So I rarely bother going into the drakan servers. Though I went into one today.
But I've decided it really isn't worth it without a better connection.
Well actually there are two issues that concern me.
The first is trying to play against people who have very different connections and pings to mine. This is an act of futility!
I played today for about five minutes before the server changed to a ruddy Master of the Dragon level - which is pointless with only two people because you don't get much chance to get weapons if the dragon is on you the whole time.
During those five minutes it was like I'd never been away - the same old problem - someone raises his or her sword in challenge and before I can get more than even a single slash in I'm dead by some invisible force because they're moving at great speed and popping in and out of invisibility. *sigh*
Now the way I see it is there's no point in moaning about it, after all it isn't the other person's fault or problem so why moan at them. But it is deeply frustrating and I can see no point in standing about in a server simply waiting to be killed over and over. That's pointless and no fun. Why would anyone want to be cannon fodder, I don't.
So going back in to drakan today made me realise that I just don't want the stress and hassle of regularly getting upset and frustrated and biting my tongue while some other players get to kill me, not because they are more skillful, but because they have a better or very different connection to mine (because extremely bad connections are just as problematic). I know when I'm playing someone with a similar connection - for one I can see the other player all the time! Pings are similar too, of course.
The second issue, which recurred immediately I started to play, was the same old boring, yet deeply irritating issue of people playing with different views of what is honourable or fair play.
It seems to me that this is an insoluble problem because it isn't usually a case of people doing things which they know are "wrong". It's simply a matter of different value systems, different ideas of what is fair play. And I don't see any point in any one trying to change anyone else's beliefs/values, which is what so many of us try to do. We say "that's not fair" but actually it might be fair to someone else.
So do I start to replay a game online where some people will kill me because they are more skillful but others will kill me because they have a very different speed of connection so I can't always seem them and they move at different speeds to me, and others will kill me because they will do things that I cannot do back because I consider them unsporting and dishonourable? Yet I do not want to say anything in the game because a) it would spoil the game for the other person/s and b) it is after all just my view and not necessarily theirs. Who am I to say how others should play the game? Each of us is free to decide how we play.
At the same time, my feelings when playing under these circumstances, are an increasing degree of stress, sense of injustice and feeling that it's futile to bother playing. Why should I be nothing more than cannon fodder for people I can't evenly compete against?
Ultimately, I have the choice of playing or not playing and that's why I rarely play mp. So I'm quitting mp on the open servers completely. It's not loss, I rarely play. I might still visit giblets sometime soon for the sake of old times.
The only time that I will now play mp is on private servers or with players I know.
edit - sp

I play GC regularry (99% of sats I'm there) so if you want to see a good player, come

Happy to join you for a chat and a runaround though.
Not all of them though.