Players suffering from lag are often seen or see other players as figures that are on screen one minute, gone the next. This Ghosting is due to the delay in your PlayStation®2 processing information. Thankfully it's rare.
If a player suffers from lag they can flicker or vanish from the screens of other gamers. If you're playing on a broadband connection using a server with good ping you shouldn't suffer from this too much.
A ghost displaced to the left of the primary image is designated as "leading", and one displaced to the right is designated as "following" (lagging). When the tonal variations of the ghost are the same as those of the primary image, it is designated as "positive" and when the reverse condition occurs, it is designated as "negative".