{"id":442,"date":"2020-03-26T13:51:06","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T13:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/?p=442"},"modified":"2021-11-09T08:43:30","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T08:43:30","slug":"the-best-multiplayer-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/the-best-multiplayer-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Private servers VS other solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

What is the best server solution for online play?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Laaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggg: we\u2019ve all experienced it at some point. This article will look at why lag happens and how we overcome it. Now it\u2019s not always that important: for instance, if you are playing a turn-based strategy game, the tolerance will be a lot higher; however, if you are playing a game that relies on twitch gameplay \u2014 IT\u2019S ALL THAT MATTERS!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Looking back at my own online gaming history, it\u2019s littered with lag moments. I can recall playing Modern Warfare and seeing players glitching across the map or them shooting first \u2014 only to then watch the kill-cam which shows I never got a bullet off.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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How many times have you played a game where you\u2019ve run into a building only to rubber-band back outside again? And it always happens when someone is shooting at you or zombies are chasing you!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I play a lot of online racing games, and I\u2019ve lost count of the number of times I\u2019ve seen an opponent\u2019s car glitch across the track, disappearing then reappearing, knocking everyone out of the way.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As gamers it is something we put up with, but why should we?<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

To understand how to overcome lag, first we need to know why we are getting it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Firstly, we need to talk about \u2018ping\u2019. In multiplayer video-game terms, ping refers to the network latency between a player and a server, often shown in milliseconds \u2014 the lower the ping, the better the experience will be.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

You\u2019ve picked a game where your ping is low \u2014 perfect right? You\u2019ll have the best gaming experience ever, without issue! The short answer to this is no. It won\u2019t be perfect and here\u2019s why: all you need is to be playing against another player with high latency, and everyone else\u2019s experience could (and usually would) be ruined.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

With a lot of games (mainly console), you as the player have no choice in which game you join and with what amount of latency. Often the game\u2019s software will search for servers with a low ping, but if there aren\u2019t any, or they are full, the software will look for a slightly higher ping.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What causes high latency?<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Internet speed and stability, bandwidth congestion and location vs server are all things that can cause lag. What makes this worse is that a lot of studios rely on a network solution called \u2018peer2peer\u2019. This is where one or more of the connected devices share the resources of the game without going through a separate server. This is fine if all players are regionally close to each other, they have good internet speed and stability. However, you as a player have no control over this and are dependent on the game\u2019s software management.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

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If there are so many potential issues with a peer2peer solution, why do studios and developers choose it? The simple answer is cost: this is the cheapest way to allow players to play against each other.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

To get the absolute best \u2014 the supreme cream of the crop, the king of sting \u2014 a dedicated server is needed. Now, having a dedicated server does not guarantee that lag will no longer exist, but it\u2019s a giant leap in the right direction. All the issues mentioned before are still present \u2014 internet speed, stability, bandwidth congestion and location \u2014 but they vary on a player-by-player case. Dedicated servers can take on most of the heavy lifting, keep all players in check and be placed all over the world. However, as good as dedicated servers are there\u2019s a cost that comes with them; smaller studios simply cannot afford them, and larger studios often don\u2019t want to pay for them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Solution and the holy grail: private servers<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If studios allowed players to host their own servers, players would receive all the benefits of a dedicated server with the bonus of having complete control over who plays on that server. The downside being that players would need to pay for this themselves \u2014 if this was the only option to play online. Now, to rent a server with GPORTAL is relatively cheap, and we have servers located all over the world. If a game can be modified with GPORTAL that\u2019s fine too as we have a control panel that\u2019s built right into our website.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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A lot of players will feel that they shouldn\u2019t have to pay for a server, and the great thing is that there are ways to play on private servers without paying a penny. Most games have forum communities, and a lot of these communities rent their own servers so they can control their online experience. Search the web for your favourite game, and I\u2019m sure it won\u2019t take long to find a community where you can play for free or, at the very least, a heavily discounted price.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So, there\u2019s your three options: peer2peer, dedicated and private servers. Now, if I oversaw the release of a title that relied on twitch gameplay, I would choose a combination of dedicated and private servers. I wouldn\u2019t be the first to do this: if you\u2019re playing a game now where you can choose which server to play on, there\u2019s a good chance this is an option already.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

With this option, players can jump straight onto a dedicated server and have a great online experience. Players can also rent their own servers, giving them complete control and providing them with the absolute best experience.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the best server solution for online play? Laaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggg: we\u2019ve all experienced it at some point. This article will look at why lag happens and how we overcome it. Now it\u2019s not always that important: for instance, if you are playing a turn-based strategy game, the tolerance will be a lot higher; however, if<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2714,"href":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions\/2714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.g-portal.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}