Online gaming is becoming more and more popular these days. One apparent reason for this is due to its accessibility. Almost everyone has access to a computer or an internet-enabled device that can run games.
As online gaming gets popular, issues related to cybersecurity have begun to raise serious concerns over users’ privacy. With more information, most gamers have started to move towards using gaming VPN services to improve their online gaming experience.
Here we will discuss the clear-cut reasons you should consider using a VPN for your online gaming.
Benefits of Using a VPN for Gaming
- Avoid DDoS Attacks
- A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) is an attack that involves a malicious attempt to disrupt the regular traffic of internet service. Some gamers can use this form of attack for competitive advantage to slow your connection down or just shut you out of the game.
If you are the target of a DDoS attack, multiple computers will begin to flood your IP address with unsolicited internet traffic to overwhelm your server. Using a VPN will mask your IP address, making it impossible for competitive gamers to find your connection with trash data.
- A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) is an attack that involves a malicious attempt to disrupt the regular traffic of internet service. Some gamers can use this form of attack for competitive advantage to slow your connection down or just shut you out of the game.
- Protect against Swatting
- Disgruntled gamers can become so angry to the point of stalking you in real life. They could go through your IP address to find and hack into your social media accounts and, in rare cases, can harass or threaten you.
- Disgruntled gamers can become so angry to the point of stalking you in real life. They could go through your IP address to find and hack into your social media accounts and, in rare cases, can harass or threaten you.
- Avoid bandwidth throttling
- Throttling is a deliberate action from many ISPs to slow down bandwidths to ease traffic congestion. If your ISP throttles, it could be that they detected specific traffic on your network. This will significantly affect your gaming experience.
You may find out that you reached your data cap much quicker than expected. A VPN comes in handy here. It encrypts your data and obscures your ISP from seeing what you’re doing online.
- Throttling is a deliberate action from many ISPs to slow down bandwidths to ease traffic congestion. If your ISP throttles, it could be that they detected specific traffic on your network. This will significantly affect your gaming experience.
- Prevent location tracking
- Some games can track your real-time location and can sell it to advertisers, who then send you custom ads. Other games can see how much you spend online in-game.
This in itself is an invasion of your privacy and could even worsen if a security breach revealed the data collected. One way to mitigate this is always to turn off your location if possible. Using a VPN is even better, especially if you can’t turn off the location setting.
- Some games can track your real-time location and can sell it to advertisers, who then send you custom ads. Other games can see how much you spend online in-game.
- Play from any Region
- Certain games may be restricted to some regions, especially games that haven’t been released to a worldwide audience yet.
A VPN gives you full access to geo-blocked content. It does this by hiding your actual IP address and then assigns you another IP address from a server in the region where the game is accessible.
- Certain games may be restricted to some regions, especially games that haven’t been released to a worldwide audience yet.
- Game safely on public or free WiFi
- Sometimes, you may need to connect to the public WiFi to enjoy your game. But then, most of this free WiFi isn’t really free. You may pay with your personal data. WiFi administrators can sniff around and see what websites you visit.
Worse still, because most public WiFi isn’t secure, you’re at risk of malware attacks from hackers. The safest way to use public WiFi is to use a VPN to ensure all your data is first encrypted before sending out any traffic.
- Sometimes, you may need to connect to the public WiFi to enjoy your game. But then, most of this free WiFi isn’t really free. You may pay with your personal data. WiFi administrators can sniff around and see what websites you visit.
- Defeat IP bans
- Some game manufacturers may decide to ban users that violate the terms of services or similar rules. Of course, you want to be sure you adhere to the terms of service. But if your IP address is banned for some reason, either temporarily or permanently, a VPN gives you the chance to get back into the game.
Once you connect to a VPN, a new IP address is assigned to you. A VPN with large server locations means you can connect to different servers, allowing you to bypass the ban.
- Some game manufacturers may decide to ban users that violate the terms of services or similar rules. Of course, you want to be sure you adhere to the terms of service. But if your IP address is banned for some reason, either temporarily or permanently, a VPN gives you the chance to get back into the game.
- Play banned games
- The same way some countries censor internet content, many countries also ban certain games for various reasons ranging from intense violence, graphic sex, or even cultural reasons.
For example, Germany bans any game that promotes Nazism. Venezuela bans games that contain excessive shootings. Australia bans any game that portrays nudity, violence, graffiti, and drug use.
- The same way some countries censor internet content, many countries also ban certain games for various reasons ranging from intense violence, graphic sex, or even cultural reasons.
