We’ve chosen to highlight May’s Mental Health Awareness Month by listing the biggest pros and cons associated with online gaming and offering some key advice on how to tackle its lesser attributes.
As we near the end of May and Mental Health Awareness Month, I felt the urge to speak on a public activity millions of gamers engage in: online gaming.
That pillar of the gaming pastime I’m regularly a part of entered my life when I got a PS3. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was the first game that transported me from the exciting local competitions in my college dorm room to the wonderful (and equally dreadful) world of online gaming dominated by global players of all skill levels. Ever since then, I’ve seen it all and heard it all—hate mail delivered in the form of a brief insult or a carefully written paragraph full of expletives, audio messages that either made me laugh out loud at their cleverness or wince at the racist epithets contained in them, and exciting triumphs and devastating losses on a solo and team level. Today’s crop of veteran gamers has also dealt with the highs and lows that come with opening themselves up to the World Wide Web’s connectivity between them and cutthroat gamers who also want to win at all costs.
For those of you reading this who are a bit younger and want to get a quick crash course on the best and worst parts of online gaming, I am here to help since I consider myself an OG in these gaming streets (you may refer me to as “Unc” if you so choose). Embrace the friendlier aspects of online gaming, apply my advice on coping with its unwelcoming features, and your mental state will be much better with your controller in hand.
You already have your Day 1s—the friends you’ve made through school, work, friends of friends, and happenstance. It’s always a trip when you hop on the game with your headset and chat with someone who’s pretty chummy over the mic. I remember playing hotly contested sets with previously unknown players in games such as Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6, and Soulcalibur IV. Once those sweaty matches came to a close, I usually said to myself “Damn…that was fun as hell! Lemme send this dude/chick a friend request so we can run it back next time!”
The play sessions with those online rivals of mine that took place afterward soon morphed into the sort of long-lasting friendships I never expected to make. There may not be a whole lot of them, but there still exists a section of welcoming players who enjoy playing some friendly online sessions and refrain from griefing everyone they run into. So the next time you join forces with a team full of unknowns on the likes of Halo, Gears of War, and Marvel Rivals, just know that the one or two players you share a winning game plan and jokes with may become your latest real-world buddy.
More often than not, you’ll run into the sorts of players who can’t wait to unleash their pent-up frustration on you. That hatred tends to come in the form of audio vitriol that comes through your headset and inbox messages full of some choice words you wouldn’t dare utter in front of your mother. Bodying someone in a fighting game, asking for a rematch to continue the set, getting denied that opportunity, and receiving some written/verbal malice soon after is a situation I’ve found myself in countless times. I’ve heard of some equally terrible situations from friends who’ve been called everything but a child of God by their so-called “teammates” during intense sessions of League of Legends and Valorant. Don’t even get me started on the Xbox 360 Call of Duty lobbies from way back in the day—the racist remarks I heard while waiting for the next match to start left my jaw on the floor.
I found the best way to combat the worst of the worst while you play online is to go without using a headset/mic, blocking and reporting the ones that spew bigoted rhetoric, and ignoring the hate altogether. Now, if you choose to jump into the fire and respond to those jerks with some clever comebacks, I understand. Not only does it feel good to wash toxic players in a highly competitive match, but it feels even better when you finish them off with a strongly worded message that leaves them saltier after taking such a major L.
Winning feels amazing (obviously!). The day seems just a bit brighter, your food tastes a little bit better, and your mental state is nothing but good vibes when you emerge victorious in anything you’re pursuing. Securing the victory in a video game is the one high I’ve been chasing ever since I notched a bunch of wins under my belt during Street Fighter II arcade tournaments. Thankfully, I’ve been able to experience it over and over again since making my way online to face more domestic and international competition. As a gamer, there is so much joy derived from dedicating yourself to the multiplayer game you’ve fallen in love with, learning its complexities, mastering them, applying them to your online sessions, and winning the majority of them in the process.
I’ve sat close by and watched as my friends masterfully bounced from cover to cover while shotgunning the opposition with ease in Gears of War. And I’ve viewed live streams of my favorite Twitch personalities as they’ve jumped for joy thanks to triumphing in a variety of challenging first-person shooters, sports simulators, racing games, fighters, and more. Losing will happen from time to time, of course. But it’s always worth reflecting on what went wrong in those cases and coming back with a vengeance to defeat your fiercest rivals. The next time you look at the online leaderboard for your favorite game and see your gamer tag in a top spot, pat yourself on the back. You deserve it!
I’m sure you’ve heard those horror stories about people sitting for hours playing MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, and Final Fantasy XIV. There’s even that one story about a StarCraft player named Lee Seung Seop, who died when he went to an internet café and died while playing the popular real-time strategy (RTS) game for almost fifty consecutive hours. Listen, I get it—it’s so easy to get sucked into sitting in one place for an absurdly long time and playing an online game into the wee hours of the morning. I’ve had to catch myself and finally cut the game off after hearing birds chirping outside my window and realizing I’ve been playing super sweaty Dragon Ball Fighter Z and Tekken 7 matches for far too long.
Do everything in moderation, including gaming. Enjoying a four-hour session of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive online matches is cool and all when you do it for a day or two, but making it a daily habit and ignoring your well-being is something you should avoid altogether. Your physical and mental health should always come first—put down the sticks if you feel like your gaming sessions are starting to affect those crucial life factors negatively. Parents of young gamers reading this right now should also heed my call—take those kids outside from time to time so they don’t become glued to their TV screens and tablets playing Roblox and Fortnite to death! Here’s hoping they take the hint and avoid getting trapped in the vicious cycle of excessive gaming as they age.
Chances are, you have some best buds that have held you down every time you’ve all booted up team-based online games. But if you’re like me and in your late 30s, I’m sure you’re starting to notice how much real-life responsibilities are starting to prevent those friends from playing with you regularly. When it’s time to look into adopting some additional online players who can be relied upon to aid you in your competitive multiplayer journey, there are several avenues towards making that happen. Befriending players you’ve just met during fierce back-and-forth matches, joining Xbox “Clubs” and getting exposed to communities of like-minded gamers, and making posts in forums (Reddit, for example) for your favorite games to solicit any of its members to join your squad, works like a charm.
I’ve experienced firsthand how awesome it is to check out a gaming community site such as PSNProfiles, participating in the virtual gatherings underneath the “Gaming Sessions Needing Players” tab, and adding a bunch of those sessions’ cooperating players afterward to my friends list for future linkups. So the next time you’re in desperate need of some reliable teammates for a series of Fortnite duo or squad matches, just know that there’s a sea of players out there waiting to join up with you and even willing to add you to their collective of dependable multiplayer colleagues. Pro tip: get all the homies together in a Discord and set up your gaming hangouts there since it’s easier to clique up on that platform. Discord has become a super clutch option to consider when it’s time to befriend potential teammates and even stream your gameplay so the ones not playing can see what’s making you either celebrate or rage.
Microtransactions have morphed into a necessary evil for most of the biggest publishers of your go-to online multiplayer titles. The NBA 2K franchise’s implementation of “VC” (Virtual Currency) is egregious since players who want to build a viable custom player who can compete in online “MyPARK” games are forced to purchase those digital funds just to overcome the grind associated with that process. There are plenty of stories about parents staring at their credit card bill in disbelief because their kids have committed the punishable act of using their card to buy an insanely huge assortment of goodies in Fortnite and Roblox.
Now I’m no saint when it comes to in-game spending—I’m quick to purchase some “Tekken Coins” and “Fighter Coins” in Tekken 8 and Street Fighter 6, respectively, just so I can gain access to the latest DLC character costumes. But I always make it a habit of putting my digital currency toward microtransactions once or twice a month, so I don’t get caught in the trap of overspending weekly and becoming yet another victim of a game’s in-game spending trap. Play the online multiplayer games you love, recognize the overwhelming amount of purchasable items and “Battle Passes” they throw in your face, and fight the urge to drop a bag on everything that catches your eye. Spend in moderation and never let a multiplayer game’s tedious level-up process convince you to make it less of a headache just by opening your digital wallet.
