Gaming in University - IS it even possible?
- Thread starter Deleted
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I'm in third year, I game on-and-off usually, in fact gaming mostly became a social activity for me last year. It really depends on what time of the year it is. For example, right now I have way too much free time. When late November comes around, well, I'm not going to be gaming for quite awhile, up until Christmas probably.
You can meet a ton of gamer friends in dorms, especially if you were in a dorm filled with geeks like me. Ah, the hours of starcraft we played...no wonder a couple of people dropped out.
You can meet a ton of gamer friends in dorms, especially if you were in a dorm filled with geeks like me. Ah, the hours of starcraft we played...no wonder a couple of people dropped out.
Two weeks ago I completed my M.Sc. with the equivalent of an A as my final grade. Prior to going to uni I did a diploma course in comp.sci where I got the equivalent of a B as my final grade.
For the past 5 years I've been an avid WoW player (9 level 80 chars currently). I play games on the 360 regularly (offline or with a friend present, since I'm too cheap to pay for live gold). I play games on the iPhone when I have small breaks. I also have an extensive retro console collection from the Videopac to the PS2, which also get some play every once in a while.
Oh, and i run an iPhone app development business on the side too, semi-successfully.
Now unless I'm some kind of genius (which I like to fantasize is the truth), then my huge amount of gaming clearly hasn't impacted my uni education in the slightest. If anything, I'd say that it has helped me by making me relax. Furthermore, playing a game like WoW has no doubt increased my analytical and teamwork skills, as well as my patience with other people. And of course my experience with gaming has also been a huge help in creating applications for studies done in the uni projects I've been a part of. My final project (which I did solo) was a study on the impact of an NPC storyteller in a story, which showed a significant difference in the understanding and perception of a story when an NPC was present (opposed to just reading the text on a screen). If I wasn't a gamer then I'd never have done a project like that.
So in my opinion, the people saying that you shouldn't game while doing an education are very wrong. Of course you shouldn't game until 3am every night, but that goes for anything. If you stay up watching TV until 3am or reading fiction, then you will have the same poor result.
My advice is to bring your gaming devices to uni, but be strict with yourself so it's study first, gaming second, or when you need a break to relax.
For the past 5 years I've been an avid WoW player (9 level 80 chars currently). I play games on the 360 regularly (offline or with a friend present, since I'm too cheap to pay for live gold). I play games on the iPhone when I have small breaks. I also have an extensive retro console collection from the Videopac to the PS2, which also get some play every once in a while.
Oh, and i run an iPhone app development business on the side too, semi-successfully.
Now unless I'm some kind of genius (which I like to fantasize is the truth), then my huge amount of gaming clearly hasn't impacted my uni education in the slightest. If anything, I'd say that it has helped me by making me relax. Furthermore, playing a game like WoW has no doubt increased my analytical and teamwork skills, as well as my patience with other people. And of course my experience with gaming has also been a huge help in creating applications for studies done in the uni projects I've been a part of. My final project (which I did solo) was a study on the impact of an NPC storyteller in a story, which showed a significant difference in the understanding and perception of a story when an NPC was present (opposed to just reading the text on a screen). If I wasn't a gamer then I'd never have done a project like that.
So in my opinion, the people saying that you shouldn't game while doing an education are very wrong. Of course you shouldn't game until 3am every night, but that goes for anything. If you stay up watching TV until 3am or reading fiction, then you will have the same poor result.
My advice is to bring your gaming devices to uni, but be strict with yourself so it's study first, gaming second, or when you need a break to relax.
*twitch*ScRaT_the_destroyer said:
That's not alliteration, that's rhyming!
It'd be alliteration if it were "my uni's halls are hell" or "my uni's boundaries are balls" or "Billy bought books basically based by brave boardroom bouncers."
[/Englishnerd]
On-topic: I haven't been having too much trouble with it so far. I'm in the third week of my first year and so far I've managed to get a good chunk of progress in RDR in. Granted, I'm usually a slow gamer, school or no. However apart from needing to moderate just how much time you spend gaming, you should be fine.
I stayed in the dorms my first year of college. It was roughly two hours away, depending on traffic, so I'd always go home on weekends. Depsite this, I brought pleanty of entertainment with me (books, tv, dvd player, laptop, Wii, 360, PS2, DS).
I usually had a fair amount of time to play a variety of games (RPGs, shooters, platformers, survival horror). However, it should be noted that I was unable to find a job in the area, so I may have had more time than you will. It was mainly an engineering school, so there were pleanty of nerds to be found. I don't think I met a friend that year who wasn't a gamer...
Anyway, there was a video game party each semester, and I'd call a friend routinely for one-on-one Halo matches, so I still played quite a bit.
I can't really comment on if it affected my grades. I was a little apathetic towards my classes during my first year (something that's coming back to throughly bite me in the ass), so I can't really tell if I would have done better if I spent less time gaming.
Now, I feel like I should give you some general advice in regards to college. By the way, I'm in the US, so I appologize if any of the vocabulary is off...I'm not exactly an expert on Canadian Universities.
Do not take a ton of class hours. If you need to be a full time student, then do so, but try not to take more than 14-15 hours. Use the services they have available. Spend some time going through their website, looking for career services, tutoring, advising, ect. If they offer a career exploration class, take it. Same goes for a college orientation, and a study skills course if you never had anything like it back in high school. And, speaking of studying, you are going to have fewer tests, and they will cover a lot more information. Do yourself a favor and study in advance (also, ask the professor about the tests' format if they don't bring it up during class. Suprises are not fun)
Edit:
I usually had a fair amount of time to play a variety of games (RPGs, shooters, platformers, survival horror). However, it should be noted that I was unable to find a job in the area, so I may have had more time than you will. It was mainly an engineering school, so there were pleanty of nerds to be found. I don't think I met a friend that year who wasn't a gamer...
Anyway, there was a video game party each semester, and I'd call a friend routinely for one-on-one Halo matches, so I still played quite a bit.
I can't really comment on if it affected my grades. I was a little apathetic towards my classes during my first year (something that's coming back to throughly bite me in the ass), so I can't really tell if I would have done better if I spent less time gaming.
Now, I feel like I should give you some general advice in regards to college. By the way, I'm in the US, so I appologize if any of the vocabulary is off...I'm not exactly an expert on Canadian Universities.
Do not take a ton of class hours. If you need to be a full time student, then do so, but try not to take more than 14-15 hours. Use the services they have available. Spend some time going through their website, looking for career services, tutoring, advising, ect. If they offer a career exploration class, take it. Same goes for a college orientation, and a study skills course if you never had anything like it back in high school. And, speaking of studying, you are going to have fewer tests, and they will cover a lot more information. Do yourself a favor and study in advance (also, ask the professor about the tests' format if they don't bring it up during class. Suprises are not fun)
Edit:
Also, if you do ever move into the dorms, then this is true. Online gaming is difficult. I could only play WoW at 6AM because everyone else was still sleeping, and consoles were blocked from online through CISCO (and no wifi in the dorms >_>)
Same here, i friggin love it, although my dorms had super fast comcast and now in our apartment its noticeably slower, but definitely a great connection still.AjimboB said:
Basically my advice, do whatever you feel like doing, its college, I mean I had my PC and xbox in my dorm room with a nice flatscreen that I got secondhand and nothing really happened, I definitely logged in as much if not more gaming hours before college, and definitely now more that I have more disposable income to upgrade my PC and get games because of work.
Basically, you'll definitely find gamers to play with at college, so depending on how you react to your freedom with partying or more gaming time, which i manage to balance quite nicely, do whatever you think is fun to you, best experinces of your life
Just so you know, Lectures and tutorials will usually = about 10-25% of the total time required toPolarBearClub said:
It's a generally accepted rule that each unit requires 10 hours a week to do well including lecture/tute/lab time. So if you've got an hour lecture and an hour tute, you should spend about 1 hour a week on reading ahead etc. and 2-3 on re-reading notes and about an hour or 2 on assessment items.
Not that many people do this but if you want to get distinctions or high destinctions it's a good rule of thumb.
Well, there's a whole bunch of guys on the wing of my floor that gather in our lounge and play the Gamecube set up there- there's almost always someone in there playing. We all range from casual to hardcore, but some like myself have been gaming our entire lives. This week, I've probably gathered eight to ten hours playing with them, and more time on the PS3 in my room. I can't speak for how it has affected my marks yet, though, since its only been about two weeks.Douk said:
And the collection of games we have are things like Mario Tennis/Kart/Sunshine, Metroid, 007 Nightfire; as well as an N64 with things like Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong 64, etc.
I'm just a few months short of getting my bachelor of Nursing and my Registered Nurse License and I've gamed my way through university. I've only had to do one re-exam (in my class the average is 2-3 re-exams)and in general I've found that I have a lot more time to play games, hang with friends or gaze at my belly button then I had when I was in high school, in the army or had a regular job.
The workload varies depending on where you study, what you study and how good your learning capabilities are however. A good way of going about it might be to see how the first few weeks go and then start gaming more or less, generally speaking the first weeks are harder then the rest since you are adopting to a new way of life and the lecturers are "greeting" you as a new student.
The workload varies depending on where you study, what you study and how good your learning capabilities are however. A good way of going about it might be to see how the first few weeks go and then start gaming more or less, generally speaking the first weeks are harder then the rest since you are adopting to a new way of life and the lecturers are "greeting" you as a new student.
Most Universities tend to have firewalls which block most online games, you need to get a tunnel to play through that. There's a decent one called 'Your Freedom' that gives enough bandwidth to play online without needing a subscription.
Oh and er, I would totally recommend moving into halls if possible. You will miss out on a lot of the student experience if you just stay at home.
Oh and er, I would totally recommend moving into halls if possible. You will miss out on a lot of the student experience if you just stay at home.
*remembers his uni days, sat in a purple haze playing on video games in a room full of people*
Oh yes, my best days...
sorry.. I'm back with you. I did sod all at uni but play on video games, drink and listen to music. I completed soo many games with my mates there it was unreal. It was how we wasted some days when we couldn't be arsed.
You'll find the time to do everything you like to do and more. I kept up my reading, went to enough parties to kill me, watched a lot of films etc.
Oh yes, my best days...
sorry.. I'm back with you. I did sod all at uni but play on video games, drink and listen to music. I completed soo many games with my mates there it was unreal. It was how we wasted some days when we couldn't be arsed.
You'll find the time to do everything you like to do and more. I kept up my reading, went to enough parties to kill me, watched a lot of films etc.
When I was in college we played a lot of GTA III and then GTA Vice City.
Console games are good, and GTA in games in particular because everyone can sit around the TV, pass the controller around and play collectively. Rather than going for missions each person would take turns to see what crazy stuff they could pull off (stealing tanks, flying the wing-less plane, losing a six star wanted level, etc.) then after they died or took five minutes they would pass the controller. Basically, what I am trying to say is try to play inclusive games because it is a great way to meet new people and I met a lot of people who became long term friends in the dorms this way.
In general it is easy to game, or do whatever you want, while at university. The classes only take 15 hours or so per week with another 20 hours to study. Time management is a major issue however, as the professors won't really care if you are doing the readings or practice problems throughout the term. This can catch up to you if you just game all day and suddenly need to learn half a semester of material the night before the test.
Console games are good, and GTA in games in particular because everyone can sit around the TV, pass the controller around and play collectively. Rather than going for missions each person would take turns to see what crazy stuff they could pull off (stealing tanks, flying the wing-less plane, losing a six star wanted level, etc.) then after they died or took five minutes they would pass the controller. Basically, what I am trying to say is try to play inclusive games because it is a great way to meet new people and I met a lot of people who became long term friends in the dorms this way.
In general it is easy to game, or do whatever you want, while at university. The classes only take 15 hours or so per week with another 20 hours to study. Time management is a major issue however, as the professors won't really care if you are doing the readings or practice problems throughout the term. This can catch up to you if you just game all day and suddenly need to learn half a semester of material the night before the test.
There is a gaming club at my university (or at least there was). I wouldn't worry about bringing gaming stuff unless you fear your roommate or live in a really bad part of town. You'll find people that game just like you'd find people who do any other hobby.