Mobile data traffic theoretical speeds have been improving vastly over years. And 90% of the time you can feel it. However recent media coverage about the connectivity shows that small hiccups especially in overcrowded 3G, 3,5G and 4G  space are becoming more and more common.

And it is not just countryside or wilderness where you might encounter a lack of proper mobile data transfer speeds and reliability. It actually appears in cities where at least theoretically coverage should be top notch.

The reasons vary from business (not sensible to invest into aging technologies when new ones are coming in) to technological (in towns tall buildings block the signal) to user base (too many users in cities, telecoms can not keep up with growing user base) to geographical (not enough room to place antennas).

Whatever the reasons are it is very apparent that we need to take those data transfer issues into account when designing critical applications. Yes, we do consider Loquiz game a critical application as people rightly expect that technology (or lack of it) does not screw up their occasion.

What does Loquiz do to overcome the issue?

Loquiz has several layers  of connectivity needs.

1. For the basic question-answer game you only need the data connection in the beginning of the game. This is when game gets downloaded to your device.  You might encounter map detail issues (navigation still works though) and you will loose online results. To get finish results online it is enough if you have connectivity at the end of the game (or check results from the device).

2. For the game with photos you will need some connectivity during the game. We do not download photos in the beginning of the game, but during the game when it is evident that specific photo will be opened in a game. So even if the data speeds are low, players will probably not be bothered about it. You will also have the online results with some possible hiccups.

3. For the game with videos you will need  reliable and fast data connection. Videos are streamed from the web. Also the online results are fully updated for all teams.

So for whatever reason you might loose your data connectivity the game is still on. And it is fair chance that your clients won’t  even notice  🙂