Lag

In online gaming, lag is a noticeable delay between the action of players and the reaction of the server supporting the video game. In online gaming, lag is a noticeable delay between the action of players and the reaction of the server supporting the video game. The tolerance for lag depends on the type of game. For instance, a strategy game or a turn-based game with a low pace may have a high threshold or even be mostly unaffected by high delays, whereas a twitch gameplay game such as a first-person shooter with a considerably higher pace may require significantly lower delay to be able to provide satisfying gameplay. However, the specific characteristics of the game matter. For example, fast chess is a turn-based game that is fast action and may not tolerate high lag. Also, some twitch games can be designed such that only events that don't impact the outcome of the game introduce lag, allowing for fast local response most of the time. The origin of this term is unknown, but it might be from North Germanic; compare Norwegian lagga 'to move slowly'. Ping refers to the network latency between a player's client and the game server as measured with the ping utility or equivalent. Ping is reported quantitatively as an average time in milliseconds (ms). The lower one's ping is, the lower the latency is and the less lag the player will experience. High ping and low ping are commonly used terms in online gaming, where high ping refers to a ping that causes a severe amount of lag; while any level of ping may cause lag, severe lag is usually caused by a ping of over 100 ms. This usage is a gaming cultural colloquialism and is not commonly found or used in professional computer networking circles. In games where timing is key, such as first-person shooter and real-time strategy games, a low ping is always desirable, as a low ping means smoother gameplay by allowing faster updates of game data between the players' clients and game server. High latency can cause lag. Game servers may disconnect a client if the latency is too high and may pose a detriment to other players' gameplay. Similarly, client software will often mandate disconnection if the latency is too high. High ping may also cause servers to crash due to instability.