Will there be region locking? I have a bunch of friends from Europe and Australia who I want to play with when the game comes out and I am sure I'm not the only one.

Region locking would be a fail

Sucess* One thing that ruins a game is laggers. That's why there are restrictions. I'm hoping they split up the regions.

I want region local only.

could a mod post a reply on what they will be doing? There are obviously significant issues if there is no region locking and no dedicated servers. LAG.

I want to play with my friends though.

Correct me if I am wrong, but they are planning on not using dedicated servers right?

PC will use dedicated servers, xbox 360 and ps3 will use p2p. I doubt a moderator can answer your question, i will post this in the questions thread for upcoming interview with SD.


Source
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1113952-brink-faq/

Playing with people from Europe and Australia just doesn't work properly in a FPS. Period.

Well people from UK are about 70-80ms to me. I live in north-eastern US, so I don't ever experience much lag in European servers. But Australia is just awful, like 200ms+.

I feel this image is how a great deal of players feel about BRs and such in-games.

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/4882/thebrinvasion.png

i'm in AUS google pings at 250ms to the states and about 330 to the uk. which roughly aligns to what someone else said about the uk being about 80 from the states. add the game's extra lag for handling the data and gameplay is terrible. on x360 we used to warn the yanks when they were joining our games not to bother...they called us all racist then acted like morons because it was lagging then ragequit invalidating 25% of the games we ever try playing.

so regional xbox live is a must

i'll be playing brink on pc and will not be joining servers exceeding 100ms, so auszealanders only

It's like phsyically impossible to have low pings all around the globe , I think the devs will put something like a flag or country name next to the host. As for the PC : it'll have dedicated servers and the server browser will deffo show ping/latency , so players can pick servers according to the best possible connection

That's one of the great things about PC dedicated servers, can use server browser to choose non-laggy rooms.

Consoles can do that too but apparently we aren't good enough :/ good old laggy p2p. Its a must for regional p2p I hate playing people in US when I'm in UK. I remember when gears2 came out. Always US host but they denied it being laggy because apparently gears 2 had dservers. Ooohhhh ignorance is bliss.

consoles can do it, ps3 might never used one ...not keen on the parent company, not open to debate it's a personal opinion.

microsoft doesn't as they use their matchmaking system, it essentially takes your meta rating and the games personal rating of your performance and keeps you matched up with people within that rating level. the ability to choose servers would break the illusion. whether you like or loath the idea it does it's job pretty well ensuring your never really in the wrong place.

but like i said server lists would ruin the illusion allowing you to see first hand that not all the servers are available to you when your mates are joining one you can't even see. arranged games like that fall outside of the matchmaking system anyway and it's your own fault for entering games with people who outclass you based on invitation.

that said matchmaking doesn't quite like me as i play so sporadically that it has no real idea how to meta rate me. it also punishes people who cheat to boost scores as they start to find themselves playing people harder and harder to beat without cheating....and cheaters get reoprted and removed from live. paid for multiplayer has benefits like that. on ps3 you'd just keep making new accounts til your console is hardlocked out (which may not even happen as MP is entirely upto the devs not sony)

I just don't like matchmaking, I don't feel in control of the games I want to play. Its just select n hope, matchmaking can be a real pain! You leave game for a reason say lag or too easy maybe cheaters then matchmaking puts you back in same one. ( not always ) but if I could select it would be easy!

I feel like matchmaking dumbs a game down n that all console games are 'dumbed' down for the simple players. Which frustrates me :/

i steer clear because i hate the cowboys. i'll leave killing floor servers if no-one's co-opping as well. if your playing team games you play as a team. but don't tar "console" gamers as one entity. i have a very decent gaming rig but still prefer console gaming for most games...i'll be playing brink on pc but assuming the gamepad is ported correctly will still likely use the gamepad. mouse gives me wrist cramps if i play too long

matchmaking tends to work fine for large populations of players where the available pool is large enough to support a few dozen games being played. the smaller the pool the worse your results will get. i rarely play matchmaking games as i'm just not competitive. i always prefer the scouting and medic roles in team play games as it affords me higher movement stats and a more co-operative role. but sadly most team games are full of cowboys ruining it. i applaud splash damage for addressing the cowboy issue for at least 20 levels. once the character's maxed they'll go straight back to farming kills. but if i keep starting new characters to keep myself playing with the under 20's i'll be a happy gamer.