How I have used games to improve my blocking

As we approach the first anniversary of the change in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic, I have begun to reflect on the ways in which I have also changed in that time. As someone who was just living alone when the confinement orders arrived, the transition from my previous life to my current reality was hard. To combat those struggles that many of us have faced during this difficult time, I made a concerted effort to focus on my physical and mental health, and part of that was achieving the goals that I had for myself for a long time.

The pandemic has allowed me to learn to be a better cook and a better mixologist (I finally nailed that old-fashioned recipe), but one of my goals when entering the confinement was to learn to play the guitar again; I was pretty good at it in high school, and with a little extra time to myself, I thought now was as good a time as any to dust off the old ax. I tried using apps and the internet with mixed results, so when I saw that Rocksmith 2014 was for sale for $ 4 on Xbox late last year, I jumped at the opportunity to have a game-based way to brush up on my rusty skills. Unfortunately, I didn’t anticipate that the cable would cost another $ 30 and that I would want a ton of DLC songs, but you know what? All in all, it’s not a bad deal when you consider the typical advantage and cost of an interactive guitar instructor.

I’m still in the early stages of re-acquiring my skills, but I’m having a blast plugging an electric guitar into my Xbox and playing simplified versions of some of my favorite songs in a matter of minutes. I missed the boat at Rocksmith the first time, but I’m glad I signed up for this offer, as now when combined with my workouts and a recent habit of doing digital art on my iPad, I have another way to do it the healthy way. channel everything that I’m going through mentally right now.

This was only part of my path to self-reliance. With the world practically closed, I have tried to reproduce the experiences that I most expected in the comfort of my own home. While the cafe in the corner of my kitchen and the two gyms in my house get used daily, I really miss being social. One of my favorite activities during the less risky times was to go to a local arcade bar, get a few bucks in chips, have a drink, and relive some of my favorite arcade games from my youth. While I am a huge advocate for supporting local businesses during these times, I am not very interested in going to an indoor area with other people where the main attraction is touching things. So I decided to start looking for ways that I could bring the arcade experience home.

One of the main reasons game rooms no longer flourish the way they did in the 80s and 90s is because home consoles have far surpassed the technology of typical game room cabinets. This was shown in the way I traveled and got lost in the various places in console games when I couldn’t do it in real life. Getting my hands on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S further enhanced my immersion in these worlds, and I can’t overstate how important the Switch has been, with games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, during this time. last year. However, there is something to be said for the arcade cabinet form factor. That is why I turned to Arcade1Up, which sells officially licensed game cabinets, to help turn part of my basement into a stay-at-home game room.

In the past few months, I’ve added an NBA Jam cabinet, as well as a Mortal Kombat one. The NBA Jam cabinet has NBA Jam, NBA Jam: Tournament Edition, and NBA Hangtime, while the Mortal Kombat cabinet brings together Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Not only that, but I reserved Capcom Cabinet Legacy Edition, which includes loads of Street Fighter games plus other Capcom classics like 1943, Strider, and Darkstalkers, to round out my home arcade with some of my all-time favorite arcade games. All I need now is the next X-Men Arcade cabinet, the perpetually out of stock Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cabinet (complete with Turtles in Time), and the dream ad I’ve been waiting for from Arcade1Up: The Simpsons arcade cabinet. I know I’ll never own them all, but if I launch the arcade machine at Area 51, I’ll be ready for life.

Of course, video games aren’t a fix-it-all solution, as much as I’d love for them to be. I have also moved far beyond games to focus on myself and my sanity. I’ve taken the time to get away from the screens with workouts, meditation, and lots of walks around my neighborhood (when it’s not unbearably cold here in Minneapolis). I also began seeing a therapist virtually to help process the current reality we all share, the seemingly constant stream of tumultuous news we’ve experienced, and the whiplash-whipping shift in my personal and professional life over the past year and a half. Video games have helped me and shaped my life in ways I can barely express, but making sure to take care of your mental and emotional health in a more formal way has become much more important.

I still can’t wait for the day when I can meet friends at my game bar for some drinks and games, but now I will have the opportunity to host a similar experience at my place. Oh, and some Rock Band too, just in case, I’ve been building that song library for a decade and a half with the idea that I would eventually have some parties with that thing. If everything continues as it is now, I am trying to get out of this pandemic with new skills in cooking and mixing drinks, my own personal coffee corner, gym, game room, a renewed ability to play the guitar, a more alive focus on health. mental and a particular appreciation of the life that we all led before the last 12 months. While I have often lamented how much time I wasted over this past year, when I say it that way, I suppose it could have been worse.