Yes, where you live matters in video games

In the In the age of the Internet, connectivity to the online space was meant to be open and global. After all, it’s called the World Wide Web, so a free border should have been a part of it, right?

Well no. Thanks to myriad regulatory and technological issues, where you live matters a great deal to what you experience, and rarely is that truer than in the interactive entertainment landscape.

The way you play what you play is a complicated puzzle, and where users may end up without a solution, so how does your location matter?

Game Availability

With platforms like Steam offers over 50,000 games, players are spoiled for choice. However, due to regional restrictions, not all games are available in all territories.

Some countries like Australia have notoriously strict prohibition laws, while some AAA titles readily available in other countries cannot be found within their borders at all.

Pricing may also play a role here as cross-border standardization isn’t really a thing. Luckily, major shopping websites can fix this last problem.

“PlayStation 3 Games” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Sergiy Galyonkin

More pronounced complications in the availability of games can even occur in countries of the related landscape of online casino games.

State law and website regulations can make it difficult to find legal gambling venues in this regard, but this industry also benefits from the help of dedicated support websites. One of the friendliest for Ohiofor example, is built around collecting and comparing online casino websites and bonuses for users within the state, saving players the hectic work.

internet speed

Internet speed tends to be thought of as bandwidth, but latency or lag is just as important. This is the time it takes for a signal to complete a round trip. Bound by physics, the further apart players and servers are, the more pronounced the latency will be.

As Highlight of UK esports in this article, if you live somewhere with no game server nearby, that means you’re going to cross the acceptable threshold of 100m/s latency. When taking into account the number of players, this problem is only exacerbated.

Numbers of players

There are several factors that determine whether an online game with other people to play. Gambling culture plays a key role, with some countries focusing more on certain types of games than others, as does local gambling cost and gambling age.

The most important factor, however, is population. Taking latency into account, someone in a place like New Zealand will only be able to play with the small population of gamers in New Zealand and Australia. Someone in Korea, on the other hand, is going to be able to play with the huge population of East Asian gamers.

“WoWScrnShot_060511_221350” (DC BY 2.0) by mikemol

While it might be a little drastic to suggest anyone get moving to get the most out of their video games, it’s something professional gamers have done before. At the very least, making sure your next home is one with fiber optic internet might be worth considering for the game’s diehards.

The truth is, not all countries are equal when it comes to games and interactive entertainment, and for those of us who live in corners of the world, we encourage the more fortunate not to take their situation for granted.

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