To what extent can Activision influence connection?..

[Sal]

Hey all, 

Firstly, thank you for reading this post and I’ll start by saying thank you netduma as I am extremely happy to have set up my R2 and I can’t stress enough how amazing the router is! As a PPPOE user the R2 has revolved all speed and performance issues which I experienced with the R1. 
 

With that out of the way I’ll address the title of this post, this is a topic which has been circulating for a while but whenever it was bought up in various Activision sponsored sites it was shut down and denied. (Just like the skill based match making theory and look how that turned out)....

I have for years now been to experiencing changes in connection quality following updates to Cod, which started with COD ghosts. 
Connection is running great, suddenly an updated is introduced and connection goes to hell. Sometimes it would be the other way around where the connection can be horrendous and an update just magically makes everything better (I’ll add however sometimes nothing changed at all). 

I’ve been told many times “it’s just a placebo” but I’d argue a placebo can only take you so far,  this has been happening year after year on every game and sometimes updates have no effect at all surely is expecting a change every time if it was just a placebo. 

I had the very same experience only recently, I must admit when I bought the R2 I was excited about the prospect of my connection improving as I was coming off a bad patch in modern warfare with the R1. I hooked up the R2 and was actually slightly disheartened as I didn’t notice any real improvement. Don’t get me wrong I was over the moon with the router as my speed went from 40 down to 190 down!  However, modern warfare still played bad. That is until the other day when we got that 11gig update... Just as I expected the connection has been amazing and to top it off, it’s consistently great! (See attached images) 

I am convinced this is not a placebo especially with the thick sbmm In MW no amount of placebo is going to save you from going negative lol... 

I mean one or two good games fine I’d have doubts but to go through about 30 games with great hit detection following a huge spell of horrible connection cannot be a simple case of my brain playing games with me... The first image was when I initially introduced the R2 and the update hit. 

 

[Netduma Fraser]

What I think is probably happening is they release an update and they get feedback that the connection is terrible etc - except it is fine for some, so they make an update that tries to rectify the connection for those who had issues. It then either does this or doesn't and makes it worse etc. I feel like development is a bit like a balancing act, you've never going to get it where everyone is happy, you just have to do your best to make the majority happy. Sometimes they'll nail it, sometimes they won't, I don't think they would be doing it on purpose - doesn't exactly scream great PR if they did.

[johnnytran]

I've been keeping a close eye on the servers i play on. I've named a few "nuke" or "very good" based on the hit detection i've experienced. Every time i get connected to one of those, especially nuke, i know it's going to be a great experience and every time i get connected to one of the "bad" ones the hit detection is poor and i feel like i'm playing a split second behind everyone else, taking damage before i can even aim etc.

The servers they currently use from choopa are known to be bad but they've used them year after year. Other people's connection plays a part to, if everyone in the lobby has a good connection then hit detection and the overall gameplay feels smooth.

But there's always those few familiar names you come cross in every title that have set their connection up to give them an advantage some how. I know in Infinite Warfare there was one guy that had a 6KD, he could stand out in the open, take shots from 3-4 people but still manage to kill them all. I asked him what his connection' like, and he sent me a speedtest screenshot of something ridiculous like 0.2/0.2. These guys spend lots of time tinkering around with their connection each cod until they find that magic setting that gives them god like abilities in game lol