So my brother has opened up a new blog called psone classics. He’s written up a little article on responsible gaming in university. Please check out the post and take a look at the blog.

Video games are a great way to entertain yourself, they’re relatively cheap, engaging, and if you have friends that play as well, they can even be social. But sadly there is a dark side to gaming, and many of us have seen friends slowly disappear to the cave of their dorm rooms with a computer loaded with World of Warcraft, boxes full of energy drinks, with friends and homework forbidden inside.

This is a sad thing, seeing your friends disappear into that world, where nothing else matters but that next item they’ve been working towards, or that boss they need to slay before they can sleep for the night. It’s really tragic to see this take hold on a friend of yours, but even worse when you become that cave dwelling Red Bull guzzling potato.

How can you avoid this gruesome fate?

This list will help.

(I mean, if you don’t stay in school and get a good job, where will your gaming budget go? Down that’s where.)

Part One, Choose the right games.

The Campaign in this game took 5 hours, the online can span hundreds.... - Image via Wikipedia

First off, you need to move away from the “games with no end”. W.O.W. is the big one, but there are others out there, like the multi-player shooters, Team Fortress, Call of Duty, Left for Dead… These games are all a ton of fun, but because they have no end (W.O.W. more so and the others through multiplayer) it’s easy to get addicted, and because there’s no end, nothing is there to make you think twice about gaming all night (and it’s something that happens quite regularly). Playing games with a storyline that has a beginning, middle and end are a much safer bet, once the story is finished there’s a sense of closure. Afterwards sleep seems like an interesting reprieve, and of course, that paper that needs to get done by Friday.

Part Two, use games as your reward.

This is something I do a lot of. When I’m really looking forward to a new release, I’ll pre-order it, and put it on my TV. I also take a post-it note and write a goal on it, then stick it to that pristine box with that sure to be interesting game I’ve been waiting for inside.

This gives you something to work towards, perhaps it’s a reward for finishing your exams, or for completing your last assignment in this way you can make your gaming habit work for you instead of it working against you.

(there is also some research to suggest your gaming habit makes you smarter, check out the link at the bottom of this post)

Part 3, If you’re an online gamer.

If you’re an online gamer and many of you are, there is one trick that will help you not get SO addicted to playing online, that trick is to only play with people that you know in real life.

When someone gets addicted to an online game such as World of Warcraft, they not only get addicted to the gameplay, but to the social aspect as well. A few game companies have realized this and released games such as Mafia Wars, Farmville, etc. on social media sites not only to get them to play those games, but make it so if they quit their habit (of playing an MMORPG or something like Farmville) they’ll lose those people they knew online.

If you were seriously addicted to playing Farmville for instance (a game on Facebook) you’d have to leave the site, because half of all the updates now are “Jenny found a sad little cow on her farm in Farmville, will you help her?” Imagine the power that has, making not only the work you put into the game something you’d lose, but friends as well.

Boiled down, if you play online, have a guild, etc, make it a local guild that does things other than play games together, then you’ll have real friends instead of just nameless people you meet on the internet (not real friends).

Part Four, Use your time wisely.

If you’re studying you need a lot of time to get all your assignments, labs, and papers finished and up to par. But you need time to unwind as well. Gaming works well in this regard as a great source of escapism, but there’s a time for it.

Make a schedule with all the classes, meetings, studying and workouts you have to do, and make some time specific for gaming. If you don’t you’ll run the risk of trading sleep time for game time, or friend time for game time. Even if you have a night of the week that you take off to unwind, that’s ok, but it’s important to keep to your schedule, and have your important goals (studying!!!) levied first.

Part Five, One game at a time.

One at a time Guys - Image by Adam Jarmon Brown via Flickr

If you’re a big gamer like me, you walk by the local game store and see those wonderfully cheap games sitting there in the used games bin, and sometimes you can’t help but pick one up. This is fine, but there’s one very important thing to remember, gaming is like studying, focusing at one thing will save you a lot of time. So in this regard, only play one game at a time!

Having many games on the go at one time will slow you down, and when one game isn’t going well, you’ll skip to the other one, and by the time you get to your third you’ll realize,

You haven’t had any fun, and spent your time being frustrated,

not progressed in any one game, just tread water in a few,

and made you think you need to buy a new game because these ones are either too hard or not fun enough.

Playing one game at a time, keeps you moving (in the game) and gives you that feeling of satisfaction when you finally complete it instead of it just going on your shelf, or under your bed, or… where ever you keep your games.

Bottom line is, Play one at a time, if it’s too hard, take a break (or read a walkthrough if you’re really stuck). Those problem solving skills will love you for it.

So, there you have it, a few tips on how to keep that gaming habit of yours in check. If this list prevents just one of you from chasing the World of Warcraft dragon I’ll have done my job. Keep studying hard and gaming right.

Brennan M Guest blogging from PSOneClassics.com

Hello everybody, I’ll make this really short. The video above explains what the offer is about. More or less you click on the link above, I give you a half hour of tutoring no strings attached. This gives me enough time to set up an A+ study schedule for a paper, exam or a reading schedule for a single class.

This offer is gone once I fill up my 50 spots. I have 50 tutoring spots, not 500, not 5000… 50! So I’d highly suggest you click on the link and sign up now. If you don’t like it I’ll just send you you’re buck back.

EDIT: I just put this up and 10 spots just went in like an hour, soooo I’d suggest you click on it right now.

Hello fellow students, another Friday, another study break! Here is a classic study break for most of you, my favorite youtube video channels. I’ve been working on this for the past 3 years (if wasting time watching youtube video’s can be considered research). So without further ado, check out some of my personal favorites.

Shaytards: This guy runs a video every day about his kids, wife, job and beard. It is truly better than television.

TedTalks: One of the absolute best conferences during the year and all their lectures are free for anyone to download. The talks are also really easy to understand and very well done. I really suggest you add this channel to your youtube account if you want to be both entertained and interested.

Current: A great channel that throws up a ton of professional content on social responsibility, the environment and innovation. They always have one or two video’s up a day so you’ll have plenty of content to choose from.

Drunk History: Probably the funniest video’s on Youtube. The channel was set up by Jack Black and Micheal Sara. Trust me, get some ppl together and watch these video’s tonight. After you’re finished come back here and thank me in the comments.

Also if you’d like a free chapter of my book, you can get a free copy on my how to study page.

A great example of a British Pour

Hello fellow students, another Friday, another study break! This week, I’d like to talk about something most college students don’t know the first thing about but really should, how to properly pour a beer. I’ve included a link here that will provide you with all the details on the proper pour, however, if you’d like a simple three step guide, keep reading.

Step 1: Choose Your Beer

Here is a quick and dirty guide, light beers should be served as cold as humanly possible as the cold numbs your taste buds and lets you perceive the flavour of the beers, drinking warm light beer pretty much the same as drinking warm piss so keep them cold. Kraft beers can be drank and cooler temperatures and are at the most opportune temperature for consumption 15-30 minutes after they have been taken out of the fridge.

Step 2: Choose your glassware

Now that you have your beer ready to drink, you must now choose your glassware. There are many choices and each beer is designed for a different kind of glass. As an example, French beers are usually drunk out of beer goblets, German beers are drunk out of steins, British beers out of pints etc. Go check out beeradvocate.com if you are unsure of which kind of glass you should purchase for your favorite beer. Once you have your glass it is incredibly important to hand wash your glass with a light dish detergent and hand dry each glass. Dish detergent residue and water spots can negatively affect the flavour of the beer. Most bar supply stores will actually have cleaning equipment if you want to go pro, but in general a clean towel and some buffing will be more than adequate.

Step 3: Pouring your beer

There is no steadfast rule to pouring your beer and each large brewery will have a specific methodology on how to perform the perfect pour, however as a rule of thumb, the neck of the bottle or keg spout should remain stable and the glass should be held at a 45 degree angle. This will maximize both oxygenation of the beer while still suppressing the foam. Foam or the ‘head’ should seal the beer with that in mind, most standard British pint glasses are an excellent glass to start working on as they have standardized head marks which you can use as a guide. If you don’t have access to real pint glasses then the width of your thumb from the side is the best way to ascertain how much of a head you’ll need to properly seal the beer.

So go out and impress your friends with the proper pouring technique. After you’re finished drinking and you’d like a free chapter of my book, I’m giving away a free chapter for everyone who signs up through my how to study page.

Study Break Time!

Hello fellow students, another Friday, another study break! This site has been a guilty pleasure for years! To the point where I’ve cut this site off through leechblock, save for the weekends. Newgrounds is a website where you can find thousands of great little flash games absolutely free!

Here are a few of my personal favorites:

Dad game: A hilarious game about a lovable little character that turns mentally insane and goes on a killing rampage, enjoy!

Portal Defenders: GREAT game from the guys who came up with the Newgrounds site. Old school button masher that will make you laugh and isn’t too long so you don’t become addicted.

Air Defense 3: Probably the greatest ‘defense’ game of all time, you blow a ton of stuff up and get great upgrades. After about 10 minutes it really starts to become epic.

Check out the other games they have as well and DON’T become addicted. But if you do become addicted, you should probably check out a free chapter of 30 Minutes A Day To A 4.0 GPA so you can manage your addictions and school at the same time. You can get a free chapter by checking out my study tips page.

Study Break Time!

So I was sitting down with a student last week and he’d been having some difficulty with achieving his version of academic success. This guy was stressed, and I mean really stressed. He said he’d been having stomach pains and had been grinding his teeth due to the stress he’d been having trying to get his last course up to an A average. So, as I always do I started doing a study audit, going through all the stuff he’d been doing and this guy was doing everything I’d been teaching him. He had an excellent study schedule, had accountability backups, kept his social space and study space separate etc. I came to the realization that this guy’s problem wasn’t studying enough it was studying too much. So I started asking him, “when was the last time you put everything away and just did nothing all day.” He had a unimpressed blank look on his face and I realized at that point that this guy was taking school way to seriously. So with that in mind I decided to help him out with his problem by ordering him to go out Friday night and not come back until he was either properly inebriated or stress free, whichever comes first.

I’ve come to the realization that some students are just working too damn hard! With that in mind I’m instituting a weekly study break for all students; Friday nights is going to be our official disconnection from school stress night. With this in mind I’m going to be giving everyone a free tip to start their evening. I know some of you might be wary of this but I would highly suggest you try this if you in any way related to my students story.

My first tip will be to go check out my twitter account. I’ve got a ton of free stuff on there and most of it is stuff I’ve found amusing or interesting.  So go check it out and if you like it, follow me. Oh and if you’d like a free chapter of my book go check out this page on how to study where you can sign up for a free chapter.