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On-line gaming is now an established way of entertainment, both for teenagers and for adults. First Person Shooter (FPS) multiplayer games like Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Quake Arena and the freely distributed Enemy Territory is the most popular type of on-line games.

What makes this type of gaming so appealing is the excitement of knowing that there are people located on the other side of the globe playing with you, competing with you, interacting with you. Despite popular misbelieve, FPS games are not just for teenagers but are also targeted towards adults who find in these games an escape from daily routine.

Thousands of players connect to public game servers everyday to practice their favourite games and meet on-line to form groups and communities. Others chose to rent their own game server and personalize it thus taking control over their whole gaming experience.

What do you need to play these games?
First of all you need to have the game installed on your computer. For the great majority of games (e.g. Counter-Strike, Half Life, Quake Arena) you will simply need to buy them. One of the few, if not the only exception, is Enemy Territory, which is free and you can easily download from the web.

The other requirement is a game server, i.e. a server that will host the actual game. In simple words, the server is a very powerful computer with great/super fast internet connection which runs the game and where players connect to play. There are thousands of such game servers located around the world.

Clans
If you’ve been playing any of the abovementioned games long enough then you will probably know that players tend to form clans. According to Wikipedia a clan is “…is a group of players who regularly play together in a particular (or various different) multiplayer games. These range from groups of a few friends to 1000-person organizations, with a broad range of structures, goals and members.”Simply put, a clan is an organized group of like-minded players who enjoy playing the game together. Sometimes, these groups have gaming standards in order to accept a new member in their clan. In other words, they won’t accept someone who is “not good enough” in the specific game. Other times, the standard is one of good conduct and sportsmanship rather than gaming performance.

Hosting Vs. Renting a game server
When clans have reached critical mass i.e. a sufficient number of members, they’ll usually seek to establish their own “home.” Websites are a great medium to foster a community of players but at some point in time clans start looking for their own game server to play on. There are two solutions to this: you can either host your own game server or you can rent a game server from a provider.Hosting will allow you full game server control but it’s not the easiest thing to do: you’ll need to worry about dedicated bandwidth, dedicated server, supporting the actual server machine, maintaining and upgrading the game it self etc.

The easiest way to go for a clan is to rent a game server. No need to know a lot of stuff although it requires some time to learn your whereabouts. Your game server provider will install, upgrade and maintain everything required to run your favourite game. You’ll have support and help through a webpage and most game server providers have forums for their users to exchange ideas.

Read this to help you chose a game server provider