At first glance one wouldn’t necessarily think of hard core gamers as politically aware, but that’s been changing recently as issues like SOPA and the NSA have grabbed the attention of young people who view the Internet as an integral part of their lives. If you think about who would be most upset by having to pay more for Internet speeds we’ve come to expect, or to not have that speed when accessing sites that don’t have preferred status on their ISP, then it would be hard core gamers who would go nutz if their gaming experience was threatened. So the recent ruling on net neutrality will likely spark some serious interest from gamers when they realize that their lifestyle is one of those most threatened by the latest ruling that sets back net neutrality.

Of course this won’t affect just serious gamers. Anyone who loves online video and streaming content will likely be affected. Even casual gamers looking for a game of chess online or are searching William Hill bingo bonus 2013 will be irritated if the game slows down. And we really don’t know yet how serious this problem can become, and whether it will even be perceptable to the average person. Will a slight delay in chess or bingo get people upset? Again, it depends on what one defines as “slight” and how radical the ISPs get in forcing sites to pay up for easy access.

But when it comes to gamers, nothing short of instant reaction will be acceptable, so the political and commercial fallout might be quick. From a business point of view, it seems that there are lower margin ISPs who can win some serious business attacking the big boys and marketing a net neutral service. Of course this carries risk, as the bandwidth sucked up by new customers might really hurt margins, but there still might be a great business there playing volumes over margins.

The biggest problem may be with innovation, as startups and new gaming companies won’t have the funds to pay up for smooth Internet access.

The entire web experience will potentiall be threatened if net neutrality becomes a thing of the past. If people are going to stop this, it’s safe to expect gamers to be among those leading the charge.