Online gaming is a brilliant hobby that many of us enjoy. It’s generally not very expensive, the latest multiplayer games can be pretty social, and it’s a challenge, too. What’s not to like? Well, if you’re anything like most gamers, losing. Losing against your friends is a little annoying, maybe even a little humiliating, but losing against people you don’t even know online? That’s so frustrating. With that in mind, here are a few tried and tested tips that will help you to improve at any online game. 

Join Gaming Communities

The first tip is one that seems obvious but is often overlooked, and that’s to engage with gaming communities. The best places for this are online forums like Reddit, or Discord channels, as it’s here that you’ll find the most experienced players. Not only can this become something of a hobby in itself, but while you chat to other players, you’re guaranteed to pick up a few tips. Some online communities even have places where you can arrange to be online at the same time and play against one another. Finding similarly enthusiastic people to play against can work wonders for your skills.

Understand Strategy and Game Mechanics

For some games the strategy will be easy to find. For example, in blackjack online you only need to look for the blackjack hands chart in order to know how to play your hand correctly in any situation. In games like this that are largely mathematical, there tends to be a more concrete type of strategy. However, in games that aren’t so mathematical but require thinking across all kinds of different elements, this might be a bit more difficult to do. Your interest in forums and Discord channels will help, but sometimes things as simple as reading into the strategy from the game’s own website can be a good starting point. Knowing what the game uses to track success, such as reaction time, movement, and resource management, can help ensure that you’re focusing on the right skills.

Practice Like You’re a Pro

In the modern world of esports, there are plenty of people who play popular games as a profession. While not everybody can afford to take a full week off work to get in eight hours a day of practice, there are lessons to be learned from pro-gamers. The most important lesson is to practice like one of them. Sure, you don’t have the same number of hours to devote, but you can employ some of the same tactics. Making a timetable with specific skills to practice during specific sessions is a great place to start. You can focus on reaction times on one session, aim on the next, and so on. Try to work on all of the core skills needed in the game at least once per week to keep things fresh.

Analyze Your Gameplay – And Learn From It

Learning from our mistakes is a hard skill to learn but an incredibly important one. While all of us have certain strengths at games and it seems easy to play to those, working on our weaker areas tends to be the most effective (and fastest) way to improve. To do this the old fashioned way, take a look at the moments where you struggle on your next few gaming sessions. When you pinpoint one, write it down. By the end of three sessions, you’ll probably have quite a big list.

Now, it’s time to see if there’s any overlap. The chances are, you’ll find one or two areas that continuously let you down – these are what you need to work on! Build in some time during those sessions you’ve been planning to work on the core skills that are lacking in these areas. It could be something as simple as your aim being ‘off’ when you’re faced with a lot of other players. This might mean you need to focus on your aim, but also consider that it might be that you need to focus on keeping your cool under pressure.