The Fight Against Online Lag

I want to talk about host in Halo 3 matchmaking. Host is not an issue, unless you live the European area. I can tell you right now that a lot of players from the European area are better then American players, but can't prove it in matchmaking because of host. Bungie has an issue that needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed NOW!







I want to start out by pointing out one of the options when selecting a Matchmaking option. Why is there an option for "Good Connection"? Everyone should be getting a good connection anyways. Do people want to get a yellow/red bar host? I don't think so. This option should be replaced with "My Country." A lot players from the EU area stopped playing Halo 3 because of host issues. Fixing this issue will benefit all players. American and European. The "My Language" setting doesn't help EU players out at all. When it searches in "My Language" is searches for English speaking players, which include Americans.







Giving host to EU players makes the playing ground almost perfectly leveled. I'll explain. When an American gets host and all players live in America, there is virtually no lag. It's almost like playing on LAN. When an EU player has to play on an American host, they have to connect over 7,000 miles to an American host. If you gave an EU player host, he would have to connect to Bungie servers first, but then all other players would connect to the EU player. In this case if all players have to play on a connection thats over 7,000 miles away, all players would be experiencing the same latency (lag). Keep in mind that the EU player that is hosting is always connected to the Bungie servers and never disconnects until the game is over.







I was playing the MLG playlist earlier this morning with a friend of mine from Europe. When the game connected I knew I pulled host because the cameras on Pit were following me. Once the game ended I checked to see where all the other players were from and a total of 6 players, including my friend, were from the EU area. I pulled host not because I had the best connection, but because I live in America. My friend has a connection a lot better then mine. My connection is only 6MB/s Down and 427KB/s Up. My friends connection is 20MB/s Down and 1MB/s Up. Is this far? No! He should have pulled host over my connection. There is nothing wrong with his connection either. I've played several customs on his host and I don't ever feel any lag in the game.







If Bungie doesn't want to give an option to select "My Country" at least give the option to search custom games. I bet a lot players would enjoy just playing customs instead of playing Ranked/Social gametypes.







I live in America. I'm not just another player complaining about host/connection issues. I'm standing up for all players that play in the EU area. I'm starting a petition to get Bungie to change the matchmaking options around to benefit all players. I want as many Halo 3 players to sign this petition because this is a problem thats been growing since the beginning of Halo 3. This petition isn't just meant for Halo 3, but for all games that do not have this type of option. Let Halo 3 lead the way for a better matchmaking system for all games and a better online experience for all players. Join me and the other players to fight this issue. Lets put the skill back into Halo. You finished the first fight. Now lets "Finish The Fight Against Lag Online."