FPS Glossary: Hardware and Servers

Ping is computer terminology for the time it takes bits information to be “pinged” back and forth from one computer to another. Technically, it is a command used to measure that time, and that time is called latency, but since games usually report the result of the ping test, and don't force people to run the operation themselves, most fraggers use the terms interchangeably. This goes back to when DARPA was first developed and really smart computer guys (nerds, okay?) would send a ping to test to see how long the other computer would take to respond—then the connection sends a “pong” back, and they measure that span of time in fractions of a second. If computers are communicating fast and seamlessly, this gives you a low or good ping. Having “low ping” may sound like a bad thing, but trust me it really isn’t. It measures how long it takes what you are doing to get to the server in milliseconds, so the lower the better. Anything under a hundred is good. (To the right is a list of Internet servers for Halo and their respective pings--the blue arrow is pointing to ping column. Most online FPS video game servers have a similar lobby to browse online matches--COD, Halo, Ghost Recon, etc.)

If you are slightly more advanced or technically inclined you can get in there and check your network settings at the back end with various command prompts or administrative tools. Most games have some sort of diagnostic mode where you can take a look at how fast your connection speed is and what your settings are. Remember, it's all about optimizing your levels to match your hardware, software and ISP resources.

High ping is bad ping. Or in other words if you computer has a high ping, it means you may be slowing the network down and dragging along with your slightly slower Internet connection. It’s probably only a matter of very small increments, but it doesn't take much to throw off a game based on precision reaction time. If your ping is in the hundreds, you are out by tenths of a second, and in addition to your own experience, you may be angering other online players with your slow ping.

It can cause lagging, choppy frame rates, warping and other video game phenomena. (More about this later.) If you are creating lagging, warping, or other slow downs or stoppages by joining the network, it means you might be the slowest link. This is ping-related and it means you might have a slow connection, a slow computer, network congestion problems or possibly a combination of all three. Higher pings are bad. Lower pings are good. A low ping means that less time is taken for information to be beamed back and forth between your computer and the server. Low ping means your computer, Internet Service Provider, and game server are getting along well. Geographical distance between you and the server is also a factor in determining your latency.

It may not seem fair to exclude anyone, but you want to make sure you have enough bandwidth to handle real time gaming which usually means about 6 mbps, give or take a few megs depending on if the server is designed to handle slower connections or not. Some servers are just better so you have to try them out and judge the quality of the connection. You'll encounter some players who are serious gamers, they might have clans, have tryouts, and regularly train and practice a lot. And if you slow their usually very fast game to a stuttering crawl you’re going to hear about it, usually in the form of some negative feedback in the console like “Who’s causing the lag?” and “Someone has bad ping.” (Note: you may encounter stronger language than this, as profanity is quite common in most shooter communities.)

Remember FPS is also called “action” for a reason and people enjoy the action, the faster the better. While they are training, or just picking off noobs, catting and mousing through a dodgy hail of bullets and looking for frags in a virtual battlefield at a very high frame-rate, these elite players don’t want to see the screen-rate stuck, or a repetition-lag-loop of some guy running towards a wall, or some warping of their screen into another part of the map, nor do they want to side-slip into the vortex of the physics engine (this happens sometimes in Halo and Call of Duty.) So check your ping and find a bandwidth-and-skill-level appropriate match. You'll be trying out for an elite clan in no time.