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News/Blog » So i heard you think player pings affect server performance
29/05/2014 09:47
So, a lot of people seem to think that a players ping on a game server can make the server lag, therefore all people with a ping of 200+ should be kicked. Well solider, I'm afraid that you are wrong.

First of all, you need to understand what a 'ping' is. A ping is the time it takes for a host to receive a packet of information from a client and send a reply back, this is usually measured in milliseconds. So, if someone on a game server had a ping of say 200, this means it takes 200 milliseconds, or 0.2 seconds, for the server to send a packet of data to the client and get a reply back.

But a high ping makes the server lag for everyone else, doesn't it?... No. The server sends, receives and processes the data for the client like it does for any other client with no added impact on the server itself, meaning every other client can play as normal.

So why do people kick players with high ping? Well, players with a high ping, say 300+, will appear laggy and seem to instantly jump from one spot to the next. This is because the server isn't getting enough data from the client quick enough to process a smooth movement. Admins will often kick these people since moving around like that makes them much harder to kill or interact with.

I'm not certain where the myth of a high ping making servers lag came from, but I guess its from people who don't understand how servers work and think that players get auto kicked for lagging the server with a high ping. But, I guaranty that the myth has no merit.