Rik Panganiban

Keep the net neutral for gamers & virtual worlders

Millions of citizens play online games and explore virtual worlds using their internet connections, participating in new forms of entertainment, commerce and social engagement. With over 8 million on World of Warcraft and 7 million registered on Second Life alone, it's not hard to imagine the TelCos tapping this huge market for their own purposes.

Without Net Neutrality provisions, there would be nothing to prevent a cable or telephone company from charging premium rates for gamers and virtual worlders to access "outside" sites, while reserving the fastest access for their own sponsored games and worlds. Latency and lag are major impediments to gamers getting the most out of their online experience, since a split second delay in internet transmission can mean getting fragged and pwned. So they are very vulnerable to any decrease in throughput.

The games industry is one of the fastest growing and most vital sectors in America, rivaling television and movies. But this growth can easily be stifled if the TelCos decide to put the brakes on games and virtual worlds that don't pay them for the "privilege" to access "their pipes." This seems anticompetitive and unfair to me, but is likely to happen if the FCC doesn't stand for strong Net Neutrality provisions.

FCC, keep the Net Neutral for gamers and virtual worlders!