Are Dark Souls 2 player ghosts realtime?

Are Dark Souls 2 player ghosts (the ghosts you encounter in bonfires and the ghosts you encounter while running around in the world) realtime, or are they just recorded actions of other players online and merely playbacks?

(Nobody ever warcries back to me...)

The ghosts are in fact real time, look at this video for evidence of this. I have also been able to communicate through the emotes with a ghost before (or maybe it was just a freaky coincidence)

Note This is Dark Souls 1 but like the other people have stated I don't see why they would change things.

I have waved and been waved back at by a ghost in DS2. I've also had one running around in me in circles whilst I was running down a bridge. which was weird.