University and colleges and all those other great post-secondary educational institutions are starting up soon! That means in a short while you’ll have classes and mounds of readings to do for class, but you’ll goof off instead. It’s alright, we all do it. The night before my first ever university final I stayed up all night playing Persona 3. In my defence, Persona 3 is fucking addictive and way more fun than studying the basics of political science. So, for all of those new to the world of academia, especially for those of you going into dorms, here’s a handy guide with some tips on how to bring your game to dorms (and some other tips I think will help one’s school career).

Consider your room

Dorm rooms aren’t big. They aren’t small either, but often they are a downgrade from one’s own room back home. When planning on what games and what consoles to take with you to dorms, remember that you may not have room for everything. Especially as you make progress through the system you’ll have less room for games as books find their way onto the provided bookshelves, as blasphemous as that very idea is. Your room should influence console choice. If you have six consoles you absolutely can’t part with, you’ll need to learn to part with a few of them. If you bring your Wii, you need to realize the waggling of some games requires space. This means if you often have people wanting to join in on such games you’ll need to get used to lugging your console out to a common area to play – and that’s assuming the common area isn’t being used by people watching a movie or something.

This is what the dorms at my school look like – one gets used to lack of space quite quickly.

If you’ll be sharing a room with someone, do not plan to bring too many consoles and games. You need to share what little space there is, so be considerate. If you live fairly close to the university, it’s better to bring too little at first and bring more stuff in at a later date. If you have to travel quite a ways to get to the university, just bring one console and a few of your favourite games for it. It’s better to be on the safe side and if you have extra space you will fill it up. At my university trips to the Dollar Store, ValuVillage, and thrift stores are pretty common. You will find crap to lug home. In the end, packing a bit light when it comes to entertainment will not kill you.

I’m not saying leave your Wii at home, but maybe you should leave that copy of Just Dance at home if you don’t want to always move your console.

You’re there to learn, seem smart, and then go back to Starbucks with your degree in Russian Literature

It seems like my moral responsibility to talk about student habits, since you won’t spend all your days trying to beat the current speedrun for Super Metroid.

At the end of the day, you’re in school to read books, write papers, and (generally) be smart. Get into a good study routine. For me, I read my required readings the day before, since I have large blocks of time to do nothing. After supper is a good time for me to socialize, watch movies, and play games. This way, I have from when I wake up until 5 to do my required readings.  Underline passages in the books you read, have a notebook to write down the bibliographic information of books you’ll source in major papers, and plan out when you’ll be doing assignments. If you have a book review, plan to read the book before hand. I know people who believe that they can skim the book and get a good mark. However, I’ve seen their reactions when they see I got an A on a book review and they got a C. Knowing those books will also make you well-prepared on exams when you can summarize your in-class readings to prove a point. It may not seem like much, but most people won’t do this.

When you get your syllabus for a class, look at the assignments and write those dates down somewhere. Then, figure out when you need to start working on it in order to finish it on time. This way you won’t be in the situation where you’re not free for long periods of a time because you’re working on multiple major assignments that are all due in a week. A lot of people that absolutely can’t go out and have fun during school are in that situation because they put off assignments. If you plan shit out, you have leeway and time to waste.

Think about the games you’ll bring

Single player games are fine – I play quite a few single player games in fact. As a rule, expect people to watch. People will often have nothing better to do and if you’re playing Zelda, well, everyone loves Zelda (especially Ocarina of Time) so you can imagine people will want to watch, comment, and joke. Even this will allow you to learn something about certain people. The games people stop to watch give you an idea on what they like – I have one friend who watched me play through Okami, pretty much end to end, just for the art style. Provided you’re willing to have a conversation as you game, you aren’t being anti-social. That being said, single player games can sometimes attract unwanted attention. If you want some alone time while you play a game, remember to keep the door closed. If a game requires a lot of concentration and immersion, leave it at home or play it with your door closed. Otherwise you’ll be talking as you play Silent Hill II and nothing kills Silent Hill II like other people.

Sadly, not all of these will fit in your dorm.

Multiplayer games are trickier. Sports games are a good staple, they’re pretty easy to jump into, move pretty fast, and the rules are mostly familiar to almost everybody. All you need is one more controller to enjoy a game with someone. However, when you get to computer games it’s hard to find good games that are easily to spread around the floor to play. Some older strategy games have “hot-seat” multiplayer modes – such as the almost-perfect Risk II. Hot-seat games will have you and your friends taking turns using the computer to input your moves. This is best done with a larger group as those that aren’t playing are not supposed to look at the screen when it’s not their turn. This means you don’t need to give the game to anyone, just one person needs it for everyone to enjoy it. I’m a whore for Good Old Games and it is definately the way to go for this. No CD keys are required for their games and there’s no digital rights management; these two things make it the perfect place to spend a few bucks on a game all of your friends can enjoy. As a rule, shooters and strategy games will be crowd favourites. Chances are people will play Starcraft and Warcraft III, so if you have those games you should definitely bring them. Last year, Dawn of War became a favourite game to play on my floor. Heroes of Might and Magic III is also a good choice, but it may not like some current OS and hardware configurations as much as Starcraft. Overall, strategy games tend to be more popular due to lower system requirements. Some shooters I’d suggest to try with dormmates are Unreal Tournament (the original and Unreal Tournament 2004 should run on almost any computer), Alien versus Predator II, the Call of Duty series (this is a console staple), and Gears of War.

Don’t fear the “Freshman 15”

The “Freshman 15” refers to the weight gain many people experience when they first get to university. Sometimes it’s because you can eat as much cafeteria food as you like and sometimes dorm students will have common kitchens, resulting in a lot of Kraft Dinner entering one’s diet. The food most university students can afford is not particularly healthy and university cafeterias have to consider their budget. Either way, you’re not eating the healthiest food out there. A second cause for the dreaded 15 is the fact, for many people, living at university presents the first taste of freedom they’ve ever had from their parents. Thus, they may eat more food and less healthy food than they would under normal circumstances. However, there is no reason to fear it. You likely won’t be keeping it because you won’t keep that diet up, which may cause your body to burn some of that sexy fat away. Universities are also equipped with well-maintained gyms. If the weight gain is too much for you, hit the weights and the treadmill to lose the 15 pounds. You’ll feel better for it. Never worry to much though, you’ll lose that excess fat with little effort.

Change your caffeine fix from pop (or soda, for you silly Americans) to tea or coffee

Invest in a good kettle (get one that’s metal for health reasons), a tea pot, and a french press. In some areas, yerba (a South American tea) is very popular. This is a good tea to start off your new fix with – it has a lot of caffeine, is drunk from a funky horn or a hollowed-out gourd, and it’s assumed to be a social drink. The tea itself is very cheap – I pay $5 for a kilogram of yerba. Other teas will be more expensive, but they are still cheaper than soft drinks. Admittedly, tea has a steeper start-up cost, if you will, if you don’t have things such as a kettle. If you buy all the products in this paragraph related to tea and coffee, you’ll spend about $100. The trade off is you’ll make your addiction into something that’s a social activity. A good way to get to talking is by sitting around sipping on coffee or tea; you don’t really get the same atmosphere with a two litre bottle of Coke. If that’s not enough to win you over, think about the sugar in your favourite soft drink. If your favourite soft drink has artificial sweeteners, think of the health concerns over those chemicals. Finally, think of how much water will suddenly enter your diet!

I may not be the hottest model, but hot yerba on a hot day makes for a hot picture!

Think about your computer

If you have a big, state of the art computer, don’t expect to play too many of those fancy games with people in dorms. Some universities, such as mine, block online games. Plus, very few people will have nice, sexy beasts of machinary to play Crysis with you. One of my friends purchased a top-of-the-line PC over Christmas break and he’s already considering selling it. It’s a nice machine, runs everything really well, but the issue is that he can’t really justify having it when he doesn’t have the money to buy the latest games that take advantage of the hardware. If you have a nice PC you shouldn’t be afraid to bring it along, but don’t get too excited about the prospect of Crysis LAN parties. Expect to play older RTS and FPS games a lot.

Also, I advise against going for a laptop. I had a laptop my first year and it was a bad choice. Aside from the fact it wasn’t very well made, bringing laptops to class is not a good idea for most people. Within weeks you’ll see people you know posting pictures of Facebook that they took on their MacBook during class. For note taking, a few notebooks and some pencils are cheaper and much more efficient. Come study time you won’t have 50 windows open on your desktop, but one notebook. Plus, the brain processes information better if you write it down instead of typing it out. If you need another reason to ditch the laptop, try playing Doom 2 during class when all you have is some paper and a pencil.

If you are looking to purchase a computer, go for a slim desktop. I got mine from Dell for about $500. It had better specs than my laptop, which cost double that, and plays what I need from it. On-board graphics processors are never the way to go for the hardcore, but they are not as bad as they used to be.

and think about your consoles

I’ve already alluded to this. You may very well want to bring your Wii, 360, PS3, Gamecube, Dreamcast, and Super Nintendo with you. I suggest a two console limit, though. Nintendo consoles are good for multiplayer games – everything from Donkey Kong Country to Super Smash Bros. Brawl will make for a good party game. You’ll definitely want to look at your game collection on a console by console basis to see what you want to bring. You may thinking brining your SNES will seem dumb, but the fact is a lot of people grew up on the 16-bit consoles and will love you for it. I play more SNES games at university than I do at home and my neighbor across the hall brought his top-loading NES (man, that’s a sexy beast) and there were always people wanting to play some Tecmo Baseball or Archon or other 8-bit classics. If you’re wary about bringing your Playstation 3 with you, leave it at home for a year. I’m going into my third year and this is the first year I’ll have my 360 on campus with me. At the very least you’ll appreciate the classics more when you don’t have the newest stuff.

Hmm, maybe I need my SNES more than my computer?

Keep your room as clean as you can

Believe me, I hate to sound like your mother right about now, I really do. It’s not because I have my own mommy issues, but due to the fact no one likes to be reminded they have to clean up. Well, you will have to. A mess is alright, a mess is allowed… if it’s the proper sort of mess. Books being thrown on the floor because you’re running out of desk space because you’re doing research for a big paper? That’s understandable. Spilling tea leaves on the ground and not bothering to vacuum them up? It’s a bit disgusting. A lot of the stuff that goes in here should be common sense, but after living on a floor of guys for two years I’ve learned that it isn’t. If you eat a lot of fruit, take your garbage out. If you play sports, don’t put your sports equipment in your room or in the hallway – there should be designated spots for you to keep sweaty equipment. Wash your clothes regularly, even if you have enough clothes to last you a month you should do laundry on a weekly basis. If your room has a lot of smelly clothes, that is what your room will smell like. If you have a roommate, find a way to fairly divide up the cleaning.

Bring a football, soccer ball, and/or Frisbee

You can’t spend all day inside… well, you can, but for some reason it’s frowned upon (never figured that one out). When video games don’t help you meet people, going outside to toss around a football or frisbee with someone will help you meet new people. Besides, even in the Great White North, September is a beautiful time of year. People will want to interact with all these new people they’ve never seen before and organizing a little game of catch will be a good way to get outside and meet people. Besides, in all honesty, who wants to sit around playing video games all day? Neckbeards, that’s who!

Remember, piracy will be the norm

It’s no secret students are the worst pirates this side of Somalia. Students have quite a bit of free time, but they don’t have the disposable income to buy new games, movies, and music too often. This means you’ll need to reconsider your anti-piracy stance if your friends want to play Age of Empires II, you’ll probably get a flashdrive with the game pre-cracked for you. An anti-piracy stance in a dorm environment is not only somewhat expensive, but a good way to feel left out. Even if you go out and buy the game, you may not be able to play with your friends and their pirated copies – sometimes you can only patch a cracked copy of a game so far and some companies keep the retail copies patched as they ship out. If your friends have a pirated version of Diablo II, you may buy a copy pre-patched to 1.10 while they’re stuck with 1.8. In that case, it sucks to be you.

If you’re already comfortable with piracy, invest in some USB controllers to play multiplayer games via emulator. You don’t need to spend big bucks to get a good controller, but when looking around for a controller think about the platforms you’re emulating. Logitech’s Precision controller is good for Playstation and SNES games, but not so good for Genesis and N64 games. Conversly, the Saitek P990 and P2500 are good choices for Genesis and N64 games but are incredibly awkward as Playstation controllers. If you have a wired 360 controller, use that as it’s a nice and a versatile controller.

The biggest threat to entertainment industries!

[ed. note: I'd like to thank Revelation Space for providing the slider image, check out his Deviant Art page here and enjoy some of his artsy stuff!]