News
06.12.07
Gamers For Net Neutrality
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." This bit of wisdom from Hunter S. Thompson was imparted to an audience in New York today by one-time TSL guest, McKenzie Wark, who was speaking at the Games For Change conference. Game designers are already pretty weird anyway, and that weirdness- okay individuality- makes them an outspoken bunch. And it seems to trickle on down to the gaming community too.
That's why we think it's a great thing that MoveOn.org is starting Gamers for Net Neutrality.
TSL were at the conference today because Adam Green of MoveOn.org showed our Net Neutrality video blog just before he announced this new organization.
Adam wants to enlist gamers in the fight to keep the internet free from attempts by the telcos to create a "tiered service" that would give them control over what sites and online gaming services are accesible to us.
Gamers have a big stake in the way this turns out because gaming, more than most internet activities, relies on low latency, exactly what would separate the "premium" sites and services from the non-premium. Lag and latency would discourage gamers from playing certain games in favor of the games/services who pay the ISP more money. This would also likely drive up the price of online gaming as companies have to compete with the highest bidders to get preferential treatment from the ISPs and Telcos.
We think this sucks. We think MoveOn.org is taking an important step in educating internet users and now gamers on net neutrality so that they can make themselves heard on this issue.
We will be creating more content about this in the coming months and we encourage all our viewers to visit the Gamers For Net Neutrality site and get involved.
The outcome on this one is not certain by a long shot and we all need to pull together to keep the internet neutral.