5 Unexpected Ways To Improve Your Gaming Experience

Picture it: you’re slumped in your favorite couch, controller in hands, gawping at Spider-Man 2’s astonishing New York vista on your 50-inch 4K TV, and kicking ass. 

It doesn’t get any better than that.

Except it does! As we all know, playing video games is the most engaging, challenging, relaxing, stimulating, and downright life-enhancing hobby there is, but we can think of at least five ways to make it even better. 

Whether you’re a lifelong hardcore gamer or a mere dabbler in the world of interactive entertainment, here are five tricks and tips for getting the most out of your screen time. 

Get Yourself a Customized Controller

Global video game industry revenues are sitting at a staggering $176.06 billion in 2024, and plenty of that money goes into the development of ever more ergonomically and technologically impeccable controllers. 

Whatever your console of choice, the default controller is a work of art, resulting from decades of iterative improvements. 

But you can always make them even more suitable for your needs, applying cosmetic and/or practical modifications to your controllers to make them prettier, sturdier, grippier, and just all round better. 

This works particularly well for controllers with modular designs, giving you that extra degree of customization, but you can make any controller sing with unique designs, grippier thumbsticks, custom home buttons, and more. 

Invest in a Pair of Surround Headphones

Video games are a seriously immersive medium, letting you interact with their imaginative worlds like no other art form. 

And you can easily ramp up the level of immersiveness by simply sticking on a pair of surround headphones. 

With a decent set of cans you’ll be able to hear every little detail of the virtual world you’re inhabiting with pindrop clarity, and if you go for a surround model you’ll also be able to pinpoint every enemy and locate every in-game whisper.

Even if you’re still looking at a screen, your ears will make you feel like you’re in another world. 

Experiment with Different Gaming Peripherals

Video gaming is a hobby that aims to appeal to absolutely everyone, and a whole universe of peripherals exists to support players of all types and tastes. These can encourage non-players to give gaming a go, bring a new lease of life to older titles, and much more. 

Motion controllers are an indispensable addition to any peripheral collection, allowing you to rock out in VR titles like Beat Saber, dance like a loon in Just Dance, pretend to be casting off a fishing line, and a million other things besides. 

Then there are gaming gloves, which give you an incredible amount of precision and control while you play.

We’ve all heard of virtual reality headsets, but unless you’re an early adopter you may not realise quite how far the technology has come. A decent VR headset is lightweight, responsive, powerful, and comfortable, and it can transport you anywhere. 

Decorate Your Gaming Room with Ambient Lighting

If you can’t dive into a gameworld through a headset, you can make the gameworld come to you with LED lighting. 

Smart bulbs can help to create the perfect gaming environment, creating a moody, vibrant, or cozy atmosphere according to your whim.

Some can even respond to in-game events, casting a light against the wall behind your monitor that, for example, grows more intense during boss fights. 

Join a Gaming Community and Play with Others

There are roughly 3.09 billion active video gamers in the world, which isn’t far off being half of the people on earth. Your soulmates are out there somewhere. 

And thanks to the miracle of online multiplayer gaming, you might just meet them, joining forces in a round of Fortnite or jumping into a WoW raid from other sides of the world. 

Single-player gaming is great, but multiplayer gaming is a whole other experience, where everything you do is heightened by the knowledge that you’re interacting with real people. 

Chances are, those people share many of your interests, too. Online gaming is a great way to make friends and meet new communities – though we’d always recommend staying safe by using a VPN for gaming. 

This hides your IP address and protects your data, ensuring that nobody knows more about you than you want them to. 

In Summary

You never thought playing games could get any sweeter, but you were wrong.

From personalizing your controller to creating a cutting edge lighting setup, the options for customizing your gaming life are virtually endless. Try out these five tips and you’ll fall even harder for the world’s greatest pastime. 

Maria Alexander