If you can't control your actions in a game, might the game be to blame? In this Intel-supported technical article originally published in Game Developer magazine, Neversoft co-founder Mick West examines the problem of response lag in games, along with a number of possible solutions.

Response lag can be described as "the delay between the player triggering an event and the player receiving feedback (usually visual) that the event has occurred." Whenever the delay is too long, the game feels unresponsive. It's easy to see how responsiveness can make or break a game at first impression.

According to West, if your game is unresponsive, it could be the result of cumulative effects of several different factors. "Adjusting one factor alone may not make a perceptible difference, but addressing all the factors can lead to a noticeable improvement."

Players, and sometimes even designers, cannot always put into words what feels wrong when a game is unresponsive, sometimes simply concluding that the game sucks, without really understanding why. West argues that "designers and programmers need to be aware of response lag and the negative effect it has on a game, even if test players do not directly report it as a factor."