A VPN is widely used as a cybersecurity tool, but not a lot of people use it for gaming.
Although it can improve your chances of gaming right, you should not believe all the marketing hullaballoo either.
VPN providers have identified gamers as a new target market and they are trying to get into your pockets for that. However, you might have heard some things which are not true. Here, we bust the myths and reinforce the truths behind installing a VPN for gaming.
Truth #1 – Getting Faster Gameplay
When playing online multiplayer games such as PUBG and Fortnite, there is a source server where the connection has originated from. For all the players joining the gaming network, their gaming consoles will have to transfer data between their server and the source server.
If they are far from one another, there is a case of higher ping and higher latency. In plain English, you will have to deal with lags and slower gameplay.
This won’t be an issue if you had connected to a server closer to the source server before playing.
Note that for this to work in your benefit, you also have to choose a VPN that has been optimized for speed. Otherwise, you will experience even more lag due to the middlemen servers in operation.
Truth #2 – Get Access to Certain Games
For one reason or the other, you might not have access to certain games in your country. This is the case with Blizzard, a game developed by a US company that is not allowed in regions such as Iran. This means that if you were traveling the unsupported countries, or happen to be living there, you won’t be able to get in on the fun.
That won’t be an issue when you have a VPN, though.
By connecting to a supported server location (such as the US in the case of Blizzard), your IP address is masked and you are also granted access to the game servers. With that, you are also allowed to play games like you were living in a region with access.
Truth #3 – Stay anonymous online
Gaming online requires that you spend a lot of time connected to the internet. If there is one thing that we have come to know about the internet, it is how much unencrypted it is.
In other words, the internet is not set up to provide you with extensive data and privacy security options. Solve that problem for yourself when you layer your connection over a VPN.
Every good VPN has a ton of servers through which it passes your data through before it reaches the target game server. This makes it impossible for hackers or other unauthorized personnel to snoop in on your data. Since your IP address is also constantly bounced off the place, it becomes impossible to unravel your identity.
To know just how well a VPN protects you in this regard, even your ISP won’t be able to track what you are doing on the network.
Truth #4 – Access In-Game Content
Sometimes, the problem is not that you cannot access the game itself. It is that some content within the game is not available in your region.
This is the case with the FIFA 20 Global Series which is only supported in a handful of countries. Besides, certain competitions might be limited to regional competitors, but you would prefer to enter foreign contests instead.
If you have been following this piece from the top, you already know what to do.
Simply identify the location here the in-game content you want to access is available in, and connect to a server there. The next time you log into the game, it would have refreshed to let you into the new services.