The End of Net Neutrality = The End of Planetside

I am saddened by the lack of understanding in the gaming community about what is happening in Washington right now. They are actively trying to kill this game and every other FPS game we enjoy. If it requires low latency times, it is in the cross-hairs of Verizon and Time Warner Cable.

In case you've been living under a rock for the last few years, here's the short of it: The cable companies want to slow down our internet traffic and then charge a premium to make it go the normal speed again. That's really the whole deal. It's a shake-down for money against everyone who uses the internet.

The fees will be levied at Content Providers. Who is that? That's Sony Online Entertainment. That's Blizzard. That's Wargaming.net. That's every name behind every game you love. Think of the bandwidth that SOE consumes to provide connections to all of the users of Planetside, DC Universe, EverQuest, Landmark, Vanguard, etc. Right now, the news is all about Netflix, but you can be absolutely assured that companies which run their own servers for MMOs are definitely on the short list of "Most Valuable Marks to Hold Over a Barrel".

And it won't just be the MMOs either. There are great companies which provide affordable game hosting so players can have their own servers of Battlefield, Counter Strike, and countless other games. What will happen when the cable companies double or triple their rates just to maintain the level of service they have right now. Those companies will be forced to pass on that cost to their customers. This will hurt games which aren't MMO or F2P titles. There will be fewer servers to play on.

The Video Game Industry is one of the largest entertainment industries in the world. They have a vested interest in maintaining Net Neutrality. Where are their voices? Why aren't they lobbying Congress as hard as the cable companies? The Video Games Industry pulled in just over 20 Billion dollars from the US alone last year - 93 Billion world-wide. PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT. There is NOTHING on the ESA website about Net Neutrality.

And where are all of YOU? The people who are reading this? Have you written the FCC or your Congressional Representative? You know, companies like TWC and Verizon want you to believe that you are powerless but they are wrong. We still have a vote and we can toss people out on their butts. We still have a voice. We need to use it:

https://www.battleforthenet.com/

http://www.fcc.gov/comments

And don't forget to Zerg The Vote in 2016.

Degenatron is correct. If you're having connection issues tonight, as I am, you'll find that these will become a more frequent occurrence if Net Neutrality ends. It will lead to the big pigs like Comcast forcing content providers like SOE to pony up money or else face traffic shaping and latency manipulation, much as Netflix did before they paid up. What some of us are seeing here tonight is just a prelude.

I see so much troll energy on these forums sometimes. Your energy is misdirected here. http://www.fcc.gov/comments needs you.

Provided for better explanations.

Edit: This one's alright too I guess;

I actually want this to go through. The quicker people see government has no place trying to regulate a free market the better. Maybe 10,000,000 pissed of FPS players are all it will take to kick out those so called "representatives" for good.

Some market regulation makes sense. In fact net neutrality, as it stands, is a regulation. The government is prohibiting network providers from slowing down and preventing access to content. The end of net neutrality is the end of that mandate.

This is the opposite of regulation, it's letting companies decide if they want to restrict net access for their own reasons.
If you like, please go drink water in the many polluted rivers around America lately, that's the free market looking out for you.

take a lookie.................heh NC zurg will actually be doing something for once

Please tell me what market regulation makes sense. As it stands I live in an area with ONE service provider as caused by this law and I already feel the effects. It is not out of the ordinary for my entire town to lose internet for a time because our provider wants to save some money or because they don't bother to upgrade their network. Because nobody else is allowed to compete with him he doesn't have to worry about his customers moving to another provider. IT IS ********! It is just one example of why the government can't get anything right.

Are you actually implying that free trade means you have to drink polluted water? Right because only the government has the technology available to purify water. That is a stupid argument.

Here is the issue here. Do you want Companies who you voluntarily give money to decide how fast the internet is that is given to you or do you want the government who forces you to give them money decide? Who do you think cares about your input more?

Ah I see we have an anarchist in here, or I mean a 'libertarian'.

The problem with internet service providers, is that in the vast majority of locations, they have absolutely no competition, aside from the usual choice of cable or DSL (or nothing), which is something that I believe needs to end. If this was not the case, this whole debate on ending net nutrality would never become and issue, because any isp that didn't agree to this and didn't slow down their customers would suck away every single customer from the other ISPs. While I have heard about some companies like neflix arguing this issue, I cannot believe that the video game industry, which relies on the internet probably more than any other, is not the most outspoken and loudest voice we are hearing crying out against this.

If my ISP were to cut down my internet speeds, you would not be seeing me pay a premium, they would be dropped in an instant, and I would be going with either DSL, or a wireless solution.

Google Fiber. 'Nuff said.

Some day when it rolls out into my area 50 years from now.

Government regulation is what keeps companies from selling you literal sewer water--as in, water that comes out of the sewer--and telling you it's medicine.

And I see we have someone trying an ad hom, genetic, or personal incredulity fallacy to support their agenda. Why don't you try confronting the issues at hand instead of just labeling the person disagreeing with you?

Wow. That is the stupidest anti-free market argument I have heard yet. Do you think people are forced to drink tainted water in a free market? If you do I think you need to look up what a free market is.

There's already enough mislabeling/half-truths in marketing anyways. You do know that anyone call call themselves a doctor, right?

Let me get this straight.
Republicans (or Democrats) want to increase the amount of money we must pay for the same service we get now.
Net Neutrality is a good thing, but it is starting to diminish.
Is that correct?
And who should I vote for?

Corporations have proven many times that they can not be trusted to do whats right if left to their own devices. a high level economy without some sort of regulation does not exist.

do you think that private corporations should be trusted with tap water and no oversight? that there should be no regulation on how waste should be treated or disposed of to prevent water table damage?

And anyone can vote their agenda on someone else despite not knowing the facts. Your point? (well anyone of age anyways)

Can you cite an example of this happening in a true free market? And to answer your second question yes. The fact is any Corporation answerable to their customers will go out of business if they can't provide a good product to their customers. I know it is unheard of to be a smart consumer, especially in this day and age where everything is "guaranteed" by the government so the consumer doesn't have to think but by being one you could simply move to a better provider or become the provider and start a competitor yourself and benefit from some else's poor business practices.

If violence, government or private is taken out of the question there is no way to grab 100% of the water on the planet and taint it without humanity as a whole being completely insane or suicidal. If someone is polluting the earth and you disapprove you can show your disapproval with your wallet. Right now in the case of tap water you really can't. That is why the force disgusting and unhealthy **** into your water right now like fluoride goes on without anyone lifting a finger.

You really think the same people who approve a certain "acceptable" amount of rat droppings in your breakfast cereal are responsible for delivering you the best product they can? Get real.

"Please tell me what market regulation makes sense."
Libertarians are anarchists that don't want to be associated with that name, for good reason, but they do not differ on opinions.

No, of course not. But unless you live in a magical land where corporations are run by dancing unicorns, you should understand that without some sort of regulation bad things tend to happen to people.