56k- The new hacking.

I was sitting around today playing Counter Strike, GunZ, and a few other online games when I ran across one big, ugly realization: Dial up internet is basically hacking.

Why do I say that? Many reasons. First off, when you get on 56k and play a game like GunZ, you're not lagging... according to you. GunZ and Counter Strike basically both are very internet-friendly and don't take much speed (Except when you have torrents sucking up the bandwidth, but that's a whole different story). Naturally, if you're running a 56k, it's going to clip a little bit, but if you're 56king it, you'll be used to it. However, let's think of how it looks to your typical Cable Internet user, like me.

What I saw on GunZ and CS today was like watching some scary movie. All of a sudden, someone would flash in front of me, unload on me, then flash somewhere else. Why? Because the game looks at both our clients. For example:

56K CLIENT:
- Okay, he's standing in front of the guy,the guy is still
- Shooting at guy
- Guy is dead (Sends to server)
- Runs off

CABLE CLIENT
- Standing still looking around
- Guy appears in front of you, damage goes fast
- Pause, guy dissapears
- You die

Get the picture? While the Cable client is running all the frames and sees everything, the 56kers client sees everything almost in a frame-by-frame motion, so kills sometimes are much easier.

Now, this is not to say 56kers have it easy. SOME games for 56kers are insta-death. For example, Counter Strike Source, Battlefield 1942/Vietnam/2, or any game that requires heavy back-and-forth between your computer and the server really will be horrible. For those of us with fast connections it means nothing, for those with 56ks it means that you just can't play the game, no matter how good your connection is.

However, instead of ending this article with a bunch of insults to poor 56kers, I will say there is hope for you. For those of you who are looking for a game that runs solid on 56k, you can look for the following games. They may not be as great as you'd want them to be, but arguing would be foolish:

WORKS FOR ANYONE:
- Warpath 97/2000 (www.synthetic-reality.com/)
- Well of Souls (www.synthetic-reality.com/)
- Any Yahoo game online (games.yahoo.com)
DEBATABLE GAMES (Might not work with all dial-up):
- Gunbound (http://www.gunbound.com/)
- Shot Online (3d graphics, heavy on older systems, http://www.shot-online.com/)
- Everquest (eqlive.station.sony.com/)
- The Matrix Online (Debatable, www.thematrixonline.com/)
- Ragnarok Online (iro.ragnarokonline.com/)

If you'll notice, a lot of these games are either MMORPGs or games that are turn based, and that's because one big, ugly fact:

56ks AND ACTION GAMES DO NOT MIX.

Remember that, and you kiddos should be fine. Hopefully. Happy long load times!