Blog - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 16:26 - 37 Comments

Australia’s emissary to Blizzard: Simon Hackett

blog You’ve got to love Simon Hackett’s constant Whirlpool posts. They’re a fount of information, controversy and entertainment. Over the years I’ve greatly enjoyed watching the principled and ethical leader of rebel broadband group Internode tussle with the denizens of the nation’s most famous online forum.

That’s why Hackett’s latest shot in the ongoing war between video gaming giant Blizzard (think World of Warcraft) and its Australian customers caught our eye. Quoth Hackett:

“As already noted, we’ve wanted, for years and years to get Blizzard to put game servers in Australia (and I’ve made international trips in the past entirely driven by this purpose). Its obviously the right answer (for Australian players). Anything else is (obviously) a compromise. Leveraging servers in Singapore and hoping routing from Australian ISPs to Singapore is acceptable is a compromise.”

The problem, Hackett adds, is that there are many network hops into Asia — meaning that “all sorts of factors” can obstruct a video game enthusiast’s experience when playing one of Blizzard’s popular online games (our favourite is StarCraft II). Hackett adds:

“… its obvious that the best answer is in-country server facilities. If Blizzard wanted to re-engage with us on the notion of winding up with Blizzard server resources in our (extensively peered) data centre facilities, we’d be just thrilled. That door is still open, has been for years, and its not closed now.”

Your move, Blizzard. Australia has sent its emissary to your door and been rejected. Now it’s time for the mountain to come to Mohammad.

Image credits: Internode