Your gaming experience shouldn’t stay static forever; it should evolve. It’s the same as anything else in life; you should hope that your relationship with most things, such as your work, friends, and so forth, moves into new and more enjoyable realms. That same principle applies to gaming; if you’re too set in your ways, it’s worth looking at methods for injecting new energy into your experience.
You’ll find a bunch of those methods on this page. Incorporate the tips we outline below into your gaming life; it won’t be long before you have a more enjoyable experience.
Invest In Your Setup
The setting always influences the experience. When you go to a restaurant, the star of the show will be the food on your plate, but the decor and ambiance of the establishment play a pretty big role, too.
This same line of thinking applies to your gaming experience. There’s a big difference between playing in a dingy, dark room while sitting on an uncomfortable chair and playing in a well-designed room with the latest gaming gadgets and a top-tier gaming chair.
You’ll enjoy your games all the more when you’re playing them in an environment that you genuinely like being in. Of course, there’ll be a financial commitment to this, but if you know that you won’t be giving up gaming anytime soon, it’ll be a worthy investment.
Try A Challenging Game
It can take a while to get used to a particular game, but, after time, familiarity can take some of the challenge out of the game. You may enjoy playing, sure, but if you’ve essentially mastered the game, you won’t be testing and stretching yourself!
It’s a good idea to have a few challenging games up your sleeve, so you can step into a hard-to-master arena whenever you feel like it.
There’s no shortage of games that’ll get your critical thinking skills working overtime. You could learn how to play Texas Holdem and challenge yourself against other players worldwide using an online platform, or you could dive into a physics puzzle game like Portal (or Portal 2).
You’re unlikely to dominate any of these games — because no one does — but you’ll find there’s a lot of value in stepping up to the plate and testing your skills.
Or a New Console
If a new game doesn’t get your blood pumping, then what about a new console? Gamers have a fanatic loyalty to their chosen console (in most cases, Xbox or PlayStation), but there’s value in branching out and trying something else. And in any case: what have you got to lose? You might find that fans of the other console were onto something all along.
If you can’t face the prospect of joining the dark side (we understand), you could consider one of the smaller, non-rival consoles. You wouldn’t be turning your back on PlayStation or Xbox if you bought a Nintendo Wii or Switch. You’d just be giving yourself another way to have a lot of fun.
You may also consider firing up some of those excellent PC games; it’s a completely different experience to play on a PC rather than Xbox or PS, but an enjoyable one.
Gaming Evenings
Perhaps you broadly enjoy the games you’re playing but find that you’re not quite getting your social itch scratched anymore. Linking up with friends online can be a lot of fun, but you don’t have to discount other types of social gaming.
For instance, what about hosting a gaming night at your place? In the old days, friends would gather, order pizza, and play their favorite games late into the night. The internet has largely killed that, and that’s a shame. Don’t get us wrong: the internet has added a lot to gaming, but it’s taken some things too!
So, why not look at bringing a gaming night back for one night only? People play in their homes every night; they’ll jump at the chance to break the routine and get together in person.
Dive Into The Classics
There are plenty of excellent games coming out each year. Too many really to keep up with. It might just be the golden age of video games, after all! However, while contemporary games are all the rage, there’s a lot of value in diving into the classics from yesteryear.
We didn’t just end up with the games we have today; they’re the product of natural game development evolution. Dig into the archives, and you’ll find no shortage of extremely great games that are still enjoyable to play. Some recommendations include Final Fantasy VI, Earthworm Jim, the early GTA games, and Goldeneye.
If they’re not retro enough for you, then you could try the early arcade games. Call us crazy, but we still think Pac-Mac and Space Invaders are a lot of fun to play.
Enter a Tournament
Everyone likes to think that they’re a top-level player. But that can’t be the case for everyone. And there’s one simple way to separate the best from the rest: tournaments! If you’re looking for a level of competition that you can’t get from your friend group, look at entering a tournament, either online or in-person.
There are tournaments for pretty much every game (all the mainstream ones, anyway). But just one word of warning: you’d better be good or be ready to be destroyed in a flat second.
Create Your Own Limits
Finally, you could jazz up your gaming experience by setting self-imposed challenges. These are rules you set yourself, rather than ones set by the game.
There are some pretty comical suggestions out there. For instance, you can try the 100% complete challenge, where you just go around and collect everything there is to be collected and then some more. Or you can try to escape the police in GTA while observing all the traffic lights. Best of luck!
