On the impact of delay on real-time multiplayer games

Multiplayer games, i.e., games where several persons interact simultaneously over networks like the Internet, receive much interest. One of the reasons is that competing with human counterparts is typically considered as much more interesting and challenging than playing just against a computer.A major problem of network-based multiplayer games is caused by the network transmission delay. This means that it takes a while until information, e.g., about the movement of the opponents objects and their new position, reaches the receivers. This delay causes several difficulties and leads to paradoxical situations. For example, consider a racing game with two players, shortly after the start both believe that they have the lead because it takes a while until the position of the counter player reaches the local player. Approaches to provide for a global consistent state of the game by introducing a local presentation delay have been proposed, however, these increase the application-level delay even more.Therefore, it is important to investigate the impact such delays can have on the performance of multiplayer games and the attractiveness of these games for the human players. Such a study is the purpose of this work. We concentrate on real-time games for the Internet where significant delays can occur. The evaluation is performed through measurements using a car racing simulator.