how it is possible that computers are so fast that dozens of people from across the world can play video games together simultaneously?

Question

I’ve been thinking about this lately. I guess it just doesn’t make sense to me that 40 years ago we were barely able to move pixels across a screen and now there are games where even hundreds of people can play games like first person shooters on servers simultaneously where reactions down to the millisecond commonly decide the outcome of a game. How can we match the inputs of everyone and have them appear on someone else’s screen? Is it simply that information travels at the speed of light and we are really good at organizing it?

In: 20

Answer 1

Anyone who autofragged themselves with a rail gun in Quake 2 in 1998 because their ping was over 250 and it would freeze for 5 seconds then teleport you ahead of the slug you just fired put your hands in the air and say AYYYY-OHHH!