1. On The Battle between Lag and Online Gamers Po-Han Tseng, Nai-Ching Wang, Ruei-Min Lin, and Kuan-Ta Chen Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica Presented by Yu-Chun Chang (National Taiwan University) 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang1

2. Outline Introduction Methodology Survey results Conclusion 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang2

3. Introduction (1/3) 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang3 Online game server Internet LAG ? Player

4. Introduction (2/3) LAG – When a game fails to respond to users’ commands or update the screen in a timely fashion We want to understand – How do players perceive lag? – What do players think of the causes of lag? – How do players react to lag? 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang4

5. Introduction (3/3) Contribution – We design an Internet survey to know about how game players feel about lag and how they react when encountering lag during game play 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang5

6. Outline Introduction Methodology Survey results Conclusion 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang6

7. Methodology Our questionnaire comprises four sections 1)Player demographics (12 questions) 2)Perceptions of lag (9 questions) 3)Reactions to lag (7 questions) 4)Solutions (5 questions) Published on my3q.com – We also announced it on PTT.cc for 3 weeks – 229 respondents to the questionnaire 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang7

8. Outline Introduction Methodology Survey results Conclusion 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang8

9. 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang9 I. Player Demographics Q1: Age of players Q3-Q4: Game play experience

10. 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang10 I. Player Demographics Q5: Preference of games World of Warcraft

11. 2011/5/1111 I. Player Demographics Q7: Game play time Q6: Game play frequency 6 PM – 10 PM

12. 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang12 I. Player Demographics Q9: Internet service provider adopted

13. 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang13 Q9: Host to gateway access method Q10: Gateway to Internet access method I. Player Demographics

14. 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang14 Q12: Bandwidth of Internet access I. Player Demographics

15. 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang15 II. Perceptions of Lag Q13: Frequency of lag Q14: Significance of lag

16. CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang16 Q16: Players’ intuition about root causes of lag Q15: Duration of lag 1. 3. 1. Link bandwidth 2. Game server 3. User’s PC 2. II. Perceptions of Lag

17. 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang17 II. Perceptions of Lag Q17: To what degree do players feel lag is related to the time of game play? Q18: To what degree do players feel lag is related to the number of avatars in the screen?

18. 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang18 III. Reactions to Lag Q15: Reactions to lag

19. 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang19 III. Reactions to Lag Q23: Interval time between reattempts Q27: To what degree do players think lag is the main cause to quit an online game?

20. 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang20 III. Reactions to Lag Q28: Where or to whom do players usually complain about their lag problems?

21. CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang21 IV. Solutions to Lag Q29: Strategies to solve lag None Upgrade access link Upgrade PC

22. 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang22 IV. Solutions to Lag Q29: How often do players adopt network tools to detect the root cause of lag?

23. 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang23 IV. Solutions to Lag Q31–Q32: What kind of tools do players demand to fight lag?

24. Conclusions We present an Internet survey to understand how players perceive of and react to lag Our survey results show that players usually have no means to fight lag – They are looking for a diagnostic tool that can infer the root cause of lag Future work – Develop a diagnostic tool 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang24

25. Thank you for your attention! 2011/5/11CQR 2011 / Yu-Chun Chang25