Patch 5.4 patch notes
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The latest patch 5.4 newsBreakfast Topic: It was lag, I swear!
by Josh Rose 
Dec 24th 2010 at 8:00AM
Lag is probably the single most common excuse for mistakes in all internet gaming. From the beginning of the big craze of first person shooters to now, mistakes are chalked up to lag. The expressions change from: "Oh sorry, you didn't get a heal? I lagged real bad!" to "Oh, I had a huge lag spike!" -- even expletive-laced shouts at the lag itself, as if you could personify bad latency. This happens in PUGs, guild runs, and even just friend and family groups.
The question is how often are people actually lagging versus how often is it merely an excuse, because no one else can prove you did not lag. The truth is, it is not always lag -- but sometimes it is. I have went on expletive-laced tirades when I disconnect during a boss fight or see that horrible thing when my entire action bar is lit up with queued spells but I am not moving. However, if you actually make a mistake that is your fault, I am a big proponent of taking credit for and owning it. If you blame lag or someone else every time you make an actual mistake instead of taking ownership of your shortcomings, you never learn from them. Admitting you used an ill-timed spell, moved into the fire, or just got caught up in your rotation and had a lapse of attention allows you to learn and grow from your mistakes (and hopefully never make them again).
Do you ever use lag as an excuse when it was a personal mistake? Is it a common go-to excuse you use often? Or do you believe in admitting your mistakes and trying to get better from them?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
hillbillyrod Dec 24th 2010 11:02AM
I've only experienced lag when there are alot of adds and the boss is doing AOE stuff. So I set my video setting low for dungeons. It helps alot. But the worst is the capital cities. Yes we can use drakes and big mounts, but your just waiting, USE SOMETHING SMALL. And it's going to be worst tomorrow when the kids stack on santa.
Harvoc Dec 24th 2010 11:24AM
I only use lag if I really do lag. However, this happens often as my computer is located on the second floor of my house so the connection isn't as good as if it were downstairs.
Arrowsmith Dec 24th 2010 11:35AM
Back in Wrath I was leading a run through Naxx-25, and for the Sapphiron fight I told all the mages and druids that I would be watching the dispels counter on recount like a hawk. In the middle of the fight, I notice one mage doesn't have a single decurse to his name, and I call him out on it. His response?
"Must be laggin bro!"
On a different note, I constantly deal with lag since my stepdad REFUSES to turn off his torrent downlaods for anything.
Tirrimas Dec 24th 2010 11:47AM
"I have went on expletive-laced tirades"
Gah. Grammar Nazi: "I have GONE on..."
*ahem*
Since Patch 4.0 went live, I've had some truly horrific latency issues at times. A few have caught me in the middle of boss fights that I'm trying to heal. I'll watch my companions running place, gritting my teeth and mashing buttons, hoping the server will make sense of it all.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I get disconnected.
I do try to own up to my goofs. I figure it adds credibility to your work within the group. One, you were able to figure out what the mistake was and are able to (hopefully) keep from making it again. Two, you're mature enough to shoulder the blame.
RetPallyJil Dec 24th 2010 11:50AM
I'm brutally honest, with both myself and other players. I've voluntarily quit raids when it just isn't my night and I'm stinking the place up.
When I say it's lag, it's lag.
Rockl Dec 26th 2010 10:57PM
I was in a brc run the other night as a tank. I pulled the fire boss and as soon as I put him in the fire, I got a "lua" error message on my screen that covered all of my action bars, my iceHUD, me, and the boss. When I closed it another one emediatly popped up and in a few seconds we were all dead. Unfortunatly I was in a pug group with a DK who disliked me for telling the healer to let him die(he had dicided I was slow and pulled himself. Unfortunatly he was able to survive.) so he threw up a vote kick. And u know what puggers are like. I didn't even get to say anything.
davidfalling Dec 24th 2010 12:02PM
Never used lag as an excuse. Usually if there's lag, everyone in my group is lagging. If I mess up, I'll own up to it and try to learn from that mistake.
Balgus Dec 24th 2010 12:32PM
i absolutely have had lag problems since 4.0.3. ill be running on a smooth 30fps for hours and then bam all of a sudden im down to 3 fps. this especially happens on dungeons like vortex pinnicle with all the wind effects. ive been told its probably my card overheating.
Swordfire Dec 24th 2010 12:53PM
This reminds me of a comic I once saw,
(Car hits a dog and driver gets out horrified)
Owner: OMG what happened to my dog!?
Driver: OMG sorry.... I lagged....
MechaKingGhidra Dec 24th 2010 4:14PM
That sounds almost like the type of very strange humour I'd expect out of something like that XKCD comic. I can never predict what they'll throw out next....
Zectre Dec 24th 2010 12:54PM
Ever lagged? Yes. Ever blamed mistakes on lag? Yes. Ever make a mistake and blame lag? No.
To be honest, during a heroic vortex pinnacle the other day, I had accidentally broke a mage's sheep while tab targeting to get to the appropriate target, but for some ill concieved reason, my character decided "oh, ever time you tab target and i can shoot my bow, i'll do it" so that was faulty on my part. I took responsibility for it by holding aggro on the mob until i could freeze trap it and then all was good.
Own up to your mistakes. Deal with your mistakes and it makes you less of a scrub, if not a scrub at all.
Stephanie Dec 24th 2010 12:54PM
I'm lagblamingphobic - even when it is lag, I don't blame lag. I get stressed at the thought they think I'm lying to cover how terrible I am. Somehow in my mind them just thinking I'm terrible is less stressful than them thinking I am trying to cover up being terrible.
Though since the RDF I've been stating "If I dc, I'll brb" whenever my action bar lights up with queued spells because I don't want to wait another hour in the finder. Also, I try not to run things when I am experiencing lag; that way I can just end up just dying on my own out in some corner of Azeroth - no explanation needed.
Spellotape Dec 24th 2010 1:24PM
From time to time I get horrendous lag. It's generally very brief, but it does occur, and if something occurs while I'm lagging that causes a problem in a raid or group ... well, I still take responsibility for it, but lag did occur.
That said, if you're in a situation where you need to take "blame" rather than responsibility (or if you want to make other people who experience - or don't really experience - lag feel like they are in a position), then I don't know how constructive that situation is in the first place. They won't want to be responsible - they'll just think you're a jerk.
BubblePriest Dec 24th 2010 1:44PM
The day Patch 4.0 hit, I was not prepared for the nosedive my haste would take. Sure I had read about it, and I knew mentally it was coming. But that night when I went into a heroic LK attempt (never downed him, sigh) and started hitting buttons like I had before with a one second global cooldown. Except my GCD was suddenly not one second, and so buttons were getting hit too early. Then the spells I thought I should be casting weren't going off. My first reaction: "Guys, I'm getting some weird lag tonight I don't know what's going on."
Boy, I felt dumb once I realized what I was doing.
Draelan Dec 24th 2010 2:13PM
Geez, this topic is quite appropriate right now. I've been getting lag spikes of increasing severity for the past few days. Last night they finally got so bad it made the game unplayable. *trying to level my priest* "Oh no! I'm low on health! I better heal myself before this mob kills me!" *casts heal* *Spell animation continues indefinitely without going off* "FUUUUUU-" Yeah... after that happening numerous times, I finally decided to quit. It took me 5 minutes to hearth, and then I realized my hearth was still set to Dal on that toon... Was not a happy camper...
And it's for this reason I would be wary of pugging anything right now. I'll group with guildies, since they're more understanding, but I don't think forcing pugs to endure my latency issue is the best thing to do. Though I at least own up to my mistakes in groups where I just plain screw up. (Which is thankfully rare.)
Althor Dec 24th 2010 2:31PM
Whenever I used to own up to my mistakes, people would yell at me even more, even after I apologized. Thus, unfortunately, I use the lag excuse more than I should these days.
Bumblebee Dec 24th 2010 2:38PM
Lag is hard. Frogger is still the most deadly boss in all of WoW.
Jay Dec 24th 2010 2:44PM
We all make mistakes, I just wish some people would get over their pride and admit to making mistakes. We have a guildie that always blames their mistakes on lag everytime they do something they're not supposed to. I still have yet to call them out on it because it's usually not a big deal, but these people are everywhere, beware!
As for me, I don't have a problem admitting a made a mistake. I'm GM and raid leader of my guild and think it's a good example to set admitting your mistakes and learning from them, it's only natural for the progression of most guilds.
Vogie Dec 24th 2010 3:07PM
I wish WoW was a bit more straightforward with its connections in general. You should be able to tell if a player has lag spikes or their client crashes. On the other game I frequent, League of Legends, You can tell immediately if someone's client crashes, and when they log back in. On each loading screen, you can see the Ping of every player entering the battle arena. By my reasoning, you should be able to do that in instanced environments as well.
I don't care if it creates a "PingScore" or not. Since this game is easily disrupted by it, there should be some reason to track it. 'Cause maybe that 2-button mage isn't intentionally standing in the fire and not counterspelling on purpose: maybe he's just doing his rotation, and he doesn't see the fire until 3 seconds later, and he only see the boss casting after it's already finished.
I would be fine with Pingscore existing (although I'm sure players on the oceanic realms wouldn't), because that is just another facet of the game.
MechaKingGhidra Dec 24th 2010 4:07PM
If I make an honest mistake that had nothing to do with the lag factor, I own up to it right away. Didn't notice my backing up from the group caught the attention of a patrol? My bad, though I *do* recommend that we not skip patrols next time around. Don't run to a more open area so that I don't get trapped by expanding AoE effects? Yeah, I'll take the heat for that. Don't interrupt that spell the boss is casting/channeling? Eh...depends on how fast it is, actually. Lag is most certainly a concern for me, though usually just a very awkwardly timed mistress.
As someone who lives out in a rural area where companies pretty much outright refuse to build lines out to the area for broadband access to even be a remote possibility due to the fact it'd be (their words, simplified to layman's terms) "too expensive for too much time investment", I actually have a legitimate lag situation. Satellite only goes so far and it likes to fluctuate on quality at the seemingly worst of times.
However, if I believe that I can play without lag for the most part (I have no clue how, I'm just somehow able to predict how certain days will be like), then I will go ahead and do what I want with little to (typically the case) no problem. However, once in a while, little 'hiccups' occur and it causes me to make a matter more difficult to deal with. If it continues happening with more frequency even after waiting a minute or two, I excuse myself politely from the group (even if it seems the people are the 'stfu, n00bzor' type who probably have never felt the swift, swatting hand or belt of a strict parent before in their life) and I leave. Simple as that. I make quick, informed decisions based on comfort levels and past experiences.
Sorry for the extended comment but I felt there was a flip-side to this that needed some attention.