ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Lag (video games)

Hello there! Lag in video games is when you press a button or move your character but it takes a little bit of time for it to happen on the screen. It's like when you tell someone to do something but they take a few seconds to do it.

This usually happens when you are playing online with other people and your internet connection is not very good. It's like when you are talking on the phone and sometimes the voice on the other end sounds like it's breaking up and you can't understand what they are saying. This is because the connection between the two phones isn't very good.

When you experience lag in video games, it can make it harder to play the game because things are not happening as quickly as you want them to. For example, if you are playing a shooting game and you shoot at an enemy but the shot takes a few seconds to register, by that time the enemy could have already moved and you might miss them.

Sometimes lag can be fixed by improving your internet connection or by playing on a server that is closer to you. But sometimes it can't be fixed and you just have to deal with it.