Gaming is a great hobby to have; it can be affordable, educational, exciting and sociable, surely all of the attributes that anyone would want from a hobby. Better still, in many games it’s possible to be competitive, with tournaments that you can enter once you’re good enough. If you enjoy the competitive side of gaming then one of the elements you’re likely to enjoy most is, well, winning. To increase your chances of winning you obviously need to become more proficient at your game of choice and, to do that, there are lots of different methods. The first and most obvious is to practice at your game as often as possible, but there are also other ways. Apps are an increasingly popular method of improving your gaming skills and these are some of the ones that could help you to do just that.
Twitch
The phrase ‘watch and learn’ came about for good reason: watching is a great way of learning. That’s why the first app on the list is Twitch. For those who haven’t used Twitch before, it’s a livestreaming platform where people can share their gaming experiences in real time. It’s so popular that it’s even been part of some conspiracy theories. Some people have enormous followings because of their great gaming skill, witty commentary, useful tips or a combination of all of these things. You can find eSports champions as well as highly skilled casual gamers on this app. Watching a world champion play your favorite game can be hugely inspiring; seeing them take down high-level bosses and making it look effortless isn’t only fun and fascinating to watch, but you could learn from them too. Download the app and have a look at content creators who play your favorite titles; some of them you’ll watch just for fun, but others you should really study to learn any tips or tricks.
Tracking Apps
Tracking apps are really popular in games like poker or chess. In these games you need to constantly be scrutinizing how you played that last round and what you could improve. Unfortunately, keeping all of that information in your head and also being able to concentrate on the game at hand is incredibly tricky. That’s where trackers come in. Learning your poker hand rankings off by heart is certainly the best way to get started with your poker skills, but, beyond this, there’s a good deal of strategy left to perfect. Using a poker tracking app can help you tap into the moments when you perform well and, perhaps more importantly, the moments when you perform badly. The same goes for chess; learning your opening gambits will set you in good stead, but using a tracker to find out the moments when you hesitate and make a wrong move will help you so much, too. We learn the most from the moments where we perform badly; iron out those flaws and you’ll be unstoppable.
Discord
As well as learning from your own mistakes and watching others playing your favorite games, there is another way to improve. Talking to people who are into the same games as you might throw up some information that you hadn’t realized before and perhaps the easiest way to find other people who are interested in the same games as you is by logging on to Discord. Discord has thousands upon thousands of channels, each dedicated to their own specific topic, many of them games. Making friends with people over the common interest of a game helps to deepen your interest in that title. The more interested you are in something, the more likely you are to devote time to it. The more time you devote to something the more likely you are to improve. So, spend a little time chatting away on Discord and you’ll not only learn something cool about the game you love, you’ll probably feel more inspired to play too.
