In networked realtime multiplayer games you will never see the exact state the game world currently is in, but you will see a very close (based on your latency)

In networked realtime multiplayer games you will never see the exact state the game world currently is in, but you will see a very close (based on your latency) approximation of it. In reality, between the network packets you recieve you use alot of tricks like client side prediction and interpolation/extrapolation to make a very good guess at the current state of the game world. If your latency and that of the other players is reasonable you dont feel the very minor corrections taking place all the time. Getting this right from an engineering point of view is easier said than done though :)