Influence of Network Delay and Jitter on Cooperation in Multiplayer Games

Abstract

Like most applications deployed on the Internet, modern multiplayer games are subject to the impact of transmission delays and the variability thereof. These delays can be introduced either by the physical limitations of signal transmission speed or overload and queuing problems in intermediate nodes. The influence of this delay is far-reaching and impacts most interactive applications. More specifically, quantitative and qualitative studies have been conducted on competitive game genres, such as first person shooter and racing games. In contrast, this work investigates how network delay affects player experience in cooperative games, where players have to interact with shared objects and obstacles. In this game genre, one might expect an increased sensitivity to detrimental network factors due to the reliance on the (near-)perfect synchronization of actions between participants. In this paper, a series of consecutive user tests were carried out with one of the most recent games, Little Big Planet 2; which focuses primarily on the cooperative aspect. Analysis has shown that delays over 100 ms significantly decrease player performance and the way in which network quality is perceived. At the same time jitter negatively affects user performance, though players do not perceive this impairment as disturbing.