“online shooters are the best examples for latency, because they’re the most impacted by it” Let’s get this out of the way up front. What you call ‘ping’ is actually called ‘latency.’ It’s a common vernacular mistake in gaming circles but, in fairness, the terms are actually linked. In simplest terms, ping is the test, and latency is the result. Whether you erroneously call it ‘ping’ or you properly call it ‘latency’, ultimately, matters very little, because that distinction doesn’t help you to ensure the value stays as low as possible.
For games that still include latency as numerical values (thanks, devs!) and not coloured bars – or, worse, nothing at all – the number is indicative of the time, in milliseconds, it takes for data to be sent from…