I can speak with some authority about game servers, having run a GSP for 8 years. I've seen all forms of GSP's - the good, the bad and the ugly. How those hosts run their game servers dictates how successful their company is. Let's take a look at how game servers work.
Gameserver support for different operating systems is normally very good. The majority always run on Windows. CSS servers as an example happily run on Windows and Linux servers. There are however some games that only run on Windows. Most hosts will be running Windows 2003 Server it seems. There is plenty of squabbling as to which operating system is best. Purist game server providers (at least that's the best way of describing them) will cough at the thought of running gameservers on Windows, unless there is really no Linux support. Linux is indeed thought to be more stable. Linux is always thought to be better secured. You can always choose to run Wine on Linux in order to emulate Windows. Although do bear in mind that Wine isn't the real deal, i.e. Windows itself.
So why do people pay for game server providers? Surely it would make sense to run it yourself on dedicated servers? Probably if you are a legendary server admin. Let's assume you are going to manage your game servers on a Linux server. If this is the case, you are going to need to ensure the server is fully patched and secured. You will need to know what to fix when the dedicated server breaks. If not, you are going to end up paying your dedicated server provider to sort the issue for you. Of course knowing what you are doing, and not chowning the Linux operating system to another user generally helps!
A game server provider will spend all day fixing mods for you. It is the gaming community that looks after mods. Consider, they aren't being developed in software houses, and with that they come with bugs. Every time there is a big update for Team Fortress 2 Servers for example expect all your mods to break. You then have to wait for the mod makers to release a patch. You can expect no end of grief when your game servers are down.
Game servers take care of all of the above! They host the dedicated servers, they keep them patched, and they deal with the inevitable problems when everything breaks! Given how cheap game servers are these days, you may as well pay a provider anyway. Happy gaming!
Gameserver support for different operating systems is normally very good. The majority always run on Windows. CSS servers as an example happily run on Windows and Linux servers. There are however some games that only run on Windows. Most hosts will be running Windows 2003 Server it seems. There is plenty of squabbling as to which operating system is best. Purist game server providers (at least that's the best way of describing them) will cough at the thought of running gameservers on Windows, unless there is really no Linux support. Linux is indeed thought to be more stable. Linux is always thought to be better secured. You can always choose to run Wine on Linux in order to emulate Windows. Although do bear in mind that Wine isn't the real deal, i.e. Windows itself.
So why do people pay for game server providers? Surely it would make sense to run it yourself on dedicated servers? Probably if you are a legendary server admin. Let's assume you are going to manage your game servers on a Linux server. If this is the case, you are going to need to ensure the server is fully patched and secured. You will need to know what to fix when the dedicated server breaks. If not, you are going to end up paying your dedicated server provider to sort the issue for you. Of course knowing what you are doing, and not chowning the Linux operating system to another user generally helps!
A game server provider will spend all day fixing mods for you. It is the gaming community that looks after mods. Consider, they aren't being developed in software houses, and with that they come with bugs. Every time there is a big update for Team Fortress 2 Servers for example expect all your mods to break. You then have to wait for the mod makers to release a patch. You can expect no end of grief when your game servers are down.
Game servers take care of all of the above! They host the dedicated servers, they keep them patched, and they deal with the inevitable problems when everything breaks! Given how cheap game servers are these days, you may as well pay a provider anyway. Happy gaming!
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