The next big renaissance for gaming
Image by Tom Rosha
Technology
01.11.2012
In:
Technology
Some of the earliest online games can be traced back to the late 1960s and early 1970s with war-gaming for the Department of Defense,consumer-oriented games such as flight simulators and the very first versions of role-playing games.
Since the days of dial-up access, three trends have inextricably linked gaming with
Internet access:
- The spread of broadband access. Cable providers led the way with deeply discounted “triple play” deals for television, phone and Internet access. Telecom carriers, originally hampered by last-mile challenges to the household, started perfecting DSL access to help counter the cable threat.
- The proliferation of connected devices and systems. Households went from having one computer connected to their access point to two or three computers and the laptop from work, the security system, the Skype account, the television, the Blu-ray player and even some appliances like refrigerators. All of these share the same connection, taking away bandwidth from the same pipe.
- The rise of high-speed wireless access. Virtually, all wireless carriers have transitioned from 2G to 3G speeds and are now widely deploying 4G LTE technology. City-wide broadband services based on WiMax technology, offered by companies like Clear, are also competing in the wireless broadband space. And device manufacturers are joining in the race by creating smartphones with large, high-resolution screens and great computing power as well as tablets and laptops with integrated wireless hardware.
The next era of gaming for entertainment, education and training purposes will be hugely impacted by advancements in broadband Internet access. But the United States still has a ways to go.
As indicated in the trends above, the average home or work network has several computers and other devices accessing the Internet simultaneously. Whether they are sending email attachments, making VoIP phone calls or playing games online, their applications will have an effect on one another as they each fight for bandwidth in a specific network. The result is a slowdown in ALL applications causing the gamers’ scourge called “Internet lag.” Now compound this problem with whole neighborhoods, office buildings, etc sharing the access pipe and you have a serious
issue with providing optimal performance for online gaming. And U.S. telecom companies badly lag the rest of the developed world in broadband Internet service. Broadband providers in much of the rest of the world offer faster connections at generally much lower prices.
The average U.S. household has to pay an exorbitant amount of money for an Internet connection that the rest of the industrial world would find mediocre,” reported the Scientific American in October 2010. The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University concluded that U.S. broadband service is “not just slower and more expensive than in tech-savvy nations,” such as South Korea and Japan, but the U.S. has also “fallen behind infrastructure-challenged countries such as Portugal and Italy.”
In the fall of 2010, the third annual study from the Saïd Business School, Oxford University, looked at broadband quality in 72 countries and 239 cities. The U.S. was not in the top ten in broadband leadership and there was not a single U.S. city in the top 20 for the Broadband Quality Score.
This disparity has negative implications not just for U.S. Internet users but also for the growth of the gaming industry as a whole. “There are still too many people and community institutions lacking the level of broadband service needed to fully participate in the Internet economy,” said Lawrence E. Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the arm of the Commerce Department that is overseeing the National Broadband Mapping project.
However, help is on the way.
Last year, the Federal Communications Commission released a national broadband plan that set a goal of connecting 100 million U.S. households to broadband connections of 100 megabits per second — at least 20 times faster than most home connections now — by 2020.
And for wireless access, President Obama’s administration has started an initiative that calls for nearly doubling the spectrum available for mobile broadband, providing at least 98 percent of Americans with access to 4G high-speed wireless, deploying a nationwide, interoperable wireless network. More than 10 times faster than current high speed wireless services, the 4G technology promises to benefit all Americans, bolster public safety and spur innovation in wireless services, equipment and applications – including gaming for education and entertainment.
High performance, ubiquitous broadband Internet access will usher in the next great era in interactive gaming. Connection speeds of 100+ megabits per second paves the way for high definition, 3D gaming for work or play. The next generation of gaming will allow immersive training experiences for remote workers. It will provide more advertising opportunities in entertainment gaming such as sponsorships and product placement from companies wanting to be associated with these highly interactive experiences. And broadband gaming platforms will provide more engaging educational experiences at home and in classrooms across the nation.
