Online gaming as a truck driver

I play WoW on the road quite often. I've been playing for over 6 years and still enjoy it.

Its a bit harder now that I'm flatbedding but I still try to when I can.

I use an Asus G72GX laptop and wifi tethering from my VZW Droid Bionic. I am on the old unlimited data plan so I don't worry about how much I use. I also watch a lot of Netflix and just general web browsing so I can easily use 50-60 GB of data a month.

I used to be in a full on raiding guild before I started driving but as others have says, the schedule is just too erratic while driving to do that. I have a small group of friends that I play with.

The nice part is all of these people are friends I met online in the game. I've now also met many if them in person because of driving. I never would have met them most likely if my job didn't allow me to travel cross country. I've even attended the wedding for a couple that I met online.

My ping while playing with a 4g connection is usually less than 100ms. If I'm on 3g it can range between 100 and 2000ms depending on where I am. You'd be surprised just how much of the country has 4g though. Rarely do I stay in a place that doesn't. I will even trip plan to have my breaks in 4g areas if I can make it work.

Like they said though you need to make sure you are getting enough sleep still. I can do fine on 6 hours of sleep for a few days but eventually I need a full night.

 

What is Mists of Pandaria like? And how is world PvP now, not battlegrounds or arena, but actual world pvp? What is the Monk class like?

 

Pretty good so far. They just came out with this first major content patch this week.

World PvP is back. They came out with cross reason zones now. It merges low population zones with those on other servers. This means that while everybody is on their own server they can are and interact with each other in the same zone. It helps put more pepper into the lower level zones so people can group up together while leveling. You can also invite friends on other realms to join your group.

Don't know haven't played it. It is a primarily melee dps/tank. But it is capable of dps/tanking/healing depending on spec.

 

MOP is pretty cool. They are making it a little harder like it used to be. Yes I one of the ones that complained about the dumbing down of the game. I dont PvP so I cant answer that part. The cross realm is ok, but every beginner zone is packed like when a server is down or when a new class comes out. You will have to wait in line to get your quests done because there are people from other zones killing what you need. The monk is pretty fun. They are tougher than a rogue and really easy to play. Several of the moves have a healing portion so that you dont take near as much damage when confronting several mobs at once. The higher level (>85) stuff is really cool too. If you were to lazy to lvl cooking you can stand at the cooking trainer and lvl from 1-525 in a little over an hour. I dig MoP just dont have time to play a whole lot.

 

Millenicom.com $59.99 a month for 20 GB, or $69 for unlimited. Speed is usually fast enough for decent ping. I play TF2 and other multiplayer games with no problem most times. I have the USB modem plugged into a Pepwave Surf On The Go wifi hotspot which also provides me wireless printing and a number of other options. No network cables to mess with is a nice thing.

 

lol read books. Don't do it imo, remember the reasons that made you quit in the first place or something.

 

Remember, The Elder Scrolls Online is just around the corner ... MUAHAHAHA <twists mustaches>

 

Well it looks like im going to be playing WoW. An old friend i played WoW with a few years ago sent me a message on Youtube. He asked me if i was that person he played with on WoW, and of course i am. He said he tracked me down lol. Good thing my main WoW character's name is the same as my Youtube channel name, or he probably would never have found me. Kind of ironic how after all this time, he messages me when im deciding whether or not to play WoW. I guess he made the final decision... and made me realize its not just about "playing WoW", its hanging out with a friend. We used to play WoW together all the time. He was a blast to PvP with.

So i am definitely going to play. I can pick up my WoW disks hopefully next week and install it. At this point, im not excited about playing, im excited to game with my best online friend!

 

I play COD all the time. I use my Verizon phone as a hotspot and have a wireless router. 4G coverage is growing like crazy right now on Verizon.

disclaimer: when I was a new driver I could not have even contemplated a setup like this or would have tried it.

 

Online gaming is defenatly doable in a truck, been doing it for years and its geting even better these days. Heres a couple of things I have learned over the years.

A phone/Data card will give you the most stable connection. But will not give you the fastest speeds, Its bandwidth is generaly low and latency is generaly high. There are a few exceptions to this, in a few area's around the country can get a good connection in the 100ms latency and 1Mbps range. And some locations doing even better then that. but on average your looking at around .2Mbps 300ms on average. even lower in rural area's. The advantages to this setup is you can generaly get online in almost any location around the world. There have been a few times when I have been driving and get a msg from my corp mates that one of our systems are under attack in Eve Online and that they need me. and I have been able to pull off at the next rest area and jump online to assist them.

Truckstop wifi is not as bad as everyone makes it out on these forums. Well it is, but its not. Its just tricky in geting it right. And its not dependable at all. Exspecialy between the hours of 5pm and 8pm, somtimes even till 10pm. All the trucks are coming in during this time so there is allot of things to interrupt the signal, also during this time more people are geting online sucking that shared bandwidth. I also have a threory that the sun setting affects the signal too. However there are a couple things you can do to increase your performance on truckstop wifi. First off always park as close to the wifi tower as possible. Perfer a tower that does not have allot of traffic going infont of it. (IE the tower on the fuel island is a poor choice since allot of trucks will continualy drive between you and the tower). External mount on the adapter. I have been meaning to build a custom mount for my mirror, but have not got around to it. Right now I open up my top bunk window and place it outside the window (in a plastic bag when it is raining). Having it outside the truck and high up seems to really help.

As for wifi speeds, Its all over the board and depends on what truckstop your at and when. But if you like to play between midnight and 5am, you can generaly get a good enough connection to play online.

Personaly I use both. The data card is great for those times I have to have a stable connection. and Wifi is good when I have to DL a patch. And for games like wow (non-twitch) online gaming over the road is perfectly doable and I have been doing it for years. However twitch games (like First Person Shooters) dont cut it on the road. Sure there a couple places around the country where you can get a decent enough ping to play, But even then its not going to be the greatest and it will affect your stats.