Every time you create a profile in an MMO, you get confined to a specific region, where your character resides on North American servers, European ones, or those in Asia. But what happens if your friends are spread out all over the world? Or if the best version of your favorite MMO game is hosted on servers that you aren't supposed to use? The thing is that every month, thousands of MMO players decide to try their luck with international servers, and here is why.
The Advantages of International MMO Servers
Nowadays, MMO communities aren't confined by geographic borders. Your guild could consist of people from Tokyo, London, and Sydney. You might come to know that the European version of the game got some unique features that didn't appear in the version for North America. Maybe you moved abroad and now you want to stay in touch with your old server community.
There are a lot of other advantages of playing MMO games on international servers. Firstly, different regions sometimes get content updates earlier than other territories. Secondly, class balancing differs in different versions of the same game.
The Player Base on Different MMO Servers Is Also Unique
It's not necessary to play with the same intensity on different servers. For example, on one server, you will experience casual gaming, while on another one, the game will become more intense.
For hardcore players, international servers mean lots of opportunities. For casual players, international MMO servers mean being able to play together with their friends.
How Server Architecture Really Works
The thing is that the servers of MMO games aren't floating somewhere in the cloud. They are physical machines hosted in the data centers of providers. Every time you connect to a server in North America, you probably connect to a machine located in Virginia, Texas, or California. Europeans connect to German, French, or British servers. Asians connect to machines in South Korea, Japan, or Singapore.
The game client sends your information to the server (your movements, actions, chat messages), and the server sends the current state of the game back to you. This process happens dozens of times every second.
The distance between you and the server matters because the speed of data transfer is limited and equals the speed of light. That is why the farther you are from the server, the longer the data transfer takes.
Latency and Its Influence on Games
Latency is called "ping." It is measured in milliseconds and represents the round-trip time of the connection from your computer to the server. Low ping (under 50 ms) makes the game smooth. You will experience no lag. High ping (over 150 ms) creates a delay. You can get killed by the enemy even if you are sure that you dodged them, as the server still hasn't received your input.
The Latency Truth
Now let's discuss how latency changes your gaming experience. If you're in New York and try to play on the servers of Japan, your ping will probably range from 150 to 200 ms. And if you are in London but play in Australia, then expect 250-300 ms of ping.
Latency greatly influences your gaming experience. In a single-player game, there's no latency at all, while in an MMO game, it creates a real disadvantage.
PvP battles become nearly impossible to do, as your actions don't go as planned due to the delay. Raiding becomes very challenging and frustrating.
That is why high ping isn't good for skill-based content, like PvP or progression raiding. Your healing or damage stats won't look wrong on your screen, but the server will interpret your actions differently.
If you don't need to engage in these types of activities in the game, then high ping isn't a problem.
Accessing Servers Located Outside Your Region
Nowadays, there aren't many games that really block access to servers located in your region. You can just download the client of the game and pick another server. However, some games have regional restrictions. You will have to have account addresses that belong to the required region or payment options for this particular territory.
Now you face the decision-making process. You can violate the terms of service and play the game without restrictions. You can just accept the fact that you won't be able to play with your friends in this particular game on this particular server. And the third option is to investigate whether this game actually operates in your particular region due to a partnership with some other companies.
Actually, there are a lot of MMO gamers who don't stick to one geographic location, and that's why they naturally try to get to the servers of other regions.
When you connect to international servers, you are breaking the geographic barriers that game companies set for their MMO games for licensing and payment purposes.
And as you see, there appear some legitimate concerns regarding international game servers. The internet traffic going out of the territory is sent through various network nodes. A standard connection sends your data through a path that can be controlled by anyone.
That is why the issue of protecting your online activity arises.
This issue brings gamers to search for other solutions for accessing international servers. As players' locations and server distances vary widely, gamers choose different options considering the factors important for their gaming experience: speed, availability of servers, and stability.
Some people prefer to compare Surfshark and NordVPN when looking for a solution for playing MMORPGs on international servers, as these services offer a wide variety of servers with optimized gaming connections that protect connection privacy.
As the distance remains the same, neither of these two services nor any other VPN service can reduce the latency caused by the speed of light limitation. But it's still necessary for you to use services that guarantee a stable and consistent connection to international servers and also add a security layer when you are playing.
Account Security in International MMO Games
Every time you play on international servers, you log into your account from a new location. As this action can be regarded as an attempt to hack the account, it raises security alarms in the MMO game.
Before playing on international servers, it is necessary to prepare your account:
Set up authentication wherever it's available (app or SMS)
Confirm that your recovery email and phone number are current
Contact support in advance if you are planning to play on international servers
The question of account security becomes especially important when playing on international MMO servers, as your account becomes a target for hacking. Different MMO games have different servers with valuable items.
So don't reuse your passwords across games. Use unique credentials for each MMO game you play.
Game Performance Beyond Latency
Latency isn't the only factor affecting game performance. Your internet connection speed affects your download time for the patches that are necessary for playing.
The patch for an international server is usually very large. Your download speed depends on your Internet Service Provider and the server infrastructure of the game company.
Graphics performance depends on your hardware, but not the server's location. However, the stability of the connection still matters a lot.
Finding Your International Gaming Community
After all the preparation, you need to find the community on the servers. Information about server populations can be found on Reddit, Discord, and other forums. There are servers with friendly communities, some with guilds that are always active, and some that are deserted outside peak hours. There are servers with rich roleplay communities and some with hardcore players.
First of all, join the Discord community before starting to play and ask all the questions you may have. The best gaming experience on international servers means finding your people there.
Making Your Decision
Playing MMO games on international servers isn't for everyone. If you want to get the best and smoothest gaming experience, you should choose a server geographically close to you. But if the connection to a certain community, exclusive content, or the game experience on this particular server is more important for you than perfect latency, you can consider international play.
With the correct expectations, preparation, and understanding of the actual latency, you can successfully play an MMO game on an international server.