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Game performance issues when playing same game with roommate


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I am wondering if there are any known issues that can occur when playing an online game while my roommate is playing the same game... 

Over the past year we have played Warzone together every day, and we are always in each others party. We have fiber internet through Comcast/Xfinity and currently have Netgear XR1000 router. This is our 3rd router (we've upgraded since first starting). Also, we both started playing on consoles and now both play on PC. Our experiences have been similar on both systems. It seems like the integrity of our gameplay is slightly to severely worse when we are playing together, as if the game takes longer to register what's happening on our PC's I guess. I'm pretty entry-level when it comes to network knowledge but I imagine there could be a lot of factors that can play into this - like the server we're connected to, throttling from ISP, maybe other bandwidth/network related issues, etc. I'm not 100% sure there is a problem that's directly related to both of us playing the same game together, but it does seem like we don't have the same issues if we play independently - even if we are playing at the same time but with different games. I've been thinking maybe it's just because it's extra work for the router to sort all of the information correctly between each device? Still, I can't imagine that bandwidth is an issue because I monitor our internet while we are playing sometimes, and it doesn't look like we're using much of it at all. Part of me believes that with a good gaming router and plenty of bandwidth we should be able to have at least a few people playing together on our connection. 

Ultimately I am hoping to confirm whether it's possible that there could be an issue (of any kind) when two people play the same game on the same internet connection/router and, if so, would there be a workaround or something I could do differently in settings that would help. Is there additional equipment that we could use to help? I can provide any additional info needed, if it helps.

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Hey, welcome to the forum!

"I've been thinking maybe it's just because it's extra work for the router to sort all of the information correctly between each device?" Possibly, as you're there is double the traffic coming from the same place but each player is seeing something different it might be struggling to sort it properly - what are both of your NAT types when playing together?

Try disabling Traffic Prioritization when you play together and see whether that improves it at all.

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My NAT is almost always Open while his is Moderate (we just tested this). Every now and then mine switches to moderate, but one thing I've noticed in the past is that we are usually the opposite. Not sure if that means anything, but I can keep an eye on that going forward.

Also we just did a test run with Traffic Prioritization turned off - same NAT as I described above - and it was smooth like glass. We will keep playing like this and I can keep you updated in case something changes. But thank you for your help so far, I appreciate it!

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Yeah that makes sense, whoever loads the game first I suspect will get open. Great to hear that's working! I imagine that because only one device can be ahead of the queue at one time that you're both sort of losing out so letting it work it out without is best in this scenario. When you don't play together turn it back on and it should be equally as good!

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Hi Fraser, we played multiple rounds of Warzone last night. That makes perfect sense. I have noticed that sometimes our quality will switch. Like if we play 5 PM - 10 PM, I could go for a few hours complaining about how I'm out of sync and his is working perfectly... then all of the sudden I'm moving like lightening and he is yelling "HOW?!?" or "WHY CAN"T I SEE" for the rest of the night. (Of course, it's fun for me because if one of us get's the priority I want it to be me). Just wondering, would the one who ends up with the Open NAT be the one who generally has priority?

Also, after last night my roommate said he was still having some issues. I didn't have a single problem at any point. Personally I think sometimes it's just in his head + plus I think we get throttled at peak hours + I think the Warzone servers are not always great and so on. But let's pretend like he isn't making it up... is that just the nature of the beast or do you think there's anything else we could try that might help? What about a network switch? Not entirely sure what it does but I've seen gamers who use them - does that help?

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That's probably more to do with the server load during peak times - most likely the Open NAT person would have a slight advantage (so make sure you're on first 😂). There are tons of variables when it comes to networking, that's not helped by a players general blame of death caused by some outside factor like 'lag' when they've just been outplayed. We can't really diagnose based on feeling, we'd have to see what his ping was at the time and whether it seemed stable the entire game or spiked every so often

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