Yes you can, I used to use one as it altered the routing to the server & bypassed a problematic node in France that at the time was having severe issues routing traffic from a lot of the UK where I live. I have also used VPN to really lower ping/flutter problems I had with my former ISP. The thing you have to be very wary of is if you use a VPN you must stick to the VPN consistently, if you swap back & forth from a VPN to no VPN frequently you will get your account flagged & you may risk a suspension or ban as a result & this can happen for many online games. This is especially problematic if the IP address of the VPN is in a very different locaility to your own. Also if you are going to use a VPN make sure it is a very good quality one, this almost universally means one of the paid ones & of those one of the pricier ones, never use Proxy servers, there are so many problems with Proxy servers you could write novels about it so I won't get into details here, and I will warn that many *free VPN* are not actually VPN at all just proxy servers so you gotta do your homework. The paid VPN I used had a client that you installed on your PC, as do most. Some allow you to select specific programs that always use the VPN, some will route ALL of your traffic through the VPN & you either have it on or off - so how to use any of them largely depends on which you are using & how it has been configured either by the VPN provider or by the user so always read the instructions for the specific VPN product.
VPN are not synonymous with nefarious. Using a VPN tho, may introduce added/increased ping times. I work from home and use VPN to log in remotely, any VPN worth using will be a paid/subscription one. stay away from "free". I would advise you to become familiar with VPN's and the various entities that provide the best service, Google and read. tbh, I dont really see any need to play using a VPN, the one time I did not disconnect from my VPN and played EQ, I noticed my pings were slightly higher and realized I forgot i was still logged into my service. for work, banking and buying things online, sure. for gaming? no.If you need to "get around" some firewall or IT blocked by the Admin where you connect... well not gonna help you with that.
Recently I've heard from players who use a VPN in Europe to fix lag problems. I'm used to thinking of VPNs as secure tunnels, but apparently they're now also used as a sort of remote access method, sometimes to bypass routing issues, other times (think traveling businessman) to access services that they've paid for but which are region restricted.
