In a world where our personal information is often out there for hackers to steal, using a virtual private network, or VPN, is more important than ever. A VPN creates a secure connection between your device and the internet, making it difficult for anyone to track your online activity. This makes a VPN like the Surfshark for PC a great option for gamers, who can use it to protect their IP address and keep their gaming sessions private. In this article, we’ll explain how and why you should use a VPN when gaming.
Enjoy Early Releases
The first reason on this list why many people choose to use a VPN is because it allows them access to early game releases. How does this work? Many game developers will slowly release a game in different regions to test the waters and see if there is interest, and if any bugs still exist, before releasing it to more regions.
By using a VPN, gamers can play the game even if they aren’t in the same region since the VPN allows you to change your location. Just be sure not to get caught, since this technically isn’t legal.
Protect Your IP
The next reason why a lot of gamers use VPNs is that it allows for the protection of your IP address. Your IP address is kind of like your street address, but for your PC on the internet. If someone has access to your IP, they can cause a lot of trouble, and this mainly happens when a game uses peer-to-peer technology.
The most common threat from someone having access to your IP is DDoS attacks or distributed denial-of-service attacks. This is essentially when someone sends so much information to the connection that it basically crumbles under the pressure and goes offline.
Potentially Reduce Ping
The next reason why many gamers advise using a VPN is to reduce ping. How does this work? When it comes to connecting to a game’s server, the further the server is from where you are, the higher the latency will be. This latency is called ping, and it’s essentially the speed at which information is transferred between the server and yourself.
In theory, and depending on the VPN, by using a VPN to change your location closer to the server, the ping should be reduced. While this can happen with the more advanced VPN’s, this typically doesn’t happen with free VPN’s. Most of the time what will happen is that the VPN will throttle your internet connection and that in itself will cause lag.
Access Banned Games
Very similarly to being able to play games that have just been released in certain areas, VPN will allow you to play games that are banned in your country. Many countries have various terms and conditions at which they ban games. For example, Brazil will ban a game that displays excessive violence, whereas Venezuela bans any games that have the objective of shooting people.
If you live in a country that bans video games, then you will be able to play those games by using a VPN. It might be a good idea to get a good VPN so you don’t have to deal with high ping or slow internet speed, as mentioned above.
Ignore Throttling
Something that is the bane of every game is when the internet service provider begins throttling the internet speed. Why does this happen? This can happen for several reasons; some internet service providers will throttle a line when you have used too much bandwidth, they might also throttle it when the network activity in the area is too high to ensure smooth experiences for all.
Playing video games can use quite a lot of bandwidth, for example, Destiny 2 can use around 300MB per hour, and GTA 5 online can use 60 MB per hour. By using a VPN, you can confuse your ISP into thinking that you are just surfing the internet, meaning that you won’t get throttled for performing a bandwidth-intensive exercise. More than this, if you use a more expensive VPN, it can switch the ports that you use, which makes it even more difficult for your line to be throttled.
