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One Day In the Life of a Gamer

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2007-04-25

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Every PC user, at least 1 time in his life played a game for fun or to burn some time. There are others that play frequently games when they come from work, at the end of the day or even at work. But there is a special category that you can say it lives to play, frag, reach a new level, find a new item. They are called Gamers, the masters of cybernetic simulations, their world rotates around the latest combat simulations, strategy or economy management.

In this article, besides some tips i will give you about how to become a better gamer, i will reveal a gamer's life, based on years in which i played 15 from 24 hours a day, months in a row, plus some insights in the life of some friends, hardcore gamers that do this  as a lifestyle.

It all starts with coffee, he will be your ally, the partner that will stay in the long nights besides you.
Food, well food stays on the desk so i won't have to move from my pc to the kitchen when I'm hungry, as soon as i wakeup i make some reserves of food on the desk and start playing.
Liquids, lot's of liquids, as a gamer you will need as many fluids as you can because if you lack them, headaches will install, anxiousness and lack of concentration.

Mouse, sometimes many forget about this great utility, that can make the difference between life and death in a game. When you choose a mouse make sure it fits your hand perfectly, not to big, not to small just perfect for you. You'll want to have as many DPI for you're mouse, many gamers get enough if they use 800DPI but i always keep a Microsoft Notebook Optical Mouse 3000 with 1000DPI near me. Many gamers use mice that are heavy, for good control and pretty big for hand matching, but i do it differently. I'm using a high precision mouse like the one above and a small size in order to move it only with my fingers and wrist(the palm doesn't touch the mouse) for even higher accuracy, call me crazy but it works perfectly for me. More then 1000DPI is not in my interest, because the accuracy can barely be felt above that value, but if you have money to spend on 3000dpi mice go ahead, every advantage can bring you the victory.

Next is the keyboard that must have 4 important features:
1. Be black, because in this way you can spot faster the keys in a fast paced game then on a white or grey one.
2. Have lights under the keys or phosphorescent characters, this is imperative when you usually play at night. Yes i know you can press any key without even looking at the keyboard but in a hardcore game it's no room for mistakes and mistakes happen. Not once i thought i was pushing the right key, just to see it was the key next to it.
3. Have smooth keystrokes. The best keyboards are the the ones that feel like the Laptop keyboards, no click sound when you press a key(or very low) and a nice feeling to the finger, feeling of easiness.
4. Must have a wrist support, this is crucial if you play days in a row as you hand tends to get tired and the pain installs in the fingers.

Now is one of my favorite pieces, the monitor:
1. First of all 2ms GTG LCDs rull! 4ms and 2ms are for hardcore gamers the rest is not important. You don't want ghosting att all. I recommend Samsung anyday anywhere!

2. Buy it black, a black monitor makes it easier to concentrate on the game because the margins become almost invisible, especially at night.

3. 19 inches Wide. Here is more a problem of taste, everyone chooses his right size, me, 19inches thats perfect not to big not to small, just perfect. Some of the gamers use 22 inches(wide) which are really great too, you will have a 20% chance to get a head shot on a bigger monitor, as the size of the enemy will increase thus your chance to put the mouse on the right pixels.

4. Wide, must be wide. It's true you'll lose some height in your view, but think about it, you need to see what is in front of you and the sky that's all but when it comes to side, you'll want to see as much as possible, the wider is your view the greater will your area information will be. I tested this with a normal 19 inches monitor. In Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl i told a friend to stay at my left side unmoved. On the normal monitor while looking in the game at a car i couldn't see my friend in my right, on the other side, on a wide monitor looking at the same car in the same place, i could see my friend, conclusion? larger field view. If my friend would have been an enemy i would have died.

Video cards. Nothing to tell you here, we all know it, more memory, faster processors, more pixel shaders, lots of pipelines, 90nm technology, it's just a constant struggle to upgrade as your video card becomes dull. Sound cards: It would be best to have 7.1 support and you'd better have a 5.1 or 7.1 audio system as it will make the difference in a game where footsteps can give you're position away.

Exercise you're body.
You'll probably ask yourself "what the hell is wrong with this dude earlier hews talking about gaming and know it's telling us about push ups" . Well think about it, if you really are a gamer, most of the time you sit on a chair, and this doesn't applies only for gamers but to all that have a job that requires they sit down on a chair. The fact that you spend this much time on a chair implies that you can develop prostate problems and you don't want that. So the solution is simple, in weekend, Saturday and Sunday go run, play basketball, practice any sport, go to the gym, sweat in order to keep yourself healthy. Otherwise your days in gaming are numbered, the worst case possible due to sitting for long periods of time you'll develop Hemroids and left untreated they lead to death.

So how does 1 day from a gamer's life looks like?
It's morning, must wake up, but i slept so little damn, i have to go to work, Water, I'm thirsty, I'll grab something to eat on my way there. It's 8 AM damn in 1 h i must be at work. The time pases and and at 6 PM i arrive home from work. I eat something and then i check out the game market for new releases, nothing new. Aaa well, i send some messages on Yahoo!Messenger and soon 8 friends gather for a head to head battle in Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl. During the game we find some awefull bugs, that add to the list we discovered the other days, so we make a nice feedback with the problems and send it to THQ for fixing.

After a few hours we finish the deathmatch, damn it's already 9 PM. At 10pm we had scheduled a DOTA confrontation in order to pass the preliminary matches in a Battlenet Tournament. 1 guy is missing so we have to find another available friend, we do it in the end. Although i though we were goners we manage to win the game against a team from Netherlands, phew that was hard. It's night and it's 1 am, i not sleepy cause i had some coffee and anyway at 2 am i must participate in FOW "party" to gather some money for my new Guild Wars ranger. At last at 4am i fell at sleep, tomorrow it's work again, but new games to test too.

After 1 year of doing this kind of sh** i reduced the nap time to 12-1am  so i can get some sleep, i was getting to tired, be careful with your health. Bye for now.

written by Madalin Dogaru