The Techies Guide To Running A Gaming Server

The Techies Guide To Running A Gaming Server

When it comes to playing video games many people find it to be much more fun to do with others. This is why for many gamers and people in the industry, multiplayer becoming a staple of gaming was and remains the biggest game changer for the medium, pun intended. So, it’s no wonder that gamers all around the world have taken it upon themselves to make sure that multiplayer features are available and easy to use for everyone. This has become even more apparent now that many games allow gamers to create and host their servers. If you want to do the same the prospect can seem rather daunting but there are plenty of tips and tricks to help you get started. So, let’s dive into it and see how to go about running a gaming server.

Hosting

The first thing that comes to mind when it comes to running a gaming server is how you will host it long-term. There are of course many options available to you, it all depends on how much money you are ready to invest in your server. Whether you opt for a dedicated server hosting service or a virtual private server system you will have to deal with subscription services that can offer you multiple advantages. As you can imagine though, the bigger and the better the server, the more expensive the service will be. In many cases though dealing with private hosting services can be much less expensive than setting up a dedicated server in your home. It all depends on your know-how and your needs at the end of the day. But let’s discuss some of the things you need to consider server-wise.

Latency

When it comes to hosting a server, you will know for sure that the biggest issue is always latency. If there is one issue that preoccupies gamers in online games it is latency, also known as ping. Dedicated physical servers are usually the best when it comes to giving gamers the best experience online latency-wise, especially if they find themselves in proximity. What you need to take into account is of course what type of server best suits your needs and of course best suits the requirements for the game you are looking to host on it. While latency is mostly an issue of connection sometimes the content of the game and its streaming can affect performances.

Stability and Flexibility

The other important part when it comes to hosting a gaming server is of course the availability of different options for you to modify and tweak your server. This can be especially important if you are planning to run an ARK server or one of those Minecraft survival servers that are pretty popular. The stability is of course to allow more and more players to join your server if you are looking to grow it. The flexibility aspect mostly comes into play when you are dealing with a hosting service that may allow you to host more files if you need to modify your game. Minecraft servers are a good example since often many players will choose to add plugins and add-ons that modify the game and interact weirdly with actions that players make but they can become quite large and require better servers to host them.

Players and Whitelists

While the inclusion of players on your gaming server might seem like a simple social aspect where you choose who plays and who doesn’t the reality can be much different. This is why many gaming servers allow the use of a password which is good but not entirely safe. The best way to make sure that only people you allow on your server can access it is by using a whitelist. Whitelists are a way to verify who has access and who doesn’t to your server. This makes it so only people web in granted access can access your server. If on the other end, you prefer to allow anyone to join and simply have a list of people, you disallowed to join afterward then you will require what you call a blank list. The good thing about these lists is that they are not always only based on username, but they can also be applied to IP addresses to make sure that nobody uses a sock account to join.

Community

Running a gaming server is not all fun and game if you are planning to build something bigger. The most important part of your server is of course the players that play on it. Whether you are playing with a group of friends or with a community that you are looking to grow community and social interaction is key. This is why you should work a social component into your server. Using mods that allow discord or forum integration is a great way to make sure that your player base stays connected even when online on the server itself. It is also a great way to allow players to participate in upcoming events or find people to play with on your server. Community aspects are great to keep players coming back and also introduce new players to your community so that you can always have a refreshing pool of players.

As you can see running a server can be a lot of work, but it is rewarding especially since you get to play with people that share the same love as you do for the game. By hosting your server, you get to make the rules in a way and play the game the way you want. Whether you play with people you know on a private server or share the love of gaming with a large community being able to tailor this experience to the gamers themselves is a powerful tool. We can only hope that in the future more gaming companies will allow gamers to pose their servers and make their fun within these platforms. So do not be afraid to host your server and have fun with all the other gamers out there.

Share the Post:

Related Posts