DDoSing is an almost foreign word to adults outside of the gaming industry but unfortunately the terminology is all too prevalent in the current state of modern multiplayer gaming. D.D.O.S. or a "Distributed Denial-of-Service attack", is a form of cyber harassment where one user-endpoint will be completely denied access to the internet due to an overwhelming influx of incoming traffic all sourced from a malicious evildoer across the internet. This generally affects the gaming industry to deny online multiplayer games access to internet and to interrupt play.
Highly competitive games such as League of Legends, Runescape, CSGO, Rust, Ark, TF2, and many more continually spark controversy with their continual issues revolving around innate cheating throughout the game. Whether that be through in-game cheating or DDOS attacks, players are continually targeted with unfair advantages, making the game's intended state far less enjoyable for the competitive player. With how much of a commitment players are investing into their gameplay in the modern era, ALL gaming servers need DDOS protection.
What is DDOS in gaming?
As described above, DDOS is the acronym for "Distributed Denial-of-Service" which essentially means that due to an intentional attack by another internet user, your internet access is denied. To explain it in game terminology, imagine the internet is a flowing CS2 map with every player freely navigating the doors, windows, and ground. Now imagine that someone dumped about a million more players all into the same map. Nobody could push past each other to move even a single inch, let alone play the game. This is what occurs during a DDOS.
With this situation in mind, precautions can be enabled to prevent this sort of attack, or even circumvent it as it occurs. With a powerful team of server hosting infrastructure specialists such as OVHcloud, Shockbyte is able to provide the absolute best experience to every gamer around the globe. DDOS attacks can occur to communities of all sizes due to their ease of application and no game server wants to be completely taken offline, ruining any hype driven by an active community. Some bold attackers even target large-scale teams such as Jagex and Valve.
Why Game Servers Need DDOS Protection
DDOS attacks certainly aren't new and as unfortunate as it is true, they aren't stopping anytime soon. As gaming continues to rise in popularity, the relevancy of attacks on servers directly will continue to harshen. One big example of this was during 2013 when a 23 year-old hacker in Utah brought down the entire EA Origin system by use of DDOS attacks. Since it's occurrence, the perpetrator was duly punished but largely these evildoers go vastly unpunished online. It's unfortunate to admit that it is a problem that has plagued gamers for centuries and reliable server hosting infrastructure may be one of the only sustainable solutions.
The widely popular "Runescape," an online MMO beloved by generations of players, receives upwards of 400 monthly DDOS attacks due to such a widespread importance of the game to many players. This made it clearly obvious to Barry Zubel, head of IT at Jagex that DDOS protection was of utmost importance, and since it's implementation players are able to far more reliably play the game for which they subscribe, have consistent servers at all hours, as well as be largely unaffected by such widespread attacks online.
Can Gaming Servers truly prevent DDOS?
If using a reliable server hosting provider, then Yes. Gaming companies however aren't the only clients that require server hosting solutions with DDOS protection. Young entrepreneurs and content creators who are looking to establish a gaming hub for their communities to gather in the virtual space, also benefit immensely from choosing a provider with DDOS protection. Whether you're looking to start a CS2 tournament league online where every game moment is important or a simple Minecraft server for others to enjoy, hosting a server with Shockbyte guarantees top-of-the-line DDOS protection provided through OVHcloud's bare-metal expertise.
One of the biggest issues that game server hosts face is player retention, which is doubly an issue when servers experience downtime. Protecting the uptime of the server by using a professional server host rather than self-hosting allows online servers to create trust with players and initiate regular player growth. As many content creators know, the most important consideration to grow is consistency, and reliable server uptime is the most important feature for players worldwide.
Blockchain and DDOS Concerns in Gaming
Blockchain gaming, cryptocurrency, and multiplayer are a grand mixture of words that immediately make many players shutter in horror. Multiplayer servers online experience cheating in the form of in-game activities or DDOS attacks so rampantly, that more than likely millions of players are banned daily due to misconduct. Once Esports and Blockchain are involved, where real tangible money is on-the-line, many players take cheating an additional step forward, making it a priority plan to obtain their monetary payout.
As one example of this being true: throughout one Asia-Pacific CSGO Esports tournament, there were over 856 unique DDOS attacks in an attempt to disqualify gameplay and sway the outcome of matches. Unbeknownst to players however, this tournament was using DDOS-protected servers allowing players to enjoy a seamless experience, completely uninterrupted. Concerns like these are especially worrisome to Blockchain Gaming developers such as Deadrop who will want to use a reliable server infrastructure like OVHcloud as the underlying servers for multiplayer.
What Can Server Hosts do for Protection?
Initially, there was extremely limited options for server hosts in the past, especially on an individual level and who were intending to host a game server on their own. DDOS attacks can be completely overwhelming to nearly any internet infrastructure and can almost only be handled by professionals with adequate preparation and implementation involved. Anyone who has been a longtime local server host will want to consider using a game server host provider as becoming a target from these devastating attacks can leave someone in the dark for hours.
Fortunately as much as we have been speaking about specifically Shockbyte server hosting with OVHcloud's bare metal servers, players and hosts have a wide variety of game server host providers across the internet to choose from. Do be sure however that wherever you do go, the game server host of choice always provides reliable, 24/7 DDOS protection just as OVHcloud and Shockbyte, as this is of utmost importance in sustaining your community online. Having this strength as an individual host can create an unmatched gameplay experience on your server for all players involved, no matter their location or situation.
About Shockbyte
Shockbyte is a game server host for Minecraft, ARK, Rust and more.
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