Worst disadvantage in online gaming?

[SeeIn2D]

Today I was playing Call of Duty 4 for my PS3, and it got me thinking what the worst disadvantage you could have in an online game. I'm not talking about game/genre specific, I'm just talking about general disadvantage you could have that pertain to the actual concept of online gaming. The worst I've seen is host advantage. I know this usually isn't a problem on PC but on console if someone is a terrible host, but not terrible enough for the host to switch, they usually have a 4 bar connection, and everyone else usually has a 1-2 bar connection.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Lag is the biggest issue. It's the only true way any online game is ruined.

 

[AnkaraTheFallen]

Lag is definitely the worst, you can be the best at the game, but if your playing with a really bad connection you can still be beaten easily.
Thankfully most console games are now moving to dedicated servers to stop the host advantage thing and generally make connections better.

 

[flametoad9]

people screaming into their headsets with no mute function

 

[SeeIn2D]

Lag is definitely the worst, you can be the best at the game, but if your playing with a really bad connection you can still be beaten easily.
Thankfully most console games are now moving to dedicated servers to stop the host advantage thing and generally make connections better.

Yeah I'm glad BF3 is using dedicated servers. I'm sure thats probably because they couldn't expect some random guy playing there game to have a connection strong enough to support 30+ players but whatever the reason, I'm glad about it.

 

[CthulhuMessiah]

Connection. It doesn't matter how MLG Pro you are if your bullets hit 0.5 seconds after you fire.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

I'd say it's the overwhelming amount of [expletive deleted] online that ruin it. Why is it that given anonymity and a mic then the vast majority (seemingly) of normal people turn into asses.

P.S.

Spoiler

WTF Captcha how am i ment to type that?!?

Edit
Added spoiler tag.

 

[StBishop]

I'd say it's the overwhelming amount of [expletive deleted] online that ruin it. Why is it that given anonymity and a mic then the vast majority (seemingly) of normal people turn into asses.

P.S.

Spoiler: Largest image in the world

WTF Captcha how am i ment to type that?!?

Dude, massive image. any reason why it's so big?

I think you've pretty much covered it. Host advantage is essentially "less lag".

If there any other disadvantage to online versus local play?

 

[x EvilErmine x]

I'd say it's the overwhelming amount of [expletive deleted] online that ruin it. Why is it that given anonymity and a mic then the vast majority (seemingly) of normal people turn into asses.

P.S.

Spoiler: Largest image in the world

WTF Captcha how am i ment to type that?!?

Dude, massive image. any reason why it's so big?

I think you've pretty much covered it. Host advantage is essentially "less lag".

If there any other disadvantage to online versus local play?

Yep, i fail at cropping images in paint.

 

[StBishop]

I'd say it's the overwhelming amount of [expletive deleted] online that ruin it. Why is it that given anonymity and a mic then the vast majority (seemingly) of normal people turn into asses.

P.S.

Spoiler: Largest image in the world

WTF Captcha how am i ment to type that?!?

Dude, massive image. any reason why it's so big?

I think you've pretty much covered it. Host advantage is essentially "less lag".

If there any other disadvantage to online versus local play?

Yep, i fail at cropping images in paint.

Spoiler: Smaller image

Fair enough I suppose. Easy way is select what you want, Ctrl+C -> Ctrl+N -> "Don't Save" -> Resize blank canvas to a couple of pixels by click and dragging bottom right corner -> Ctrl+V and it auto resizes the canvas to the size of the selected image.

 

[BigTortoise]

Well for PC gamers I'd have to say hacks. There's no way you could tell the difference between a hacker or a really good player so it's impossible to take action on them.

 

[DataSnake]

Lag. Other than that, gonna have to agree with Yahtzee on this one: playing with someone you can't slap for acting like a douche.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

I'd say it's the overwhelming amount of [expletive deleted] online that ruin it. Why is it that given anonymity and a mic then the vast majority (seemingly) of normal people turn into asses.

P.S.

Spoiler: Largest image in the world

WTF Captcha how am i ment to type that?!?

Dude, massive image. any reason why it's so big?

I think you've pretty much covered it. Host advantage is essentially "less lag".

If there any other disadvantage to online versus local play?

Yep, i fail at cropping images in paint.

Spoiler: Smaller image

Fair enough I suppose. Easy way is select what you want, Ctrl+C -> Ctrl+N -> "Don't Save" -> Resize blank canvas to a couple of pixels by click and dragging bottom right corner -> Ctrl+V and it auto resizes the canvas to the size of the selected image.

Awesome. Thanks I'll remember that for next time )

 

[uzo]

Hmm, I think the biggest problem in online gaming is that most games are only for online play. I know this is kinda flawed as this is about the online experience - but damnit sometimes I DON'T wanna play with other people, especially when they are complete tools.

Hell, I had fun playing AoC for a spell, but simply got sick of having to go online to play it and dodge gankers who would wait at bottlenecks to gangrape passersby. Sure, it's a mummorpurger, but jesus, I can play L4D by myself offline - sure the experience is not as fun as with living humans, but I know that the AI characters are not gonna decide that shooting me and driving me to ragequit because some complete tit joins my game in progress thirty minutes in.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that an online game is only as good as the gamers who play it. And that's something that no amount of hardware or fibre optics will fix.

 

[NormalityImpaired]

i agree with what most of the posters here are saying. Lag sucks. After that, the no mute option.

 

[Jabberwock King]

people screaming into their headsets with no mute function

Sorry to hear that you had to endure something like that. Where did you encounter it? Xbox live always has access to a mute function and Halo is even better when it comes to silencing people, so I don't encounter anything too bad.

A bigger problem in Halo though are griefers on your team who know how to exploit the system. They pop your shields but don't kill you, so you can't keep fighting, or they kill you immediately after you get hit by the enemy. A friendly-fire kill that takes place shortly after taking enemy fire counts as a kill for the last enemy to shoot you. It's supposed to prevent exploitation of suicide or betrayal related attempts to deny points to the enemy, or protect people that mess up with power weapons or grenades.

But I don't run into it often enough for it to really interfere, so i guess I'm just looking for something to complain about.

 

[TCPirate]

The fact that if the online is good, the single player is normally bad.

 

[Geeky Anomaly]

Lag and 12 year-olds gabbing over their headsets.

 

[baker80]

Over-balancing to the point of making every playstyle feel the same. Does this count?