Gaming is a wonderful hobby. Gaming has the storytelling ability of books, visual effects that rival movies and can educate better than schools. With all the above being true the question has to be asked: why doesn’t everyone play games?

Some see it as a childish hobby, some don’t see the value in it, some have their own reasons but the one that can be helped is the fear of being bad at games. We all know that there’s a lot of toxic players out there and people put me off doing a lot of things but instead of just stating “Git Gud” I’d like to provide useful information for how to learn gaming.

1. The most important thing in any game is to pay attention, especially early on. There’s almost always something that tells you what to do or how to play near the start of a game, as tempting as it is to rush through you should pay attention and take notes of you have to, anything to benefit your understanding.
2. Try anything and everything. A lot of games come with some element of choice, if you start a game like Skyrim as a melee character and don’t like it there’s nothing stopping you being an archer or wizard. You can restart games with very little consequence to help find a way you like to play.
3. You won’t like everything. I don’t like the old Tomb Raider games or how they handle, like in real life there are things you won’t click with. It’s alright to give up on something, maybe you’ll go back to it, maybe you won’t.
4. Always be curious. I’ve been playing Elden Ring recently and it took me ten hours to realise that a certain image on the map meant something, I only discovered it by poking about in that location. Let that “what’s that?” moment drive you. Press every button and look at everything, try different games.
5. Don’t understand, get help. As silly as it sounds, there’s always someone better than you. Internet forums, Facebook or Twitter users, wiki guides, let’s plays or something else will have the answers to your questions, seek and ye shall find. Games can be vague, tutorials can be accidentally skipped, just remember there’s no shame in asking even if the question seems stupid.

Please do comment if there’s anything I could help with, I’m not an expert on most things but I’m willing to help.