For most of us becoming a professional gamer will remain nothing but a dream, but for those who dare to throw their everything at it, there’s a slim chance that it might just become a reality. For others, keeping gaming as a hobby is really important. It’s a time to kick back, relax and have fun with friends. Everyone is entitled to their own aspirations for their gaming hobby, but if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that we’d like to get just a little better at it. Whether you want to rise to eSports fame, or just beat one of your mates, we’ve rounded up some helpful tips that will help you squeeze the very maximum out of your natural gaming abilities. So, if you’re ready to put the hours in, let’s get down to it.
Notice Your Flaws and Address Them
The first step in any kind of self-improvement is to recognize your flaws. Everyone has weak points, it makes us human. However, the best way to get better is to work at the things you’re the worst at first. It could be that you have lightning-fast reaction times, but your aim lets you down, it could be the inverse. Spend a few hours being honest with yourself and critiquing your performance. If it helps you then you can video your gameplay and watch it back. Some people find that this helps to create a bit of distance between the critique and their performance, making it more like spotting the flaws in someone else’s gameplay, which is often easier. Sometimes you’ll miss a shot, overshoot a bend, or react too late and that’s totally normal, only pay attention to the mistakes that crop up the most frequently. Once you’ve identified your flaws, you’ll know exactly what you need to work on to achieve the best results.
Improve Your Core Gaming Skills
Now that you know your weaknesses, break them down into core skills that can be trained. For a lot of video games, reaction time, aim, precision, timing and hand-eye coordination. Whilst it’s possible to spend hours and hours on your game of choice and not really make a great deal of difference to any of these skills, if you train them individually then you’ll really notice a change. If you’re struggling with your reaction time, then make space in your day for 3 blocks of 5 minutes each to use a reaction tester. Do this for a week, or even two, alongside your normal gaming. We guarantee that by the end of a fortnight you’ll notice that your reactions are a great deal sharper. The same applies to any of these core skills, make regular, small blocks of time to work each skill that needs attention and the results will speak for themselves.
Benefit Your Bottom Line
If you’re the kind of gamer that enjoys all that the casino has to offer, then the chances are you’ll be looking to improve one thing only, your bottom line. Although it’s not exactly going to improve your skills at online slots, using free spins bonuses whenever you can find them should help to improve your win to loss costs. Free spins don’t cost you a penny, but you can still win money on them. It’s not a particularly clever hack, but it is a very effective one. Deposit bonuses can be used on any game, so they’re also good to look out for. Whether you want to increase the time you can play per spend, or improve your win to loss ratio, these sorts of bonuses can provide a good workaround.
Set Timely and Quantifiable Goals
If you’ve followed all of the steps so far then you should be starting to see a genuine improvement in your gaming performance. If don’t think you are, then that could be because you haven’t been setting sensible goals. In some senses your gaming prowess is subjective. What you might think is a poor game for you, could actually be an improvement in terms of the numbers. When you’re looking to improve at something you need to find a way to quantify your efforts. An example of a goal that might not be so great could be to beat your friend in a car racing game. Depending on how well your friend plays that day, you might end up having a personal best on that track, but still losing. Instead of this, set a quantifiable goal, such as ‘I want to take two seconds off my track record’. This kind of goal is the sort you should be setting, as you will know immediately whether you achieved it or not. Always look for numbers that you can aim for, the maths never lies! Some people also thrive when under pressure. If you know that you’re one of them then introduce an element of timeliness to your goals. In this case, you could aim to take two seconds off the track record by the end of the month. As the end of the month approaches, you’ll be more motivated than ever to train those core skills and reach your target.
Use Others To Boost You Up
One of the best things about video gaming is that it brings people together. Whether you play with friends from real life, or people you met online, the community element of video gaming shouldn’t be underestimated as a way to improve. Some games allow you to trade in-game currencies and items and you should make the most of these features. Some players seem to have a real knack for getting their hands on rare items, so trade wisely and you could see your game improve hugely. In other games, you might work as part of a team to achieve the same goal. These games are often played unprepared by groups of friends, but you can really improve your performance by strategizing a little beforehand. In professional eSports teams, a huge amount of time goes into building a game plan, so there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t be doing the same. Although strategy talks might not sound very exciting, they’re a great excuse to get together with friends. See them as a social occasion rather than as work and before long you’ll be wanting them all the time.
