n case you did NOT know, there is in fact a tool that measures Lag.  It is called LagMeter, and you can download it right here.  In fact, I helped design it (though I didn't program much of it).  That being said, I have been pondering lately about HOW DO we measure Lag?  Is doing what LagMeter does the right approach (e.g. measuring latency, FPS, and server responsiveness?)  Can we do better?

In thinking of this topic, I realized one of LagMeter's main drawbacks, it doesn't tell you How many Lags-per-Minute are good and how many are bad....  Another drawback is that it doesn't show you in comparison to anyone else...  I've actually been working on a few ideas to fix this, and hope to get a new LagMeter out to you all someday soon.

Until then, let's think of the ideal situation.  Ideally, Lag is "Easy" to see, and "Easy" to measure.  Both of these are not 'real' of course.  Lag is often 'hidden' by game design (in World of Warcraft (WoW) sometimes, I don't even realize I've been disconnected for several MINUTES!)...  and Lag is certainly not easy to 'Measure'...   One thought I've had recently is this: what would the "Perfect" Game be??? and how does my current game compare?? (No data here, just a thought experiment). 

The Perfect Game would be fast, twitch based, with 100% realism.  There would never be a 'stutter' or a 'dropped frame' or something that happens that didn't "seem right".  In other words, the game runs and feels like real life.  When I 'do' something it seems natural, and the results seem normal... and there is no delay at all....   for this to be true, it MUST be a 'twitch'-like game.  It does not seem realistic to me that in WoW, I click on a guy, and then watch myself shoot or slash them at regular intervals, and my 'sword' never appears to actually hit him...etc....  So, to me, that is Lag.  In fact it is PRECISELY LAG.  It is WoW game design hiding the fact that they simply couldn't afford the # of servers needed to give a FPS experience on a massive scale.

What does all this mean?  I don't think we can judge WoW Lag based on anything else but what 'WoW' is trying to do.  In other words, we can't compare WoW Lag to like Battlefield 2 Lag (BF2), because the games are just radically different.  If you had WoW lag in BF2, you'd HATE IT... click, wait 2 seconds, then see grenade leave hand.. yah right!  But we accept that WoW isn't that way, so we must compare the Lag of WoW to the IDEAL that WoW could acheive....  that challenge, I take, and a challenge to give YOU ALL a tool to do so, is what I dream of.  Will it happen, we shall see!