Game Servers: 5 Tips for Picking the Right One for Your Needs

Are you looking to host a gaming server where you can play with your friends?

Studies show that there are over 226 million people who play online games in the US. Many people meet lifelong friends online but struggle with distance and, consequently, lag. This is where game servers come in.

Game servers offer a platform for groups of friends to enjoy gaming free of lag. With their advanced hardware and reliable connection, you can ensure smooth gameplay.

However, many game server hosts exist today. It can be hard to determine which platform is the best for you. To find the server that meets your hosting needs, read on to discover different tips on how to choose one.

1. Check the Performance

Before you find the best-performing game servers, determine your performance needs first. It can serve as a guide on what to look for in a hosting platform. When defining performance requirements, you can consider the scalability, services, and hardware capacity.

Scalability refers to the game's ability to support gameplay with many players. Some applications experience issues when scaling to different devices. With this, determine if the application can accommodate more servers and end-users.

Do you an online gamer's worst enemy? Latency is the delay a player faces when in the game, affecting their performance. To guarantee a smooth game experience, your game server host needs high speed and low latency.

The ideal latency for gaming ranges from 20ms to 40ms or less. You can test the response time of a server as some allow it. Doing so can ensure you of its quality.

Another factor that affects server performance is the hardware used. When choosing a gamer server, check if it uses powerful hardware to operate the platform. With high-level hardware, you can boost the loading time and reduce downtime.

2. Bandwidth and Latency

If you want a smooth gaming experience, your game server must have high bandwidth and low latency.

Many people interchange the terms bandwidth and latency. These words present ideas about networks yet mean different. Bandwidth measures the data size, while latency deals with its speed.

You can link bandwidth requirements with data traffic predictability. If you use high bandwidth with low predictability, find a game server with high data traffic.

Further, the number of participants and the games determine your needed bandwidth. If you get the bandwidth capacity right, you won't have to worry about interruptions.

In latency, some factors affect the relationship between game servers and players. Bandwidth capacity, physical distance, and network distance contribute to latency. With this, determine game servers hosting in different worldwide locations.

To host a seamless game, keeping a short distance from your game server host is necessary. Further, having an optimized network can shorten network distance.

3. Security

In 2020, the global video game industry recorded about 240 million cyberattacks. No one wants to lose their account or platform to a hacker. As a gamer server host, you must provide high-level security to ensure player safety.

See if the platform has a reliable security system to protect your gaming community. Always assume that cyber threats lurk around to look for a system that can handle any issues. With this, you can determine how secure your network is on a server.

Distributed Denial-of-Service is one of the prevailing attacks faced in the gaming industry.

In 2019, it comprised 35.92% of all recorded DDoS attacks. The DDoS attack is a cyber threat where an attacker ends fake data requests to disrupt the server. With this, players' requests cannot reach the host, and the server crashes.

To prevent malicious attacks, choose a game server offering free DDoS protection.

4. Straightforward Control Panels and Automatic Backups

If you want to reduce the complexity of game hosting, you can rely on control panels. With this, you can run systems without the need to understand them. So, look for a game server that offers an efficient control panel.

Apart from making hosting easy, securing and storing data is vital, too. Imagine losing all the hard work you put in for your Minecraft server, gone in the blink of an eye. How does that make you feel?

One can lose their game through faulty updates, corruption of worlds, or misconfiguration. To prevent this from happening, you must always backup your data. Doing so allows you to resume playing with little to no data loss.

With this, opt for a game server host with regular and consistent backup systems to keep your server's data. Review it to determine if they provide solutions for your needs. Further, their system must have internal and external backups, too.

5. Customer Support and Reviews

Behind the curtain of your servers is a team working to deliver the best to you and your pals. Reliable customer support can ensure the best gaming experience.

Seek game servers that offer 24/7 and responsive customer support. With this, you can call for help any time of the day when you run into problems. Choose a game server with excellent customer support to ensure you enjoy your game.

To guarantee quality customer service, you can check the reviews given by other users. Through feedback, you get to know other users' experiences and insights into the service. You can find reviews on the main page or dedicated reviews page of the game server host's website.

Check the reviews and see if the server addressed the issue. This way, you can determine if you can rely on their customer support team.

Looking for the Best Game Servers

Here are the things you can consider when looking for the best game servers. Your game server must give the highest quality of hosting services for your needs. Choose an excellent, reliable, and safe platform.

Want to open a server with your friends? Here at AleForge, we have all your game server hosting needs covered. You can reach us here to learn more about our services.