Night Elves Die when Net Neutrality Does

Net Neutrality is an issue you may be tired of hearing about, but here’s an angle you may not have considered: when ISPs are given the kind of leeway the abuse their power as is being suggested by a non-neutral system, online gaming is the first thing that’s going to be held for ransom, or just outright killed.

Companies like Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Sony Online Entertainment, and countless others, have built a business on the fundamental assumption of relatively low latency bandwidth being available to large numbers of consumers. Furthermore, a large — even overwhelming — portion of the value of these offerings comes from their “network effects” — the tendency for the game to become more enjoyable and valuable as larger number of players joins the gaming network.

Essentially, if Net Neutrality is not maintained, we can expect a lot more online games to start performing like Second Life. Just something to think about.

A New Take on Net Neutrality [RampRate]