So, the whole lag thing...

This has been ongoing for what, a year? At least for me. Curious if it's ever been actually pinpointed what did it...server migration, population increase, new peering, game patch, etc? Also curious what percentage experience these issues. Seems to be most everyone I speak with, but there's always one weirdo that doesn't even know what lag means.

I used to work in IT, specifically networks (even more specifically cable internet providers), so I'm not ignorant of the variables involved. I have troubleshot this thing to death, and the ONLY variables I can't account for are the randomness, and the game itself. A dozen different systems, different locations, different providers, different patches, different times...you name it, it doesn't affect it. The game just seems to develop as many headaches as my ex-wife, and for as little a reason.

Played last night, perfect gaming experience. Pings good, all was right with the world. Tonight my average ping is 3400ms, with spikes into the mid 5 digits. Nothing else, just this game.

So have there ever been any 'official' statements about why the game changed from its earlier perfection, lag-wise I mean?

I am also having the lag. I was fine yesterday. Went to HA tonight and started experiencing it. Of course, we made it to halls and then it got bad. It also seems to happen on the mATs now. I don't know what's causing it, but I am getting really tired of it.

Yay!, yet another ''I lag on guild wars occationally'' thread,why dont you just learn to deal with it and change districts, that always fixes the very occational lag i get. O_O

Mod Edit: Don't edit over mod edits.

I have been having a little bit of lag lately strange though as it happens late at night when there isn't many playing on the American server.

Haha class.

I get the same thing and have done for a long time. I have two diff rigs at home using Zen.co.uk as my ISP and get the same seemingly random laggy patches on whichever I happen to be using, with spikes into the XXk ms on a semi regular basis.

I also play at work in my lunch hour and when working lates during crunch, on via the companies stonkingly fat pipe (fnar) and get exactly the same thing. I also play regularly with my Guild buddies who are at the other end of the country on different ISPs and we all get the same lag at the same time (we run teamspeak servers so we all bitch about it together..).

As such I guess it has to be something remote from my rigs, local network & ISP. Also in reply to the guy above who suggests switching districts, this has zero effect, as does switching from European to US, International or any other server.

As a result I've pretty much given up doing FoW/UW, long missions and running town to town. PvP likewise is pointless.

Yes it has been pretty bad lately. With a 4mb cable connection, I had 4 d/c in 3 different districts within 20 min of starting up GW last while trying to join a pug for Amatz Basin.

There isn't much "dealing" that can be done when you can't actually "do" anything without lagging.

And, do tell, how does one 'change districts' on a mission, or out in an instance? Because that's what I'm talking about. Not sure why I would even care if I was lagging in a town.

Also, please note that I wasn't asking how to fix it...there is no fix on the client side because it isn't a client-side issue. I was merely asking if we had ever determined the actual cause/starting point for all the issues.

ANet consistently either denies all knowledge of lag, or tells players that it must be their machine/connection, apart from the very rare occasions when they tell us they are performing maintenance or a hub goes down like the one in Frankfurt a while back. I lag at the same time as friends/guildies from all over the world (mainly America, Australia, Germany and England) so I don't see how it can be either my machine or my ISP or even my country causing the problem. As with everyone else, it's only GW that gives me problems with lag (other than this chuffing site -.-), no other online games or programs. I really wish ANet would come clean about the fact that GW lag (latency, whatever) is real, and then try and do something to fix it. Some days the game is simply unplayable and it's extremely irritating. (EDIT: I should add that if I've missed an official statement concerning the general intermittent lag that so many players experience, please do point out my mistake and give me a link to it. This is something it would be nice to be proved wrong on.)

Not that I'm saying this is true in your case, but a lot of people seem to forget (or don't know) that there are many routers, backbones, etc. between them and any other server, including GW. There can be problems anywhere along the line, such as an overloaded backbone, that can cause lag. So it isn't necessarily always ANet's fault - although it could also be at least partially.
In the 3 years that GW has been around, there has been an enormous increase in internet traffic - particularly because of all the streaming video going on. Much of the lag is simply the result of all this increased traffic.

Anyway, these days I don't play GW as much as I used to, so sometimes I play a bit of old-school TFC for grins. Guess what - lag there too! ANet must be causing Steam to lag as well (since it's obviously all ANet's fault)

that is very true indeed, and a point that is rarely mentioned. Just look at the popularity of YouTube and many other similar sites, such as ones that allow people to watch full lenght movies (Netflix anyone) or tv shows online... all that eats up your local bandwidth etc... I think Anet has done a fine job of ignoring the situation or at least of not doing anything about it, but I really don't think that it is all that much their fault either. :s