How To Solve Main Problems of video game players.With the development of technology, more and more gaming problems are becoming a thing of the past. Devices get rid of unnecessary wires, you can assemble a custom PC in a few mouse clicks (at least when all the parts are available), and you do not need to look for games in kiosks throughout the city. But some of the obstacles on the way to easy and comfortable gaming do not want to leave us, and a number of problems have become relevant only in recent years. How to enjoy games and protect your psychological and physical health – in this material.
Deal with back and neck pain
Health jokes usually end badly, so any gaming session should start with comfort. If you are used to playing at the table, then you cannot do without a good chair. Formally, any stool will work that allows you to sit upright, but then you have to stay in the gym to pump all the muscles you need. And even in this case, the sessions will have to be interrupted every 15-20 minutes – it is hardly possible to sit more in an even position.
The chair will not eliminate interruptions, but it will allow you to make your game runs longer and relax a little. A good chair supports your head and lower back, and is also adjustable enough so that you can sit comfortably at the table and place your hands on it at a 90-degree angle. It is not necessary to buy premium “gaming” chairs: worthy copies (for example, from the same Ikea) will cost 10-15 thousand rubles and will save you much more money that will be required for back treatment in the future.
Charging is another essential element, without which no doctor will advise you to play. Ideally, you should break away from the game at least every 30-40 minutes, and the pause should include full movement. We’ll have to get up, walk around, or even better, do a couple of active exercises in order to properly disperse the blood. Trust me – your body will be grateful to you.
Neurologist Veronika Koryagina helped us with the exercises : you will find a complete list at the end of this material. She also notes that during extended gaming sessions, gamers can experience stress on their backs. A knee chair can help, which will reduce the load on the spine. Of course, it is not necessary to sit on it all the time, but an hour or two with breaks will only be beneficial.
Get rid of discomfort in the eyes
If correct posture is universal for everyone, then with vision everything is a little more complicated. It is not necessary to assess your health “by eye” – it is better to go to an ophthalmologist who will give clear recommendations. Perhaps you have not noticed how your eyesight has fallen, and now you strain your eyes more. Or vice versa, wear glasses for myopia, but with age, hyperopia began to develop.
And yet there are a number of tips that will suit everyone. Due to the nature of games that require constant attention, gamers very rarely blink: because of this, dry eye syndrome develops. The problem is partially solved by the same breaks: every 30-40 minutes (or better more often) you need to pause the game and go out the window to look at objects in the distance – this will also help prevent the development of myopia.
Veronika Koryagina gives one more piece of advice: “To preserve vision at least 2 times in 4-5 hours, I would recommend wearing glasses with perforation, literally for 10 minutes, this is enough.”
But you should not abuse the drops. Some of them are great at relieving symptoms, but not relieving fatigue. Therefore, if your eyes hurt, then it is better to take a good rest from the game and return to it later.
Play comfortably
Even the most comfortable workplace for games is poorly suited: the back and neck get tired quickly. And if you sit at the PC a lot, then you are probably familiar with the concept of tunnel syndrome – a pathology in which nerves are pinched between the muscles, tendons and bones of the wrists. It is accompanied by pain, tingling and numbness in the hand. What to do?
A standard exercise can help: in turn, each finger needs to be connected to the thumb, and also squeeze and unclench the hand several times
Veronica Koryagina
It is also worth developing the habit of taking your hands off the keyboard and mouse while working and playing, at least for a short while, remove your hands from them and stretch them. For many games, it makes sense to switch to a gamepad. It will not save you from tunnel syndrome if you play without interruption, but most games are still developed for console controllers. The position of the hands on the controller is also different, so after a long day of work on the PC, it makes sense to change the game scheme.
While gamepads used to require fiddling with drivers and wires, most controllers now have official developer support and direct integration via Steam. The Xbox gamepad generally works in most games immediately after turning on, and problems with the PlayStation are unlikely to arise. Moreover, some developers even integrate functions from consoles. PS5’s adaptive DualSense triggers, for example, work in PC versions of Metro Exodus and Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Learn to play well with your gamepad
The first hours after switching from keyboard and mouse to a gamepad are difficult to describe in censorship words. It seems that it is impossible to learn how to play, and even if a miracle happens, it will be only after long tiring sessions. In fact, everything is not so scary – it is enough to adhere to a number of rules.
First, you shouldn’t start with games that require precise manipulation, such as competitive shooters or interactive movies in which you need to quickly recall the right buttons. Best suited third-person action games with melee weapons, where you do not need to aim at the enemy, or games without battles at all. Even a person far from games can cope with God of War, Spider-Man or some Assassin’s Creed. First you need to get used to using two sticks, camera behavior and button placement, and only then develop accuracy.
Secondly, it is worth remembering that it is really difficult to achieve high accuracy on controllers: due to the low height of the sticks, adjusting the tilt angle is problematic on both PS and Xbox, and even more so on Switch. The solution is rubber pads that are easy to put on the stick and increase their height. They usually cost a penny and are sold in a set of different sizes, but they help a lot – it’s not in vain that they are used by many professional players.
Save on games and hardware
Despite the huge number of problems that the pandemic has caused, it has made life somewhat easier for those who like to save money. Even if you really want to buy yourself a new game, console or video card, it is now extremely difficult to do so, sometimes to the point of absurdity.
Almost all major games, starting in 2020, regularly shift their release date, and the most anticipated blockbusters of 2021 have moved to 2022. Xbox Series, for example, will be on the market for a whole year with almost no exclusives. The PS5 is doing a little better, although its library is not impressive.
The shortage of semiconductors, second-hand dealers and a boom in cryptocurrency have led to the fact that new hardware is bought up by bots in a couple of minutes during rare productions, after which it takes several weeks, or even months, to wait for a new batch. In recent weeks, the situation has improved, but in order to buy hardware, you still have to monitor profile forums: accidentally stumbling upon a console in a store or seeing a video card on a website is very difficult.
In general, it is easy to save your wallet now, and instead of hunting for new products, it is better to start catching up. Read about how to save on old games in our special material .
Choose a game
In the fall and spring, the traditional game fever usually begins. Major publishers are releasing sequels to well-known franchises, indie developers offer to buy new colorful action games, and forums are boiling with discussions. The media and bloggers only complicate the task by giving top marks to new products. In times like these, it’s easy to get discouraged and not know what to tackle.
It should be understood that the market is growing. Games are becoming more and more, as are the ways to play them: on a portable console, on a new platform due to the loss of exclusivity, or on a weak computer via the cloud. It is impossible to keep up with trends and play everything: you will have to choose what you personally like, and you can catch up in the lull in the game – it always comes.
Moreover, it will be difficult to find a game that does not get much better after a while after release. A few patches, a big discount and a couple of big additions to boot – a much more interesting option than crashes, broken quests and a staggering price of 5000-8000 rubles.
Worry less
The authors of modern games-services regularly make the player nervous. Daily quests, battle passes, temporary events with unique rewards that are about to disappear – calls are poured from all sides not to miss new content and to enter the game, even when you don’t really want to do it.
Even in single player games, there are achievements that many video game fans are hunting for. Because of this, sometimes you have to suffer at an unbalanced high difficulty level, complete dull side quests and do other unpleasant things.
It’s best to immediately come to terms with the fact that it is very difficult to open all the content in all your favorite games. Usually the dynamics of updates are designed to keep the user as long as possible. Therefore, it is not at all scary if several skins remain closed.
As for achievements, this is not the most effective way to prove your coolness, even virtual. For any “hardcore” gamer, there is a madman who not only received all the trophies, but did it blindfolded, on a guitar, throwing a kettlebell with his other hand. Hardly anyone really cares about the difficulty on which you completed the game and how many hidden secrets you found. Better yet, ask yourself, will you be proud of a platinum gaming profile on this particular gaming platform in 5-10 years?
Exercise List
You should start with a warm-up. You can use regular walking in place as a warm-up exercise. It will be effective at first to be like on a full foot, and then on toes and heels. In this case, the arms should be relaxed, hang down freely, the shoulders should be straightened and slightly lowered down. The duration of the warm-up is 2-3 minutes.
- Exercise aimed at relaxing the muscles of the neck. Stand up straight. The arms should hang freely along the side of the body. Clench your fists, tighten your arms. At the same time, lower your shoulders and shoulder blades and straighten your back. Hold tension for 30 seconds. Then relax and let your arms swing freely.
- Tilting the head to the side – this exercise can be performed both standing and sitting. Gently tilt your head to the side (lowering your ear to your shoulder). Feel the neck muscles stretch. Soak for 10-15 seconds. Then slowly return to the starting position and tilt your head to the other side. It is very important to perform this exercise as carefully as possible, to avoid pain.
- Turning the head to the side – this exercise can be performed both standing and sitting. Tilt your head down. Try to touch the jugular cavity with your chin. Turn your head to the right, as if sliding your chin along the upper part of the sternum. Hold this position for 3 to 6 seconds. Then slowly turn the other way. Repeat this exercise in each direction 5 – 7 times.
- Raise and lower your shoulders. You can do this exercise both standing and sitting. Raise your shoulders as high as possible, do not move them forward. Lower, pull back slightly, as if straightening them. Repeat 6-8 times.
- Move your shoulders back and forth – you can do it both standing and sitting. Starting position – freely straighten and lower your shoulders. Raise your shoulders, shift them forward. Then you need to return to the starting position. Take your shoulders back, try to close your shoulder blades. Return to starting position. Repeat the exercise 6 to 8 times.
- Bend your head forward: can be done both standing and sitting. Bend your neck forward, gently lower your chin to your chest. Then you need to slowly straighten up. Repeat the exercise 6 to 8 times. Important: keep your back straight!
- We wave our hands back. Stretch your arms to the sides, lower your shoulders. Press the shoulder blades to the back. Stretched straight arms will move slightly back. Return to starting position. Repeat the exercise 6-8 times. When performing this exercise, you need to move your arms to a minimum, and try to use only your back muscles.
- Rotate the brushes. Hands to the sides, lower shoulders. Bend your elbows, clench your hands into fists. Make 4 circular rotations in the wrist joint, without lowering the elbows, in one direction, then 4 times in the other. Repeat 4-6 times in each direction.
- Rotate with elbows. The starting position is the same as in the previous two. Make 4 circular rotations in the elbow joint in one direction and the other. You don’t need to lower your elbows. Repeat 4-6 times in each direction.
- Rotate your shoulders. Stretch your arms to the sides, lower your shoulders. Perform 4 rotations in the shoulder joint in each direction. Repeat 4 to 6 times.
- Raise – lower your hands. Relax your shoulders and arms. We raise our hands up, then freely drop them down. Breathing should be free and relaxed. Repeat 4 – 6 times “
We talked only about the main problems of the modern gamer – in fact, there are much more annoying little things. Perhaps something has bored you personally? Tell us about it in the comments, and we will try to find a solution in the next part of this article.
