Many people still think that a VPN is only there to surf the internet safely and anonymously. But the gaming scene has long since discovered its advantages, because a VPN can improve the gaming experience by far.
In this article we give you six good reasons why you should use a VPN as a gamer.
1. Bandwidth throttling is a thing of the past
An Internet connection that is too slow is a no-go for every gamer. Suppose you are looking forward to a long and relaxing evening of online gaming and then you realize that the internet speed is dropping. Online gaming is often a matter of fractions of a second and with such a speed limit a good game is hardly possible.
You can thank your Internet provider, because they can do yours throttle bandwidth, if he finds out that you play too much online or download too much, for example.
When you use a VPN, you can do everything you do on the internet encode, so that even the Internet provider cannot see it. So he doesn't even notice that you're spending a whole weekend gambling and won't throttle your bandwidth.
2. Play games earlier than others
Most gamers know it: the feeling when the long-awaited new video game is released in another country rather than in your own home country. And you can hardly wait to try it out for yourself.
With a VPN, you have the option of choosing a server in the country where the game has already been released and purchasing it there in the respective online shop. Long waiting times for games are finally a thing of the past.
3. No more censorship
Due to different laws in different countries, some games may be banned in a certain region or at least parts of them may be censored. Stupid only if you really really want to play this game.
In this case, too, you have the option of simply choosing a server in a country of your choice thanks to a VPN service. For example, if a game is only available in the US, you can easily connect to a server from there and buy the game there.
4. Take action against excessively long ping times
The ping time is the time it takes to send data back and forth between the server and the device. In cases where the gaming server is quite far away from your location, this ping time can be very high. Disturbing delays in the game are then inevitable.
With a VPN service, you can connect to a server in the same country as the gaming server. In this way you can take very good action against excessively long ping times and the online gaming experience is fun again.
5. No more IP bans
It's also very annoying when you're playing online and are suddenly blocked by the administrator because you've allegedly used some kind of trickery.
Whether this is true or not is now an open question, in any case the IP address will then be blocked and you can only continue playing when the block is lifted again. The administrator alone decides how long this takes.
However, things are different if you use a VPN service, because this will change your IP address obfuscated and you can easily use another server. This way you will not be recognized by the administrator.
6. Protection against DDoS attacks
Most experienced gamers have dealt with it before: DDoS attacks. The abbreviation DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service. This type of attack is mostly used by bad losers who don't want other players to win. So as soon as they realize that someone else is about to win, they send a very large number of different requests to the system, causing it to crash.
If you become the victim of a DDoS attack, that's it for you with gambling. Unless you use a VPN. In this case, attackers usually don't even manage to bombard your network connection with requests because you can use it to hide your IP address. And just in case they do succeed, you can easily switch servers and continue playing on a different one.
Can a VPN also negatively affect the gaming experience?
Theoretically, a VPN could have a negative impact on the gaming experience. For example, if you're using a VPN service that uses a very complicated encryption protocol, it may be causing delays in games even more.
Using a VPN server that is too far away can also lead to a reduction in speed. So, before you decide on a VPN provider, do your research to avoid any nasty surprises. You can find reviews and articles all over the internet on how to choose the best VPN service.
On rare occasions, players have also been blocked if they attempted to deceive the game provider and pretended to be in a different country in order to play a game from an earlier period. This is for example on the Platform Steam already happened. This isn't very common, but if you want to be on the safe side, it's better to wait until the game is available in your home country.
While there are cases where a VPN has a rather negative effect on the gaming experience, this is often more due to improper use or the wrong provider. All in all, a VPN for gaming is definitely recommended.
