How to be a better gamer

7 May 2010

As usual, the opinions expressed in this column are the author’s alone, and do not reflect those of MyGaming

5. Love the multiplatform world

You know what I see when someone slags off gaming on this, that, or the other platform? I see someone whose mom won’t buy them any of those for Xmas. Being a gamer is about playing games, not playing bits of plastic. SCIENTIFIC PROOFS! 

A PC / Xbox / PS3 / Wii / DS / PSP / Magnavox Odyssey / whatever without games is…

a. A dead husk.

b. I don’t understand the question.

If you’re only gaming on one or two platforms for some reason, chuck the supercilious contempt for the others, and just admit you’re missing out. Then find better friends that actually own them, and catch ‘em up. 

4. Help out the new guy

Because you used to suck too. Just make sure you get a couple of cheap frags in first. Nothing wrong with a bit of practical motivation.

3. Be a good loser

There’s nothing quite so dreary and tedious as that gamer who always blames losing on some barely tenable pretext, instead of the obviously more obvious fact that someone else was simply better than them. Even if that person was using a noobtube. I mean, get out of the way next time, or STFU. Newsflash – it’s just a game. 

I’ll tell you a little secret about bad losers. They’re desperately compensating for something else. Every woman knows this. And you never know when a woman’s watching. 

2. Be a good winner

Wait, actually there is something more dreary and tedious than the bad loser – it’s the bad winner. You know why you won? Because everyone else lost. You couldn’t do it without those guys, so show some appreciation. Teabagging doesn’t count. 

That secret I told you? It applies here too.

1. Make fun, not war

Every class in school has one. You know, that kid who always gets their hand up in the air first, grunting and fretting in their seat and glaring at any potential challengers like a horny pitbull (and silently, violently promising to pound them later in the toilets), because getting that hand up there first is so important AND EVERYBODY ELSE CAN ****ING DIE IN A FIRE. Nobody ever likes that kid. 

Competitive gamers are kinda like that kid. Don’t be that kid.

Discuss Tarryn’s five step program in the forums

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