Stupid lag!

A problem that I've had really bad in the past is lag.  My first foray in to online gaming was over 56k playing Jedi Outcast, and that was just hellish, sometimes.  People these days complain that they were lagged by a millisecond and it got them killed, but in the 56k days you would run for 20 seconds then teleport back to where you started if it was bad enough.  This brings me to my point, lag really can affect games.  That millisecond can easily get you killed.  Just remember to be sure that lag is the problem.

The controversial "No Russian" mission is actually a complex allegory for a laggy server.

Recently I was gaming with some people on Super Street Fighter IV, having a great laugh, when one of them was heavy shoryuken'd out of a focus attack.  This, apparently, was the fault of a laggy connection and not of a stupid decision. Therein lies my point.  Lag is an excuse that is easy to reach for whenever something goes wrong.

I'm not immune to it myself, I often shout things like "I fecking well shot first!" and "This bloody lag is killing me." In these instances more often than not it's because I sprint around like a fool and advertise myself as a target (another reason why I'm rubbish at FFA).  The problem I have is with having it in your brain that the mechanics of a game drastically change when you take it online.  Case in point: a heavy shoryuken will knock you out of a focus attack online or offline.  It's how the game works.  There is no arguing.

LAG!

If you make a stupid mistake it's time to own up to it.  You only end up looking like a moaning idiot to everyone else in the game, and unfortunately no one cares.  Remember that everyone is prone to doing silly things, especially in games where fun is of the utmost importance.  For example: You see a squad of men ahead who don't know you're there, the smart thing would be to tell your mates and wait for back-up, but the fun thing would be to pull the pin out of a grenade and try to get as close as possible.

When someone starts bitching and moaning about how unfair everything is, whatever fun was being had is crushed, and all that is left is "I wish this guy would just shut the hell up."

Do we want that, or do we want honest fun?