Why Video Game Server Hosting Is the Key to Online Multiplayer Games

Get Into Multiplayer Gaming – Shockbyte James Zinn

Gaming has changed tremendously over the last decade, and the multiplayer component has completely reshaped the direction of gaming as a whole. One of the world’s favorite multiplayer titles, Minecraft, was released in 2011, and it continues to be a global phenomenon. While single-player games such as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (also released in 2011) has gone down in gaming history, it’s multiplayer games that foster online communities, create young entrepreneurs, and inspire real-world movements.

The amount of money being spent each year on gaming is astronomical and continues to grow as even more generations are adopted into this gaming-dominated world. Omdia predicted that in 2022, consumers would spend over $179 billion on gaming, making it one of the biggest entertainment industries on the planet. This massive spending extends directly into one of the biggest markets within gaming itself: the multiplayer gaming sector. In 2022 alone, ten billion dollars in tech-related spending from gaming companies was solely for multiplayer services.

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) in Gaming

It would be an understatement to say that online multiplayer gaming is a hard thing to accomplish. Even some of the biggest global players in online gaming suffer from rampant cheating, DDoS attacks, or simply ineffective online capabilities. Online shooters are an extremely relevant culprit of cheating, requiring heavy plugins and consideration to keep the playing space fair. Fortnite, for example, has Easy Anti-Cheat, while Riot's Valorant employs Riot Vanguard to monitor cheating. Both anti-cheat software are a drain on hardware resources, however. Using these plugins is how many beginner server hosts monitor their personal gaming servers, but they can require more RAM usage and stronger hardware.

In the online sphere, gamers are also at risk of DDoS attacks from harmful external sources. These are usually motivated attacks, and many unprepared companies have become targets in eSports situations where large cash rewards are at stake. Unfortunately, while many companies, such as Jagex, had to face tough situations after servers were completely taken offline due to rampant DDoS-ing, we also don’t have the luxury of being able to ignore its existence in modern gaming. We still require using a strong server host with DDoS protection to ensure server reliability.

Video Game Server Hosting For Communities

This same DDoS protection is important at every level of the gaming community, whether it be a AAA gaming title or a college-based competitive online eSports scene. Fortunately, OVHcloud provides server hosting, well suited for gamers of any level, better ensuring complete gaming integrity at any event. The biggest benefit to working closely with OVHcloud for gaming content creators is allowing us to work hand in hand with them and tailor to their needs through the Shockbyte panel, while providing a seamless, reliable experience for gamers.

One of Shockbyte’s partners, NurseVO, has been creating content since 2016, and while they have always been gaining traction, their Project Zomboid videos exploded in 2021-2022. NurseVO went from eight thousand subscribers to 200,000 in less than a year. And while partnered with Shockbyte, they had to expand the size of their servers to accommodate this growth. The ability to work with Shockbyte and OVHcloud to accommodate growth is extremely important for upcoming gaming communities. Nurse has even grander plans for the future, and Shockbyte is monitoring its community closely to ensure the best gaming experience possible.

Gaming Entrepreneurship of Servers

Online communities in gaming allow complete flexibility for creators to customize the experience for gamers. While it may help to have a successful YouTube channel to draw an audience to your Minecraft server or another form of online presence to draw attention to your Rust server, it’s never required for a multitude of reasons. Anyone can create a gaming empire online by starting a server and inviting others to play. As long as you bring something unique to the table, and the experience is reliable, fun and continually brings players, you can become a gaming entrepreneur yourself.

Hypixel, the biggest Minecraft server of all time, has broken several Guinness World Records, including the “Most Popular Independent Server for a Video Game.” This is something that anyone can achieve with a host like Shockbyte and the complete flexibility to customize your server that OVHcloud provides. Hypixel started as two guys, Simon "Hypixel" Collins-Laflamme and Philippe Touchette, simply making Minecraft maps together to play online. With an infinitely powerful outlet like Minecraft gaming servers, the opportunities are endless!

The Importance of Reliable Servers and Blockchain Gaming

Making money and being an entrepreneur while gaming almost sounds too good to be true. Especially with younger generations, depending on the crowd, rather than playing football, kids may aspire to play video games as a profession. While becoming a full-time gaming icon sounds more difficult than achieving celebrity status in the usual entertainment industries, there are plenty of ways to earn a living in the gaming sector. With the rise of cryptocurrency, game developers have been eager to adopt blockchain technology as a core element of their gameplay.

Dr. Disrespect, one of the biggest content creators of all time and originally one of the biggest content creators on Twitch, has now moved to YouTube with over four million subscribers. He has joined in collaboration with Midnight Society, a startup gaming development company, to create one of the most ambitious blockchain games of all time. This multiplayer game mixes elements of everything established to date, requiring servers with constant flexibility to upscale based on player count. The game has massive hype around it and will explode in players as the floodgates open on day one of release. The importance of DDoS protection couldn’t be more relevant than with games like these, as real money is at risk with players competing for items in blockchain gaming. Additionally, this will lead to players becoming dominant entrepreneurs based solely on this game alone, buying and selling in-game items over online markets, which could lead to further community servers or expansion.

(Image credit: Midnight Society / Deadrop)

Why You Should Trust Server Hosting

A lot of stigma is attached to server hosting, especially in the gaming industry. The fears come from an area lacking understanding of the whole situation. It sounds scary to own something that isn’t anywhere close to you physically. Even individuals who own cryptocurrency may be hesitant due to a lack of knowledge.

Using a server host for gaming, such as Shockbyte, makes it easy to establish a gaming community and upscale any operation you devise, and makes it easy to maintain it through OVHcloud’s powerful server hosting infrastructure.

Interested in learning more about game server hosting? Check out our partner Shockbyte's insightful blog on why everyone should get into multiplayer gaming.

The following was written by Shockbyte PTY. The claims, opinions, and views expressed below are those of Shockbyte and do not necessarily reflect those of OVHcloud US.