In recent years, online gaming has exploded in popularity, and with more and more multiplayer titles releasing year after year, it’s a trend that likely to continue for the foreseeable future. With online multiplayer becoming the dominant model in the gaming industry, having a fast, stable, and secure internet connection has become more important than ever for the typical gamer. However, the reality is that many experience connection issues that drastically degrade the quality of their experience.
As a modern gamer, it stands to reason that you should seek solutions to this problem, and this is where a VPN can be extremely useful. In this article, we will outline what a VPN is, how it can improve your gaming experience, and how you should go about choosing the right option for you.
What is a VPN?
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a software tool that gives you the ability to increase the security and privacy of your internet connection.
When you go online using a VPN server, your data is sent through a secure tunnel to a proxy server in another geographical location. During this process, your traffic is encrypted, meaning that your online activity and private data are safeguarded against possible cyberattacks.
In addition to this, the VPN server acts as an intermediary between you and your device when you go online. As a result, it allows you to conceal your device’s IP address and use the Internet anonymously. This can even enable you to bypass geographical restrictions and censorship by enabling you to view access sites as though you were a user in the location of your VPN server.
How can a VPN Improve Your Gaming Experience?
A VPN can help to improve your online gaming experience in a variety of different ways. For instance, it can help with high ping, one of gamers’ most frequently occurring issues today. High ping causes delayed response time between user inputs and actions in game, and this can be extremely frustrating, to say the least. While there are several potential reasons why you might experience high ping, it is often a result of bandwidth throttling on the part of your ISP (Internet Service Provider).
While ISPs don’t state this explicitly, the fact is that they regularly restrict bandwidth when they detect specific kinds of traffic on the user’s end. This means that activities like gaming and even streaming can result in your bandwidth being throttled. With a VPN, however, you can avoid this issue. Since a VPN encrypts your traffic, your ISP will not be able to determine what you are doing, and as a result, you won’t experience throttling as a result of your online activities. This keeps your ping low for a more responsive and engaging gaming experience.
Likewise, it’s common for gamers to experience slow connectivity when playing online. This is often because of the distance between the player’s location and the game server. When using a VPN, however, it’s possible to change the location from which you access the game server. That means that by selecting the right VPN server, you can drastically reduce the distance, thereby improving your connectivity when you play.
How can you choose the best VPN for Gaming?
There are a plethora of VPN options available nowadays, and a free VPN is often a good place to start if you lack experience with the technology. But what is the best free VPN for gamers? That depends on the circumstances of each individual.
When choosing the best free VPN for you, there are several factors that you should take into account so as to get the best results possible. These include server selection, bandwidth, and encryption tech.
Server selection
As was touched on above, server selection can be critical to your user experience because it can affect your connectivity. In order to improve performance and connectivity, it’s necessary to have access to VPN servers in a location close to the relevant game server. Not all VPN providers offer servers in all locations, so it’s a good idea to do some research on server selection to ensure that you can maintain low latency when gaming online.
Bandwidth
Similarly, bandwidth is an important consideration since it is often an indicator of performance when it comes to connection speeds. Providers which boast a large selection of servers in numerous locations are likely to have more bandwidth to serve their users, and as such, they can usually offer better performance. For this reason, it’s worth looking into server counts before deciding.
Encryption tech
Last but not least, you should take encryption technology into account. While you may only be gaming online, the truth is that motivated cybercriminals may still seek to access your data for one reason or another, so should endeavor to insulate yourself from such risks as much as possible. Different VPNs utilize different encryption methods, some of which are more stringent than others. Looking into the encryption tech used will help you to choose a VPN that will give you the best possible protection.
Concluding
Slow connectivity and high ping are common issues experienced by gamers nowadays, and odds are you’ve encountered them yourself on at least one occasion. At a time when cutting-edge gaming technology is available to you, you don’t want your internet connection to let you down. By utilizing a virtual private network, you can avoid issues like bandwidth throttling and ensure a reliable connection to gamer servers, thereby enhancing your online gaming experience.