If gaming is your go-to hobby or favourite way of winding down, you’ll know that there are a few essential elements that can make-or-break a successful gaming session. Back when gaming consoles and PCs started to grow in popularity, the main thing players looked for was that the game was fun to play and not too difficult – look at ‘Pong’, for example, which was one of the most basic games to reach the market that also happened to be a success. Space Invaders and Tetris are further examples of basic games that went on to be a longstanding success, despite being simple to play and having relatively primitive graphics, proving that, sometimes, it’s pure nostalgia that drives love of a game.
These days, consoles have developed – as have PCs – to such a point that there are far more features players for when deciding on which games to play: graphics and visual resolution; FPS (frames per second) rate; story and gameplay; online and multiplayer features; ease-of-navigation; storyline and character progression (if applicable). With gaming now available across a variety of different platforms, from smartphones to laptops and PCs to next gen gaming consoles, one aspect unites them all – connection to the internet.
But just how important is a fast internet connection for gaming? Is it as important to a fully-functioning gaming session or is it wildly overstated as an essential feature of modern gaming? Read on to find out more.
MMORPGs, FPS, and Survival
Whether you’re playing on an Xbox, PlayStation, a PC, or a handheld console, there’s a plethora of gaming possibilities out there for you to enjoy, most of which boast the most up-to-date features which gamers are on the lookout for in their gaming endeavours.
MMORPGs, FPS/TPS, and sandbox survival-based games – such as PUBG, Ark, Fortnite etc – have grown in popularity in recent years, amongst both older and younger gamers. Due to the nature of these games, which often feature players from around the world joining the game on the same server to play with or against one another, a fast internet connection is a core requirement. This is because the speed of your internet connection determines the frames per second – or, in other words, the speed at which the actions in the game travels between the server and your gaming device. If your internet connection is slow, the likelihood is that your fps rate will be low and this will, in turn, cause what is deemed ‘lag’, which means your game will work slower and take longer to register your actions/movements. This can be incredibly frustrating as your character can be killed during these lags and you won’t even be aware.
Cloud-Based Gaming
If you’re on a next-gen console, laptop, or PC, it’s likely that you’ll be utilising some form of cloud-based gaming to play. Rather than requiring a disc or physical copy of the game, the ‘cloud’ stores the game for you and any saves or changes you make within that game. Although a fast internet connection isn’t essential for this to occur, a poor internet connection can prevent your game from saving automatically as you’re playing, meaning that, if the game crashes or freezes for some reason and needs to restart, you might not have any recent changes or progress saved. So, a fast internet connection may not be crucial for cloud-based gaming, but it’s certainly handy.
Old Faithfuls
Many of the games we love are the old ones that have stood the test of time, whether they’re from old consoles or stored on old gaming websites we’ve played during lunch breaks at school. Simple gameplay, challenging, and addictive, we all remember some of the most enjoyable ball games available online like Bubble Trouble, Soccer Skills, or Red Ball Bounce, right? Many of us enjoyed whiling away time to such games – and some of us still do!
The beauty of such games is that they’re often single-player and, although they are based online, they actually don’t require a speedy internet connection to function well! Pretty sweet deal, surely? It means hours of fun without stressing over your slow internet connection.
Overall, the importance of a fast internet connection when it comes to gaming depends entirely on your chosen platform or chosen game genre, so if you don’t have the best internet connection in the world, never fear – there’s plenty of choice out there for you!
