Gaming in a RV?

[DKAvery]

Hello, I'm in the prep/saving stage of moving into an RV and had a question about internet connectivity while traveling.

One of the things I enjoy is playing MMOs and I'm not sure if that is possible while living full time in an RV. I hope to stay either in boon docking sites or in state and national parks so no park hookups the majority of the time.

Is it possible to have a good enough satellite setup to enable MMO play? Is there anyone at this site that currently does something similar? If so would it be possible to talk to you about what set up you use?

Thanks

[FLY_4_FUN]

Im going to jump in here not to help with the OP's question because I am not wifi/internet savvy.

I do however enjoy hiking, biking, walking and sitting around the fire....and then playing some games on the XBOX during the evening or during a downpour. I say if that is what you enjoy camping then I hope you can find a way to do it while your boondocking etc.

Cheers

Daryll

[mgirardo]

A really, really good 4G signal, even when you can get 50 Mbps download speeds, will still have a lot of latency for online gaming. Most serious gamers don't use wireless anything (keyboard, mouse or WiFi) because of latency.

Recently we took a road trip (without the RV - I know, oh the horror). While at a rest stop so mom could take a potty break, my son took out my old Droid Razr HD that he uses to play games on over WiFi because the rest stop had free WiFi. He played a game for about 2 minutes when he got a pop up stating he had used up his bandwidth allotment. In 2 minutes playing a game on a Android smart phone.

My sister recently bought an iPhone for her son. Before that, her and her husband never went over their shared 2 GB data plan. Since her son uses the phone more to play games than anything else, she had to up their data plan to 6 GB shared so to not to go over their monthly allowance. That's a lot of data for gaming on a smartphone.

Satellite and 4G data has just too much latency for online gaming to be enjoyable. If you don't mind the lag, you most likely may mind the dollars you shell out for data usage.

-Michael

[Never_Not_RVing]

For me, a good day is spent doing the outdoor activities while there's light and winding down playing in front of a console at night. Don't have to choose one or the other.

[TXiceman]

There is life other than gaming. Going on hikes, reading books etc.

Data usage will be a killer,


Ken

[rwbradley]

I think there is the potential for it for casual gaming on a fairly generic gaming setup, with moderate graphics settings. I agree Satellite is way out of the question even on the most conservative setup, latency is the most important factor in FPS games and satellite delivers by far the slowest latency of all the internet connection options. Cellular would likely be usable if you are getting a good solid 4G signal. The problem is many FPS games being so dependent on near zero latency and high frame rate graphics that a single dropped frame or a short spike in latency could be the difference between making the shot or being shot. I would consider a cell amp like the ones from Wilson, to ensure you can squeeze every little bit out of your cell connection even if it does not appear you need one.

[AndyW]

Any 4G hotspot will work fine, although you'll obviously need to park somewhere with a decent signal.

Gaming itself does not use enough bandwidth to be a problem, but downloading and updating your games will. Try to do that over a wifi connection somewhere and you should be fine.

[BurbMan]

Verizon 4G via the Jet Pack is fast enough, but may cost you a fortune on data usage. On my plan I get 5GB/mo for $50 with each extra GB costing $10.

Way too much latency in satellite connection, even campground free wifi gets overloaded and is slow.

[sch911]

Cellular maybe but those gaming apps burn allot of data. Many of us use Verizon's JetPack for internet but it's limited data and $$$. Also CG WiFi systems are usually extremely slow due to poor connection,s and large back haul so they likely won't work either.

[2oldman]

Satellite? No. There's too much latency for gaming.