Gaming is a big hobby for many people, and it might be one you’re getting more and more interested in, what with the media focusing more and more on the technology involved in gaming. 

Maybe you haven’t picked up a copy of a game since you were a kid, and you think of yourself as a casual player who just wants to get a bit bigger in the scene. Or maybe you’ve never touched a game in your whole life and think of yourself as a total beginner who couldn’t even begin to learn how to play an FPS. Either way, it’s a great hobby for both your brain and body to make use of, and it’s never too late to learn how to play! 

So, let’s go through a few things below that you’ll have to do to get started with gaming. It’s easier than you might think to pick it up as a hobby, but there’s no harm in giving you a good foundation to work with. 

Start with Your Computer

There’s a good chance you’ve already got a computer to make use of, for working, socializing, and anything else you need to do online. And because of this, it might be the best idea to start with your computer - after all, you could have some pretty good specs hidden away inside that case, and a computer is pretty accessible in the grand scheme of gaming too. 

ost everything you’ll want to play gets released on PC at one point or another, and there’s a good chance you’ll find your top game via this medium, and there’s also a good chance you don’t want your gaming hobby to cost you an arm and a leg! Not to mention just how advanced PCs are compared to their console cousins; PC technology could be seen as decades ahead of the generation of consoles we’re currently playing with, and you’ll have far better experiences playing on a PC than you would with a Playstation or an Xbox. 

Upgrade Your Equipment

Of course, one day there will come a time when you want to upgrade. You’ll want better frame rates, you’ll want to be able to play high demanding games, and most of all, you’ll want to stop getting so frustrated with your computer’s benchmark. And that means spending a bit of money on some well known and loved computer upgrades, especially if you want to play some more challenging games, and you’re looking for a real beefy unit to rely on. 

However, we don’t want to get bogged down in technical jargon right here, and it’s important you go at your own pace with PC upgrades. There are all kinds of guides online for building your own gaming PC, or how to upgrade an old one, so be sure to do plenty of research, and make good use of message boards such as Reddit to really get an inside scope on what makes a gaming PC good to use or incredibly upgradable for the next generation. 

Get Some Recommendations 

If you don’t already have some game titles you’ve got your eye on, it’s time to get some recommendations. After all, there are millions of potential games out there, and you could spend hundreds of hours on any one of them, and you need to be sure you’re playing something enjoyable and worth your time. You can even use a website to input some of your favorite old games to get recommendations that are a good mix of them! 

There are some very famous titles out there you might want to get started with; you’ve probably heard of the Red Dead series or The Last of Us, but these might be a little heavy for someone new to gaming. They’re long games, and they’re in-depth, and you might get a lot of replayability out of them, but make sure to filter them with more casual games, which can be recommended by platforms such as Steam. 

Gaming can take a lot of time, and if you’re finding yourself with a lot of free time right now, as a lot of people are, gaming can really draw your attention to something fun and freeing. Make sure you’re playing what you want to when you want, and you’ve got the right equipment on your side to make the whole experience as smooth and enjoyable as you need it to be.