Right so as some may know the wonders of technology aren’t really my strongest point and I have never really understood the whole lag problem in COD games, which some say is due to the servers.  However given that the lag is driving me mad on MW3 at the moment, I decided to do some poking around on the internet to find out a bit more.

MW3 as most, even I know does not use a dedicated server, the PSN/X Box live  is more a matchmaking service, they enable you to find other players but once the game begins one of the players, preferably the person who has the best connection to the other people in the lobby to be the host.

This in effect means that they have been chosen as the server and as we all know can mean a huge advantage to that player, as they may well see the game differently to all the other players.  For example if your not the host in a game, from your perspective it may appear that you are pumping bullets into someone and they dont die, one bullet into you and you are pretty much dead straight away.  However from the hosts point of view, it may well be that none of your shots have been registered at all.  This is down to lag difference between the hosts and the other players.

This can be minimalised  somewhat by being in a lobby with people that are relatively close together, the closer that you are, the less lag should be in the game.

Now a lot of people have called out for dedicated servers, which is a single web server.  As we would all be using a single server rather than connecting up to someone else, this would significantly reduce lag.  Apparently this has not been implemented as its difficult and expensive.

These centers would cost billions to implement, as there would have to be numerous ones, this is due to one server having the capacity to hold about 3 to 4 games maximum.

There would have to be centers all over the world with these servers, and unless you lived relatively close to the centers you would not have a good connection. Due to the amount of people that play MW3,  we are simply not going to see them anytime soon or ever.

The only way that we are going to have a game whereby all players are pretty much equal, is by heading over to someone’s house for a LAN party, as we would all be so close together, the lag should be so minimal it will not effect gameplay.  So who’s hosting a party?