6 Things To Do When You Have Nothing To Play

We’ve all experienced a gaming drought in our lives. It’s worse for people in school because they have so much time to play games, but have little to no money to spend on games. Soon or later you’re going to run out of games, and quite frankly, that sucks. I’m experiencing it as I’m typing, since I’ve pretty much finished everything I’ve owned as well as the games that don’t appeal to me whatsoever. I do have a crapton of other games, but mostly I have a reason for giving up on them such as being frustrated out of my mind or being bored shitless.

Since having absolutely nothing to write about I figured I’ll compile a list of things to do when you can not play games.

 

Have A Social Life

You know, talk to people in real-life and not just through a headset. Go out to those majestic and mysterious places called “bars” and have a chat with a few like-minded individuals. Don’t fly off the handle and tell random strangers that you like to shoot people in the face online because you can come across as a little bit creepy. Or get arrested. Rhythm game players have a head start with the opposite sex because they can brag about being “a guitarist” or “a drummer”. No one ever said that you have to say that they are real instruments.

Doing this can be a bit on the risqué side in terms of the well-being of your teeth and the possibility that you could get the shit beat out of you by burly bikers. So proceed with caution and remember that shouting out “I’m level 80 Warlock!” as an insult will only end in tragedy. For you.

 

Steal Your Friends’ Games

I don’t condone stealing, but if you have one of those friends that get all the games they want and never plays them, then it’s perfectly justifiable. Just nick a few and return them when you go there again. No harm, no fowl. The prick probably deserved it anyway, right? If your friend is on the vigilant side then print out the game covers for the games you want, replace one of your shit game’s cover with that one and do the old switch-a-roo. Desperate times call for desperate measures, as long as you’re not making meth in an RV.

 

Write A Novel

Most gamers I’ve met in my life come across as creative. Be it making a perfect replica of the Normandy SR-2 in Minecraft or coming up with spectacular ways to kill enemies with guns. RPG gamers in particular can certainly create an amazing novel if they set their mind to it because if you’re being exposed to so many mythoses and character stories, you are eventually going to be inspired to write your own story.

So go ahead and start a novel. It doesn’t have to be finished in a few weeks, instead you can work on it for years. If you actually manage to publish your novel and it becomes a huge hit, you can buy new games with the royalties you receive. Result.

 

Clean Your House

Speaking as a person that lives alone, it certainly is tiring and time-consuming to truly clean a place. There is some positives to doing it and I have first-hand experience. I had to spring clean my place because it started to smell like an Old England brothel and creatures of all sorts started crawling out of the shoes I left on the floor. In the process of doing all that painstaking work, I found about R50 in change just lying around. That’s one tenth of a game right there. Now, my place isn’t that big so just imagine the amount of money you can get in a full-sized house.

ProTip: Make a little savings box for all your loose change. I have the Collector’s Edition Batman Arkham City box that includes a little secret tray underneath Batman’s figurine. In the process of a few months, I put all the loose change I had left after drinking and hiring prostitutes into the little secret tray and lo and behold I had R500 in loose change after a while. I converted it into notes and bought myself a game. Try it out.

 

Work Out

I’m not going to use myself as an example because I’m a fat guy, but don’t you sometimes dream that you can climb towers and sprint on rooftops like Ezio or the Prince? Go do some cardio and work those calves because you can! With recent advances in mobile phone technology you can even game while you’re riding the exercise bicycle which is fantastic. On treadmills and weights you can catch up to all your favourite podcasts and even listen to some of your gaming soundtracks. Fuck the rave music they usually play in gyms, they should blast the Max Payne 3 OST to really get the blood pumping. Working out can be fun if you mix it in with your gaming lifestyle. I’m not talking about playing Zumba Fitness for Kinect because that shit is just stupid.

 

Go Outside

Marvel at the majesty and beauty that mother nature gave us. It might not be as good as your full HD gaming experience, but at least it doesn’t have invisible walls or random bears trying to maul you. It has muggers, but you can always carry around that Daedric sword replica you have and just scare the shit out of everybody including the muggers. Go climb a mountain and search for real caves to spelunk. You might even find something of value and sell it to buy more games.

Take in the fresh air and get that blood flowing. You don’t want to die of a blood clot after having a marathon session of Borderlands 2 when it comes out would you?

 

In Conclusion

Don’t let boredom consume you when you have no more games to play. There are many great things you can do with your time while you wait for more money to buy more games. Go start a band or find a gamer girlfriend. Possibilities are endless my friend. Do what you will. Except make meth in an RV. You might just throw a pizza on a roof.*

* I really like Breaking Bad okay. Oh yeah that’s another point. Watch some good series.