Tag: EA-Unite

Gaming can be one of the most fun ways to spend your time, from playing big missions with your mates to taking on final bosses solo. But sometimes a game can be a bit too tricky and you feel like you can’t get past that super hard level. To help you out, we’ve come up with 5 top tips to up your gaming mindset. 

Be prepared and plan ahead

There are many times you just want to casually play a game for a few hours just to relax and find some escapism from life. But there are other times when you crave a serious challenge for yourself. If you want to grind away at a game or achievement alone or with friends, you need to be a bit more prepared than just jumping straight into it.

Maybe you’ve not played in a while, or it’s a brand new game that you need to learn about. First things first, you need to start spending time learning about it or what has changed since you last saw it. 

The game could have changed drastically and suddenly jumping in and seeing instant failure will only lead to you feeling disappointed. So spend some time watching some YouTubers, read some blog posts, scroll through TikTok clips and catch up on what you need to know.

Be critical of yourself

One of the best ways to learn and improve is to spend time critically reviewing how you performed. Elite athletes and players in all sports do this – so why not do the same and review your matches?

You can record your screen on any PC, and most consoles nowadays let you playback footage, so it’s relatively easy to do. 

Find patterns in your mistakes and trends in the best moments, you’ll learn how to  get better but also become better at spotting what makes a professional player better

Take care of yourself

In order to be at your best when playing a game, you need to look after yourself.Make sure both your physical and mental health are as good as they can be, because a healthy person is a healthy gamer, and a healthy gamer is a better gamer.

This includes meditation and breathing exercises in order to keep your brain as clear as possible.

Make sure you get outside and see the sunlight too, without any light, you’ll struggle to sleep at night and that in turn will slow down your reflexes and decision making skills.

Dehydration also plays a part in your hand-eye coordination and decision making speed, so make sure you are drinking enough water every day!

If you find yourself struggling, join our community below.

Positive mindset

Positivity comes with it’s own health benefits, but did you know that it can also increase your ability to cope with stress? If you’re stuck on a particular stage or tackling that hard to beat boss – odds are changing your mindset can help you get through it.

According to this research article having a positive mindset can make you 50% more motivated and productive. Imagine, just by changing your mindset you can level up your skills to progress through the game! Not only this, but positive thinkers have a better resilience when things get tough – meaning you’re more likely to stick to those hard to beat challenges. 

A positive mindset can help you see the bigger picture in stressful situations, and not sweat the small stuff. This is so important for enjoying your game and it’s proven that positive emotions broaden your sense of possibility and open your mind up to more options. 

So take a breath, think happy thoughts and tackle that final boss!

Remember to have fun

In the end, our interests and hobbies are about enjoying our time, challenging ourselves and being social. If you are finding playing a game is negatively impacting you, then stop for a moment, take a step back and have a break. You can always come back to it later and we promise you’ll enjoy it much more.

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We all enjoy a good gaming session late into the night, trying to complete a level, raid a dungeon or rank up in a MOBA. But spending your time gaming instead of other aspects of life could make you struggle to spend time on the more ‘boring’ things like chores and tidying, Whilst also overlooking friendships and ignoring your body and mental health.

There is no reason that you can’t combine gaming with healthier habits. So let’s take a look at seven of the best ways you can find a good balance between gaming and a healthy life.

1) Set time limits

You can completely lose yourself in a game, don’t worry…we’ve been there too (The Sims is just too addicting sometimes!)

In order to develop better boundaries with the time you spend on a game, you should try to become more aware of how long some games can last by researching or making a quick post-it note of it on your desk or laptop. Use your phone to set a timer if you are struggling with playing past the time limit you (or your parents) have set.

Or when you need to focus on other things (like homework, exam revision or chores), choose to play games that can be easily paused. While we know that some games can’t be paused (games like Apex Legends, Valorant and Rocket League), there are others that you can easily pick up, play and put down whenever suits you (games like Stardew Valley, The Sims, Pokemon and Planet Coaster come to mind).

2) Schedule your time

When things are getting busy or you are in the middle of exam season, you may want to start planning your time with a schedule. This could be using the good ol’ fashioned pen and paper, or using an app on your phone.

By being aware of when new games are releasing, you could schedule time in advance of the release date and make sure no plans crossover with you playing the new video game.

In the short term, there is a time management technique called the Pomodoro Technique. This was developed in the 1980s as a way to schedule your time. It consists of breaking your time into 25 minutes in length, separated by 5 minute short breaks. Hey, you could use that for studying too!

3) Play with other people

Sometimes, playing with friends will help you develop better time management as one or more of them will stop playing at an appropriate time. But, this does depend on relying on friends who are good with this sort of thing, as it could be harder to switch off the game if everyone is staying up and still playing!

If your parents are telling you that you are spending too much time playing video games, you could invite them to play with you? Not only would this be a nice experience for you both – but it may help them understand how these games work better, and the best time to step away from them.

4) Set boundaries

If you are finding yourself always playing games and ignoring other important things in your life, maybe you should start setting boundaries, or ask a parent, guardian or close friend to help you do this.

Some people you ask may reply with advice that feels drastic, but you know yourself better than anyone, so do what works best for you.

The key word here throughout this whole article is finding the right balance for you. Balance time with your family and loved ones, time you need for work/school and time you need for yourself. 

And very importantly….

5) Don’t forget to sleep!

One of the most important things in keeping yourself happy, healthy and enjoying yourself is to get a good night’s sleep. While we’ve written about this before, maintaining a good sleep schedule is one of the best ways to look after yourself.

It’s also good to remember that looking at a screen right before bed can affect your brain cycle, keeping you awake for longer and ruining the quality of your sleep. It is recommended that you turn off any screens 1 to 2 hours before going to bed. Although using apps like F.lux or the features on your mobile phones that dim or adjust the screen light after sunset can help this.

But why is sleep so important? The NHS says that one in three suffers from poor sleep. That may not seem like too much of a big deal, but not sleeping enough can lead to:

• Poor memory
• Lack of concentration
• Ongoing anxiety

Let’s be honest, you need your body and mind to be at their best in order to enjoy and succeed at the games you want to play.

6) Do things other than gaming

It sounds obvious and cliche, but too much of one thing is never good. You can easily get bored of something you enjoy when you do it all the time because it starts to feel repetitive.

Gaming burnout is a real thing. Gaming should be fun, not a chore you feel like you have to do because it’s made you happy in the past. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a break. So, take a break, chase other hobbies and play games again when you feel inspired to.

Make sure you plan to spend time socialising with your friends and family away from a screen. We promise it’ll be good for you and you’ll enjoy your time gaming just as much when you go back to it.

Looking for ways to chill out away from your keyboard or controller? Here are 101 different ways to relax.

7) Play for fun

Some of you may want to become professional esport players in the future, or you just want to be better than your mates at Call of Duty, gaming can become a serious business. While watching the best tips and tricks and the current meta is time well spent because it is something you are interested in, sometimes it’s nice to play games just for fun rather than needing to always get better!

It’s all about finding a good balance between taking it seriously and try-hard, while also enjoying yourself. Most importantly, if it stops being fun, then stop playing it for a bit. You’ll re-find the love of the game after a break.

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These are just some of the ways to balance your time better between gaming and ‘real-life’. Do you have any other suggestions? Let us know on our anonymous community’s gaming section here.

Have you ever been playing an online game and had no idea what everyone was talking about? If yes, this may be of use to you. If not… hopefully, this helps anyway. Here is some common gaming terminology to help you understand what everyone is saying.

Common terms

So to get you started on this, here are a few common phrases that will help you understand what everyone is trying to say:

Achievement – when a player completes specific tasks the game will reward them with an achievement trophy

Easter egg – A secret hidden within a game by developers.

Triple-A or AAA – When a game is described as “AAA” it means it has a high budget and created by a major studio

Noob – To be called a noob means that you have the gaming skill of a new player (it’s an insult)

Clan – A clan is a group of gamers together in a game. Just think of it as an online gang

Spawn – The starting point for a character

Nerf – The deliberate weakening of a character, weapon or tool so it is balanced with other characters, weapons and tools

Hacker – A player that has broken into the game and changed or manipulated it

Griefer – somebody that deliberately trolls or harasses other players

Skin – It can be a different character design, or a different colour item or piece of clothing (typically these are earned by playing the game a lot or paying with a micro-transaction)

Open Beta – A pre-release version of a game that is opened to users to play before it is released to test features and functionality

Open-world – When a game has a huge map to explore and storylines’ narratives are designed to be non-linear

Bug – A broken part of a game

RP – Role-playing inside a game. Sometimes it doesn’t need to be a role-playing game, but people will play it as one nonetheless

Killstreak – when multiple kills are made during one life in the game

Sweaty – trying really hard at the game

Camper – a player hiding in the same location to try and sneak up or surprise people

Microtransaction/s – downloadable content that people pay for using a small amount of money

Ragequit – somebody who quits the game mid-way through due to frustration or anger

Mod – a modification to the original game, sometimes can be a fully-fledged version of the game. Some mods have become full-games in themselves.

Lag – a slow internet moment that can ruin the game

Buff – a positive change to a weapon, character or tool

Salty – Being upset or bitter

Grind – To constantly put in effort at getting better at a game, to unlock an achievement or item

Sus – short for “suspicious”

Dub or ‘w’ – A win

Jebaited – to be exposed

Pog – used as a variation on ‘wow’

Bot – an AI-controlled character in a game

Smurf – An experienced player creates a new account to play against lower skilled players

Rez – to resurrect a fallen or dead player in a game

Kappa – a word indicating sacarsm

Aggro – A player or character in game is getting aggressive at you

Drops – a unlockable item which contains rare items or achievements

Cheese – A way for players to win a game that developers did not foresee

Alpha, Bravo or Charlie – Flags A, B or C

Feeder – somebody who is dying repeatedly (either intentionally or not)

Rekt – Usually used when someone has out-played another player

I know, I know, this is basically like learning a new language. We’ll do one more. Sound good? Here are a few common words you can use to communicate with your gaming friends.

Abbreviations

These are quite popular in games as it makes ordinarily long sentences easier to type.cou

AFK – Away From Keyboard

NPC – Non-Playable Character

IRL – In Real Life

GG – Good Game

FPS – First Person Shooter

MOBA – Multiplayer online battle arena

MMO – Massively Multiplayer Online

RPG – Role-playing game

BR – Battle Royale

F2P – Free to play

PTW – Play to win

OP – Over-Powered

WP – Well played

XP – Experience Points

GLHF – Good luck, have fun

DLC – Downloadable Content

PVP – Player vs player

PVE – Player vs environment

NP – No problem

AD – Attack damage

HP – health points

FTW – “for the win”

PK – Player killer

EZ – ‘easy’

KD – Kill death ratio

DC – Disconnected from the game

OTW – On the way

Lb+Y – Used in FIFA to Lb+y or LbY is to play a through ball over the top of the defence.

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Hopefully, you’ve learned something from this and can now understand what everyone’s talking about or at least have a better understanding of some of this language.

Like it? Feel free to tell us in our community. For more gaming related articles written, check out our gaming hub here: