Games can go for a long time. Ah, ok. Games can go on for a long, long, long time. Lets face it, right now, there is a game you could be playing, but as odd as it seems, sometimes games go on so long that you have to take a break. That's why we've made a game breakroom after all! In this post we'll discuss what you can do to survive a long video game session. I mean, we've heard all the urban myths about kids dying after drinking 2 cases of energy drinks and not even getting up to hit the head. No one's really sure if that story is true or not, but neither does anyone want to test it!
Okay, so here we go.
1) Let Darkness Reign
First of all, you've got to cover windows up with blankets. You are just not going to be able to make it through the day with light streaming through. Reflections on the screen are bad and a huge concentration breaker. Also, you'd be surprised how much a good blanket over the window will muffle unwanted outdoor noises.
2) Mini-fridge
You need a mini-fridge within the space of a 3 second dash in order to stay stocked on game fuel. Some think it would be better if you can get the mini-fridge to within arm's reach, but lets face it, part of the greatness of the dash is that you havn't stretched your legs for a while, and it actually feels pretty good to get some blood pumping somewhere other than your thumbs and eyelids.
3. Skype
Dial up your buddies and talk through your gaming session because the only thing better than a long video game session is a long video game session with your friends. The one drawback is that the skype call may drain a little of your ping power, but at least you'll have someone to talk to.
4. Making a living
Nothing destroys a long game session like having to go to work. What you want to do is make sure that you either don't have to go to work or the work you go to is sort of the same thing as video gaming. There's really all kinds of things you can do to keep the green coming in and be a major player in the video gaming world. You could, for one, make video games for a living. I have a cousin-in-law that does this quite happily in San Francisco. When the last Diablo game hit the stores, the whole company declared it was Diablo day and did nothing but play the game during regular operating hours.
If you aren't able to make video games to pay the bills, I suggest doing things for a passive income, like selling stock photography or making a blog and monetizing it. For instance, this blog brings in a whopping $130 a week! Just enough to buy plenty of game fuel and hot dogs to let me defeat HOM III's Barbarian Breakout on Impossible setting for the 4th straight time.
5. Sleep
At some point, even a gamer has to bed down. You just want to make sure that you get your game started before it gets so late that you can't help but fall asleep in your chair. Believe me, I've been the guy asleep with his hand on the mouse only 20 minutes into a game. With LAN games there's always the possibility that it could take an hour or more to get everything going, especially if someone shows up and proclaims they just deleted everything off their computer and will have to reload it all, split their hard drive, load up bootcamp, load up windows, download the game from the internet, and on and on and on. But to tell the truth, I've been in Age of Empires type games when I fell asleep for an hour or so and when I woke up, nothing really had changed.
6. Cleanliness
Do not use axe body spray. Your body odor is pleasing compared to the smell of axe body spray covering your body odor. The thing about axe body spray is that it starts out smelling unpleasant, and then the truth of your body odor is hard to take. The two mixed together is perfectly terrible. One thing you can do is just change your t-shirt. A fresh shirt will do wonders for your smell. The old, grubby t-shirt compounds the smell factor, whereas a new, freshly laundered shirt, has a way of neutralizing your body odor for a time. What to do when the new shirt reaches max capacity? Put on an even newer shirt!
7. Hand Cramps
I recommend that you switch your posture out now and again. Lay for a while belly down, lay on your side for a while, sit for a while, maybe even stand! Now the next move isn't for the faint of heart, but if you can learn how to play ambidextrously, switching out your left hand to control the mouse, then you'll really be ahead of the game. This is better for slow-pace games like Empire Earth rather than your League of Legends style game.
8. Hostile Trolling
Other gamers can be the worst. Sometimes the best thing you can do is reduce your game window so that you can't see any of the trolling. When you're headed for a 5+ hour game session, the last thing you need is low morale. Instead of losing your esteem to rage gamers, play some rock music and jam out while you game. I suggest a little Dio, some Steely Dan, and the Flaming Lips.
So there you have it. Hopefully you'll be able to apply these ideas to max out your gaming sessions. What are some other key strategies you've employed to assure long game session success?
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