Angry man shootyblams – that most noble of sports – are surprisingly complex business. To an outsider, it might seem like a simple matter of pointing your perpetually enraged avatar in a direction and pulling the trigger – practically killing with your mind, except your mind is a gun – but sometimes there are other factors to consider. Loadout, map, and how best to demean your generally reasonable foes with hurtful language, sure, but also things of a more sinister nature. Yeah, I’m talking about lag. Peer-to-peer connections topple, empires fall. What’s, say, a Call of Duty game to do? Yep: give up and get cancelled. No wait, sorry. Dedicated servers.

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