The best hobbies are the ones that constantly provide room for personal growth. Video games arguably facilitate this very sentiment.

The consensus around video games is ever evolving. In 2020, reports surfaced that playing video games actually carried a lot of noteworthy benefits, nurturing creative appetites, reading habits (from text provided in-game), and even developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills. To enhance any one of these skills through your own play would be a fine thing.

A casual gamer may only get a handful of hours to game before returning to the real world, and that’s absolutely fine also. However, elevating your play in meaningful ways can only be achieved if you approach things the right way.

Below you’ll find some suggestions that’ll help you take your gaming hobby to the next level.

Acquire the correct equipment

A craftsman is nothing without his or her tools, and the absolute best gamers live by a similar code.

Many enthusiasts will invest their hard-earned money in all top tier gaming equipment. They may buy any of the following:

• Custom built PCs: Ensures the player can run the latest games without any lag or laborious loading times.
• Gaming chairs: Optimise comfort and support good posture after playing for hours on end.
• Quality headsets: Facilitating crystal clear communication between the player and their friends. Mute switches are built in, which mean games don’t need to be minimised nor settings scrolled through.
• Gaming mice and keyboards: An upgrade from their original counterparts, these additions will feature extra buttons, and may even glow to improve the visibility of each button.

These will all elevate your play considerably, helping you to remain comfortable and focused as the hours of your play wrack up. However, before investing in any of these, you’ll need to invest in the foundation of any quality gaming setup: the gaming desk.

Companies like Bedkingdom offer an affordable range of their own versatile gaming desks, so click here if you’d like to browse through them for something you’d like. They’re available in a variety of styles and sizes to fit your room perfectly, capping off your gaming room arrangements flawlessly. After you’ve bought one, all your other gaming equipment will have a proper place upon or near it, as the latter would be the case with the gaming chair.

Broaden your intellectual scope

Gaming isn’t just a pastime; it’s also a cultural movement. This means there’s much to learn if you want to game properly.

There are many figures and faces driving the industry in new directions. From game directors and their developers to players and their legions of fans, there is a constant dialogue surrounding titles old and new. Diving deep into them all will no doubt enrich your experience and enhance your play.

Many of the big names earn hefty salaries, spearheading an industry that is larger than film, television, and music combined, so the word of the industry’s respective titans are clearly worth a great deal both figuratively and literally. There is now a literature in gaming, where before it was a rather solitary and insular form of entertainment.

Gameplay strategies, cheat codes, player etiquettes, customising accessibility settings and more, it all needs to be learned to varying degrees of depth to refine your gameplay. Video games are constantly becoming more dynamic, and only by broadening your intellectual scope can you hope to keep up with all the innovations that’re constantly reinventing the industry.

Additionally, BBC News reported late last year that Staffordshire University had begun offering courses in e-sports, providing essential business-orientated skills in organising video game tournaments of every variety while fine tuning skills in production and events management. If video games are your passion, you could become more than ‘just a gamer’ – you could become a businessperson. What better way is there to take things to the next level?

Paid to play

Of course, you do not need to work behind the scenes exclusively to make some money where gaming is concerned.

For example, there are apps out there that will pay you to trial their games, as well as for the completion of other tasks too. Your participation would be greatly appreciated amongst many developers looking to take their art for a test drive, so it might be that you can sign up for these kinds of arrangements and offer your time and talents.

Of course, there is the influencer route to consider also. It’s no secret that many high-profile streamers got their starts on sites such as YouTube and Twitch. Adopt a funny and memorable username, a killer animated intro, and a fun-filled persona to really make a statement. Be sure to accept some sponsorship deals or viewer tips if they’re lucky enough to come your way too; that’s how these famous gamers make their money!

If nothing else, your play may at least improve if you know there’s an audience watching, even if it’s just a handful of people. Test the waters, and who knows what level of success will await you?