From my meager understanding of Internet technology I surmise that latency
problems occur because packets between players are being (randomly?) routed
through any number of hubs and servers. It's possible, as I understand it,
that a Florida to New York connection, for example, could be at one time or
another routed through San Franciso or Chicago, etc.
This question is presented to those people with knowledge of such things.
If two or more players had the same regional phone company ISP, BellSouth for
example, would the latency problem be inherently diminished? I can theorize
that would be so because the packets would not have to leave the BellSouth
infrastructure. That includes that the entire SE region.
If this were true, would not the connections between regional phone company
ISPs also be improved for roughly the same reason?
I'd rather spend my money for ISDN with BellSouth to play unlimited eight racer
NASCAR with Kali than pay open ended hourly charges to a *** service. It's
not too hard to imagine that some pretty intense regional competition would
result from this. The cost is not much different. Besides, the ISDN would be
available 7 x 24 for all my other Internet connections.
This issue is not entirely a NASCAR issue. ICR2, GP2 and yet to be released
racing sims will also have to be true multiplayer to compete. I believe that
one vs. many sims like auto racing and real-time interactive team sports are
going to be BIG. With rendition quality graphics already here and P500+
computers on the way, the hardware is available for some pretty exciting
entertainment.
I don't think that we as consumers should roll over and meekly accept the
pricing and practices that the industry throws at us for the "opportunity" to
participate.
Die-hards be damned. Paying more to ONE *** service than I pay to connect to
the rest of the world just doesn't sit right with me. There's gotta' be a
better way. I wish I had the smarts to see it.
MPA