Game players generally want low network latency to maximize their chances of winning - in general, the lower the network latency, the less time between a player's action and the intended outcome. But how much network latency affects players with different levels of skill is not known. This paper presents results from a 36-person user study that evaluates the impact of network latencies on Counter-strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), with skilled FPS game players divided into two groups - one group with extensive CS:GO experience and the other not. Analysis of the results shows that network latency impacts higher-skill players more than lower-skill players, with higher-skill players suffering greater score, accuracy and Quality of Experience degradations than do the lower-skill players for the same network latency.

Materials:

• Paper: pdf
• Slides: pptx
• Surveys:
  • Screener
  • Demographics
  • In-game

See also:

• Shengmei Liu, Atsuo Kuwahara, James Scovell, Jamie Sherman, and Mark Claypool. The Effects of Network Latency on Competitive First-Person Shooter Game Players, In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX), Virtual Conference, June 14-17, 2021. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/csgo-net-21/

• Shengmei Liu, Atsuo Kuwahara, James Scovell, Jamie Sherman, and Mark Claypool. Lower is Better? The Effects of Local Latencies on Competitive First-Person Shooter Game Players, In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Yokohama, Japan, May 8-13, 2021. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/csgo-lag-21/

• Shengmei Liu, Atsuo Kuwahara, James Scovell, Jamie Sherman, and Mark Claypool. Comparing the Effects of Network Latency versus Local Latency on Competitive First Person Shooter Game Players, In Proceedings of the ACM Esports and High Performance HCI Workshop (EHPHCI), Virtual Conference, May 8, 2021. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/net-local-21/

• Tom Beigbeder, Rory Coughlan, Corey Lusher, John Plunkett, Emmanuel Agu, and Mark Claypool. The Effects of Loss and Latency on User Performance in Unreal Tournament 2003, In Proceedings of ACM Network and System Support for Games Workshop (NetGames), Portland, Oregon, USA, September 2004. Online at: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~claypool/papers/ut2003/