The Optimum Room Set-up for Gamers
As gamers we’re generally familiar with the concept of “modding” the sh*t out of stuff, aren’t we? You upgrade a character by fine tuning his or her skill profile, you specialise your army or cart or whatever it might be for different tasks: lighter armour, more rapid fire rate, greater acceleration; you sacrifice health or clout for a special ability etc. etc. So let us ask you this: What about “modding” your gaming environment…?
After all, the space you play in makes a big difference to the experience of playing any game. All too often we neglect that side of things, or just don’t think that much about it in the first place, but really it should be carefully considered.
Take your seat for example. Everyone has a favourite chair or a favourite “spot” in a room like the Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon. It’s one of the most important considerations as it has to hold you in comfort for hours and hours. There are some who end up doing that thing you were always warned against as a child: sitting right up close to the screen, hunched over on the floor. Before you know it, you’ve been in that position for two hours and you’ve got a stiff neck and a headache and feel spaced out and weird and in desperate need of fresh air. Yeah… it’s funny until it strikes!
There are some who do actually think ahead though, and there are others still who really do know how to handle their business; never mind sofas, armchairs, bean bags or even an antique chez long, the gamers who really know how it’s done go for the TV bed. You know TV beds, right? …The kind with the massive retractable TV at the foot of the bed? It goes down for sleeping and up for movies or gaming. Now that’s how it’s done.
…OK, we know the PC gamers will disagree, and that’s fair enough because if you’re a PC gamer it’s a different kettle of fish. The PC guy or gal needs that premium desk set-up with the chair like an ejector seat, the head set, the curved keyboard, tailored mouse and so on… pretty much something that looks like one of the cockpits in Top Gun. However if consoles are your thing then the TV bed is unbeatable.
Right, enough on that, now what about the lighting/darkness factor? Obviously at night it’s not a problem as you just dim the lights or turn them off completely, but the daytime can cause problems. Nobody wants screen glare to ruin their fun and, as perverse as it sounds, sometimes a beautiful sunny day needs to be kept outside where it belongs to stop it compromising visibility. This said, a black-out blind isn’t always desirable because it’s actually quite nice to know that it’s the middle of the day sometimes, and not the middle of the night. You want a little natural daylight, but not too much. The best thing here has to be blinds of some kind. Of course shutters are all the rage at the moment too and work particularly well as you just tweak your level of closure to taste.
Finally there’s the question of sound. Do you go for headphones or speakers? It’s one of the other… surely? Relying on the TV is well and good if you enjoy average soundscapes, but if you actually care about this element of the gaming experience then at the very least you need some half decent headphones. Best of all of course would be a good surround sound arrangement, but a smallish pair of speakers and a subwoofer work well too, particularly for booming artillery, rich engine revving, or those cinematic cutscenes.