5 Games That Should Have Thought About Using Less Bandwidth Online

Millions of gamers enjoy going online to pass the time with friends and enemies they've never met in real life. The most popular games receive updates from their developers regularly, and as time marches on Internet-based games grow ever more sophisticated in their gameplay and stunning in their graphics.

Dota 2

Choose your team of five from among more than 100 heroes, endowed with either radiant or dire abilities, and enter a fantastically colorful battle arena to play this game that requires quick strategy and quicker action. As you accumulate items and learn to combine them with your powers in new and creative ways, you may never want to stop exploring the possibilities of this game. And you definitely won't want to get disconnected by your stodgy Internet connection before reaching your goal -- your opponent's "Ancient" building. 

League of Legends

League of Legends may be the most popular online game of all time, with millions of users logging on every day. A battle arena game in a similar vein to Dota. It involves choosing a team of "Champions" and battling lanes of your opponent's Champions. The action, leveling up, and learning curve is fast, even though it's very challenging to actually master. You'll want your Internet connection to be fast, too, so your characters can keep up.

Battlefield 4

This first-person shooter places you on a realistic, modern battlefield, and EA Games offers you at least 64 reasons you'll want to play, including a super-fast game mode called Obliteration and the ability to instantly share your battle experiences on Facebook. The Dawnbreaker mode lets you explore a rich environment full of threats, wandering indoors and then back out again. All of this stuff begs for bandwidth.

If you know you’re going to be spending a significant amount of time online playing your games — and you do know you are — you can try to avoid frustrating lag time by making some adjustments to your computer's processes and connection settings. Try to connect to the game by way of a server that’s not thousands of miles from your geographic location. Even defragmenting your hard drive will help.

But the best and most noticeable thing you can do is to upgrade your Internet. The fastest and most reliable Internet available is FiOS, fiber-optic based Internet service. Verizon FiOs has a range of plans you could choose from, depending on exactly how much time you’re planning to spend online.

Team Fortress 2

You've got a strong team of other players to rely on. You've got lots of big guns and powerful weapons. And, of course, you've got scads of — er — hats. You're all set.

OK, the hats are mostly for fun and won't really help you. But what's really important in this game is teamwork. You need a balanced team with members of different classes. Soldiers, heavies, and spies all have a role to play, and having a medic on your team is essential. 

Not only does this game have superfast action, but you need to communicate with your teammates in real-time, either through a microphone or by text chat. So here's yet another addictive online game that's going to be asking you for an Internet upgrade.

World of Warcraft

The original Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, the grandaddy of Dota and League of Legends, is still around. Here's a game that starts out relatively tame. You're nearly harmless, and so is the initial environment you're cast into. But things pick up as you explore this fantastic universe of monsters, dark elves, warlocks, and druids. In this magical land called Azeroth, you'll accept quest after quest to build up your strength.

It may be an old-fashioned game that was released in 2004, but you don't want to play it with old-fashioned bandwidth. WoW's developers continue to add new features to it, and there are still millions of other players out there just waiting to take you on.

To get the most out of what the many worlds of online gaming have to offer with the least amount of headaches and frustration, consider upgrading to better Internet service. A top-of-the-line fiber optic connection can be well worth the investment.