiment to test an idea I have often wondered myself, I strongly suspect the results would probably reveal what I have come to understand for a long while now. Nearly everyone online is cheating. They all somehow manipulate the connection to varying degrees to intentionally create a gameplay environment that differs from offline. When people think of cheaters, many think of only the obvious ones where the lag spikes are noticeably severe and timed with whatever situations would put the opponent in bad spot. But in reality, even the players who seem to have a nearly perfect connection with little lag are actually doing it too.

Unintelligent cheaters make the match lag so badly that they make it difficult for even themselves to fight well. Intelligent cheaters attempt to make it so that the match appears offline like with seemingly no visible lag or input delay, but if you look very carefully at the proceedings of the match you tell things are off and what you see is no coincidence. They make the match lag very slightly to make it easier for themselves to perfect shield, grab, attack, counter, dodge and while making your actions in comparison ever slightly more sluggish with slightly added delay. Some intelligent cheaters can even "overclock" their character so that they can move and act faster than what is normally possible making it difficult for you to attack, approach, or escape from them. So cases like this they don't even have to "lag" the game although they still can if they desire it. Nearly everyone online is connection manipulator of some sort; I have a seventy-three percent win rate overall with a little over ten-thousand online battles and I'm still saying this. There is hardly anyone who isn't doing something bad and what is even more disappointing is that it isn't a matter if someone is manipulating the connection, but rather when someone will start to manipulate the connection.

Anyone who is telling you that these kinds of things don't happen are either naïve and uninformed or lying to you and are most likely doing bad things themselves online. I know exactly what I am talking about. In my ten thousand battles online I have seen everything under the sun when comes to the vile things most players are capable of. And despite all of the evil that goes on I still manage to win most of the time but win or lose it doesn't mean anything. Online play is an intentional corruption of the game by its players who probably wouldn't even pass for a mediocre player offline. You are playing a game by your opponent's twisted rules and not those by the developer's intent. Everyone just looks the other way or never talks about this perverse and disgusting issue because nearly everyone is guilty to some degree of connection manipulation.

 

[FamilyTeam]

Wall of text

Lag switches, drophacks, downloading and uploading massive things with a slow internet connection to artificially raise ping in online matches is nothing new. Some people are just nasty, yeah.
But you can't just assume everybody that plays online and lags is under a lag switch. Some people have high ping because... they have high ping. Their internet isn't great, your internet might not be great, they might be far away from you, the server might be doing iffy stuff, there's a lot to consider. Is this game's matchmaking a sin? Yes. Is this game's netcode an atrocity? Absolutely. That's why you can get into matches you shouldn't.

 

[Zeekfox]

Yeah, I find it hard to imagine that most people playing online have some sort of connection modifying button, and even if they did, it'd be a pain to try and press in the middle of a match.

I wonder more about how perfectly the Wii U's are synced up over the internet. Even if it's a P2P connection, are both systems truly equal? Sometimes I feel like my better connection opponents have buttons that go off with less lag than mine do, allowing them to play the game more accurately than I can because my buttons have more delay. But I don't see my opponents, so I can't prove that. And, are we even playing the exact same game? I know the game tries to stay syncronized as much as possible, but can the be slighly different at points? Does my replay look exactly the same as my opponent's?

 

[Kurri ★]

If you're lagging, they're lagging. It's to avoid de-syncs and other potential issues. And yeah, their replay is the same.

Only reason they may be able to do better is because they're reacting better to the lag. They were born in it, molded by it.

 

[Pommgreen]

You're all wrong. Again , I know exactly what is going on. I pay close attention to everything that happens in battle and I have became better aware at noticing all the little details as result of playing online often. While I know that there can be other valid explanations as to what goes on online they would not describe at least 90 percent of cases. And why does every time someone makes suspicious guesses or even innocent or curious inquiries about online connection issues that people always mention the idea of a "lag switch" and its ineffectiveness as if it were the only tool, and physical one at that, or method which causes online lag to occur? There are probably many easier ways that players can intentionally induce lag without creating or using a specialized device, with some methods maybe being better than others. I'm guessing maybe people download computer programs that can manipulate bandwidth, tamper with their router, open many downloads, or anything else they can do to have a setup ready to simulate lag. These are all things the average person can easily do if their heart and mind weren't in the right place and the desire to win at any cost was strong enough to propel them.

 

[MVboy39]

Everyone is cheating but me.

I really don't think most people care about winning against a stranger in a non-ranked environment where no one else is watching. Sure, you will get cheaters every now and then - I only saw one suspicious thing ever, and it might have just been regular internet shenanigans - but no one else is going to start downloading files to their computer just to make some guy somewhere in the world lose in an online unranked video game.

EDIT: Back to the topic at hand, I would love for someone with the proper equipment to run these tests that the original poster mentioned.

 

[Kurri ★]

You're all wrong. Again , I know exactly what is going on. I pay close attention to everything that happens in battle and I have became better aware at noticing all the little details as result of playing online often. While I know that there can be other valid explanations as to what goes on online they would not describe at least 90 percent of cases. And why does every time someone makes suspicious guesses or even innocent or curious inquiries about online connection issues that people always mention the idea of a "lag switch" and its ineffectiveness as if it were the only tool, and physical one at that, or method which causes online lag to occur? There are probably many easier ways that players can intentionally induce lag without creating or using a specialized device, with some methods maybe being better than others. I'm guessing maybe people download computer programs that can manipulate bandwidth, tamper with their router, open many downloads, or anything else they can do to have a setup ready to simulate lag. These are all things the average person can easily do if their heart and mind weren't in the right place and the desire to win at any cost was strong enough to propel them.

What the **** did I just read?

I really don't think most people care about winning against a stranger in a non-ranked environment where no one else is watching. Sure, you will get cheaters every now and then - I only saw one suspicious thing ever, and it might have just been regular internet shenanigans - but no one else is going to start downloading files to their computer just to make some guy somewhere in the world lose in an online unranked video game.

EDIT: Back to the topic at hand, I would love for someone with the proper equipment to run these tests that the original poster mentioned.

You don't have to run tests. It's how the game is made. Otherwise they'd be teleporting everywhere (such as with FPSes)

 

[FamilyTeam]

I have to wonder how Lag Compensation works in this game.
No, Lag Compensation isn't a monster that automatically ruins the game. If an online game has no compensation at all, you can bet the game's gonna be unplayable at any sign of somewhat high ping.
However, if a game has too much lag compensation (Modern Warfare 3 was very infamous for this), then the game is also unplayable.

 

[Sunnymane]

From what I've seen many many times over.. People will intentionally lag the game when loosing. Do not be fooled! Some even lag the game throughout the entire match to ensure their win. It's quite sad really. You'll never get better by cheating.