In a panel moderated by Rafe Needleman of CNET Networks, Inc., the overwhelming feeling was that online gaming is a cable technology here to stay, one just waiting for the correct platform to really take off. The greatest frustration gamers face in playing intense first-person shooter games against opponents over the internet is latency, the pause or “lag” created by lost packets and slow transmission. Many networks have tailored the architecture of their networks to reduce latency, and some have added a higher tier of service to their network offerings that increase data rates specifically for gaming. Cablevision is one such company, offering Optimum Online Boost, a service that increases transmission speed to up to 30 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream.

Another issue facing developers of online games is the idea of in-game purchases. The idea of perhaps purchasing, with real world money, a better weapon in a video game has met both philosophical and logistical opposition. While many gamers see the idea of buying their way through a game as cheating, developers see it as a humongous source of potential revenue, where financial commitment determines the level of involvement in a game.

“A very successful game would be one that is free to play, and the amount of money spent determines the amount of involvement, with a billing system that makes sense with microtransactions,” said Eugene Evans of Mythic Entertainment.Mythic Entertainment is the creator of the Dark Age of Camelot, a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game. Issues with billing present a challenge for both developers and operators to overcome, as credit card companies in the U.S. aren't set up to handle a large number of small transactions, and neither consumer nor operator would enjoy a six-page cable bill listing hundreds of one-dollar purchases. The task at hand remains finding an efficient and streamlined method of processing numerous small (less than $5) transactions per user over a period of several days or months.