How to Instantly Improve Your Gaming Experience
When it comes to improving the PC gaming experience, the first thing that comes to mind is probably having the most powerful computer possible, equipped with a top of the range graphics card and a super-powerful processor. Although these are important and certainly do make the gaming experience a lot better and smoother, there are plenty of other things that can affect the overall gaming experience, including the very players you are playing with or against.
By installing and using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) for your PC gaming, you can instantly improve the experience, protect your personal data, and continue gaming while you travel. Although VPNs are traditionally used for their security benefits, gamers are increasingly using them on account of their reliability.
Here are a few ways a VPN can instantly improve your gaming experience:
#1: Game While Traveling
Many PC games force players to connect to their local servers which, when traveling, can make gaming a real pain, especially if you have a favorite server back home. If you live in the U.S., for example, and then travel over to Europe, you will end up being placed on European servers automatically, and if the game does not enable you to pick your own server, this could dramatically change the experience for you.
A VPN enables you to connect to a number of remote servers around the world, meaning that you can connect to a U.S. server while you are located over in Europe. The game will think that you are playing in the U.S. and will connect you to servers which you are more accustomed to. This means you get a smooth and consistent gaming experience that doesn’t fluctuate as you move around.
#2: Stay Safe
Online gaming can be an ugly place. Unfortunately, there are lots of sore losers out there who take games just a little too seriously and seek vengeance on players who beat them. A common practice is for players to DDoS-attack other players and force their internet to go offline for anywhere between one minute and several hours. How do they do this? By getting your IP address!
While many game servers don’t publicly display your IP address, many have inherent vulnerabilities, which enable savvy players to see your IP address and force a DDoS attack upon it. When you are connected to a VPN, you are connected to an enterprise-level server and with that comes a lot of security and a server which is very hard to bring offline. Plus, the attacker will not be able to figure out your home IP address, meaning that your home network remains safe.
#3: Access High Speeds
Many people assume that VPNs slow down your internet connection, and while this can be true in some cases, it largely depends on your Internet Service Provider. When you launch an online game, some ISPs, especially lower-end and cheaper ISPs, will throttle your connection and slow it down. Why? Because this saves the ISP bandwidth and costs them less money. It’s not just gaming either, watching HD videos or downloading large files can also cause your ISP to throttle your connection and slow it down.
When you are connected directly to a VPN, your ISP doesn’t know what you are doing. This means that they will not be throttling your broadband speeds when you start playing games. This is a funny catch-22 situation – while VPNs do have an impact on your download and upload speeds, the negative effect will, in many cases, be a lot less severe than your ISP throttling your broadband speeds.
Although VPNs have traditionally been used to remain anonymous online and hide your IP address – something that does have an application to gaming – they can also dramatically improve your gaming experience. In addition to the above, VPNs can also allow you to access geo-restricted gaming titles, connect to different stores, and make your gaming experience a whole lot smoother. All of this, in addition to hiding your IP address and having access to higher speeds, makes quite the compelling case for using a VPN alongside your online gaming.
