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4 Easy Rules For College Bound Switch Gamers
In the pursuit of a perfect 4.0 GPA, your return to campus guarantees a few things in your near future. An ordinary weekday morning starts before your 8 a.m. class, you’ll spend most of your time in the library, and you’ll be guzzling energy drinks to keep up with your punishing all-nighters. But no one can exist on caffeine alone. If you know anything about success on campus, it’s as much about how you unwind as how often you study. Sometimes, you need to blow off some steam to let all your reading sink in, and there’s no better way to forget your scholastic worries than by tooling around in an RPG.
Gaming is an essential part of a balanced lifestyle on campus, but it’s not always an easy hobby to keep up in your dorm. To make sure you curate the best gaming experience at school, here’s a list of four simple tricks that will help college gamers get the most out of their downtime.
1. Modify your gaming for your space
Your 130-square-foot school appointed dorm room can feel more like a prison cell than a place to call home, yet that’s exactly what is for the next academic year. If you expect to stay sane through the upcoming semesters, you’re going to have to get used to living in such a small space, surrounded by so many people. As exciting as it can be to branch out on your own, there’s an adjustment period to leaving behind the perks of your parents’ basement. In place of their Laz-E-Boy in full recline and playing on a 50-inch HD 4K TV, you’re going to have to learn how to set up your rig.
If you’re planning on using your desk as a TV or gaming monitor stand, you should consider adding organizational accessories to your setup. A monitor stand organizer will lift your screen, so you can still use your desk as a writing surface. There are modest designs that do nothing but act as a riser, or you can find models with integrated storage to help keep your console, games, and controllers tidy.
2. Sort out your connections
Next to space, the single most important part of your gaming experience is your Internet connection. Without it, you couldn’t log into MMOs or take advantages of your console’s media apps like Netflix or Hulu.
Most universities and colleges wire Internet into each dorm room, but it’s lightyears away from the 5G speeds coming soon. Glitches, shoddy connections, and even time-outs are just a normal part of the college experience as thousands of people log on at the same time.
You can eliminate some of the frustration of sharing your Internet with the entire campus by playing during off-peak hours. If there’s no such thing at your college, you may want to consider making your own hotspot with your phone. Most cell phone providers offer a mobile hotspot program at an added cost to your regular bill. Weigh the pros and cons of paying for this service. To keep costs low, you could ask if your roommate would want to split the bill.
3. Be a social gamer
You can’t always be saving the princess or exploring Hyrule on your own. The same goes for playing MMOs with people from all over the world; though technically multiplayer, these games are just as isolating as single player games like Breath of the Wild. If you expect to make friends IRL while you earn your degree, you’re going to have to temper your reclusive gaming habits with your social gamer persona.
Nobody wants to be friends with the anti-social guy who hides away in his room 24/7, no matter how good your stats are. If you want to avoid the reputation as gamer hermit, you’ll have to put your solo campaigns on pause occasionally and talk to people on your floor. There’s s huge chance you share a floor with a ton of other gamers, so take off your Turtle Beach headphones and invite them in.
4. Protect your stuffspan>
Your favorite Mario Kart character says a lot about you as a person. Whether you can clinch Yoshi, Luigi, or Toad for the race depends on how quick you can toggle to their profile, which can get tricky when you challenge the floor to a race.
Since everyone on planet Earth has a favorite Mario Kart character, your Switch is the ideal console to make new friends. Naturally, sounds of the Rainbow Road will attract nearby Switch players — all of whom will bring their own controller. In the excitement of another cup, it’s easy to swap out controllers. While there’s nothing wrong with this communal style of gaming, you do run the risk of someone taking your Pro controller home. This isn’t a problem unless the one left behind sports a few scratches or dents.
To make sure someone doesn’t accidentally go home with your Pro controller, you should try out a Switch skin. Companies like dbrand understand things can get a little chaotic during a game night, so they’ve designed unique decals that make it easy to spot your controller through the crowd. You can protect and customize your Nintendo Switch cocontroller in carbon fiber, black camo, and vibrant jewel tones that look nothing like the original Switch colors. Every racer and spectator will know which Pro controller yours is, so you’ll never be stuck with the worst controller left behind.
In an indirect way, your time at the controller has an impact on your grades. When you use your hobby to de-stress and recharge, it can help you stay focused on your GPA, so it’s worth putting in some effort into your set up and habits. How you curate the best college gaming experience is up to you, but this list of four tips is a great start. Let us know if you have any tried-and-true tricks up your own sleeve and share them with the class. They could help your fellow gamer unwind between classes.