I can’t believe no one has written to this node yet. I have trouble believing that E2 is not filled with Quakeworld ancestors. High Ping Bastard is a slang term whose creation coincided with the advent of Quakeworld. It was an affectionate term used by those who were using a slow Internet connection (Dial-up). It was often abbreviated to HPB, which would show up often during a game. Usually by the player who had the slow connection, because he wants to preemptively give an excuse for losing. He would either say "I'm a HPB," or "You're a Low Ping Bastard." This definition may seem cynical, perhaps by someone who was tired of having his speedy connection credited for his victories. Alas, this was not my predicament. I was a HPB for my entire Quakeworld “career.” I found it easier to blame my modem for losing, then my complete lack of mouse + keyboard dexterity.

For those who have little Internet game playing experience, the disadvantage with a dial-up connection is the slower rate of data transfer. Which would cause a delay for the modem users, referred to as “lag.” This lag would cause a slower firing reaction, and more sporadic aim. The disadvantage was lessened significantly as Quakeworld evolved. I will leave the more in-depth technical reasoning for this to the Quakeworld node. In a nutshell: Quakeworld’s major contribution to online gaming was “client-side prediction.” Called “pushlatency” to skilled Quake console users.

Related side post: High Ping Bastard was also the name of a Quakeworld clan during the peak of the Quakeworld clan scene. I joined them near the end, coming from a previous clan whose name I’ve forgotten. Our IRC channel was on the Planetquake server, where many other clans were located (mostly mid level clans, with some exceptions). Some examples of the exceptions: Evil Geniuses, Ruthless Bastards, Doppleganger, Wicked Demise, and Onastick. The clan eventually closed due to the high amount of unwanted members, we restarted again as the Angels of Death. That clan was run by Shoshin (the original leader), Octane, and Woburn. It also saw its demise, as did the entire Quakeworld scene shortly after Quake2 came out.

I have used my spotty memory to rehash my clan history. I could very well have something like the IRC server wrong. If so msg me and I'll fix it. I wish more people would do write-ups on their Quakeworld clan memories. I also have a write-up on what I believe Quakeworld's importance to the Internet is, click here.

bah!

kids!

There was no such thing as a High Ping Bastard. Nor is there now...

The correct term of High Ping Whiner came about during the good ole' days of multiplayer Doom. Multiplayer Doom started out as serial-only, there was no networking involved so your computers were right next to each other.

Then some depraved soul (I've forgotten who, otherwise I would ask for my college years back) went and added a networking stack playable via the IPX protocol. This was all well and good, it allowed for network play locally (and later through PPP wrapper programs like Kali). Before those wrapper programs (enabling IPX over a dial-up) came about however, doom got its TCP/IP support. Granted the network code was rather poor, someone connected through a non-congested ISDN or T1 line (plenty of colleges and businesses had them by now) could expect fairly decent latency. However, the players using modem dialup or stuck overseas (from the US) usually suffered high latency or lag and never ceased to complain.

They were given the designation High Ping Whiners by the people who got to kill them repeatedly on their fast connections. Conversely, the poor people stuck on modems called those well-to-do folks with fast connections Low Ping Bastards because they were all, in fact, bastards.

Sometimes when playing online games such as Quake or Team Fortress 2 a player will connect with a very high ping. This is generally due to the crappiness of his Internet connection, and it is generally difficult to play these games with a high ping... HOWEVER...

If the connection has a lot of jitter, causing the player's ping to go up and down, packets to be dropped and so on, the player may end up moving around the game in a very jerky manner. Some games deal with this better than others, but you may end up with a high-ping player who is nearly impossible to hit because of this jerking around.

In this particular edge case, he becomes a TRUE "high ping bastard", and may be able to lay waste to the rest of the server if using weapons that don't require high accuracy, like grenades, the plasma gun or rocket launcher.

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