In Japan the bandwidth to homes is 10 to 20 times faster than in the US with extremely low lag. We will never see that bandwidth in the US for the bulk of the country for several more years. Most people live in really big apartment buildings and their connection to the internet start at a 100mb or better connection on a plate in the wall in each room that run down to the basement of the apartment complex. We are talking switched network from the user’s computer to the fiber connection in the basement. The connections for the buildings to the outside are even scarier.

This is the kind of connection most business IT guys in America wish they had at work.
The Internet fee is typically part of the rental for the apartment.


It gets better....


Most of the gamer clubs in Korea and Japan play at their internet cafes where you can connect even faster and they are all on the same LAN segment, which is very important for consistency of lag among players in a group.

Maybe someone at Turbine will read this and begin to understand why a group from Japan beat the abbot and why it’s not going to happen in America anytime soon.