By: Soh Minghui (24J07)
Phew, finally, the last week of Term 3! Guess how many days of holiday we students get? That’s right, a whopping ten days and a half – very blessedly, if you ask me. As we welcome the long weekend and the September holidays to commemorate and celebrate Singapore’s dedicated faculty of teachers, it also doubles as a much-needed break for us, after the interminable onslaught of tests and assignments. (It does serve as the last lap of our academic marathon of the year, though, so don’t just rot away in bed :D)
Amongst the various ways to unwind, my go-to for this Teacher’s Day is, as spoiled by the title, playing games. Specifically, Honkai: Star Rail. After an arduous period of academic stress since its 2.4 update – “Finest Duel Under the Pristine Blue” – on July 30, the long-awaited update that has been rotting in my phone for two weeks is finally mine to experience.
Just as I sit back and kickstart the newly-released Trailblaze Continuance, the namesake story arc of 2.4’s version update, am I already attacked by a philosophical question.
For someone who sends a child into war, he’s giving too much dad vibes
Even when I was younger, the fallacy of games and good grades being mutually exclusive was a confounding notion. If no one admonished me for blasting music and singing along to the lyrics, sticking my nose in a book, or keeping my eyes glued to anime on my iPad, why were games where they drew the line? My parents were always quite content to leave me to my own devices as long as I didn’t destroy the house or break the law, so my past time, albeit spent mostly in solitude, would just be me occupying myself with whatever I fancied at that point of time.
While I had the freedom to play Pokémon on different Nintendo consoles separately owned by several members of my family, my classmates frequently lodged complaints about their parents’ confiscation of their digital devices or their pitifully paltry amount of permitted screen time. Perhaps my parents’ open-mindedness towards the way I spent my leisure time had influenced my own opinions towards games – whenever I asked about why they never imposed any restrictions on my forms of entertainment, they would jokingly return the question.
“De-stress is wrong, meh?”
All in all, I have to admit I was a pretty lucky kid in that aspect.
So in my books, games have never been the enemy of academic excellence.
Thus here comes the million-dollar question. With an academic workload that steadily grows heavier with every grade transition, how does one simply squeeze in hours upon hours of gameplay and story time? And no, the answer is not the skip button.
As an avid player of Honkai: Star Rail, perhaps I can chip in my two cents on the matter.
Perhaps rather infamously, games that fall under the umbrella of Hoyoverse have a reputation for their lengthy and long-winded quests, and Star Rail, as the fourth instalment of the Honkai series, inherits its immersive storytelling element from its predecessors. Mainly experienced from the perspective of the playable protagonist, the story begins when you – the Trailblazer – awaken an amnesiac, stranded in a space station. Equipped with only a baseball bat but embroiled in a crisis, you manage to save the day and eventually board a train capable of interplanetary travel. Aptly named the Astral Express, you and your companions voyage the sea of stars aboard it, connecting worlds and resolving disasters. Accompanying the release of a new region would be a main storyline revolving around said region, typically spanning across several patches with a clockwork update of six weeks.
Coincidentally, our school has its own timetables to adhere to every term. Our student handbooks detail the events of the year in the calendar, with additional printouts listing test dates by the week for every class to gawk in horror at. More often than not, they clash regardless of their rigidity.
Like they say, fiction draws inspiration from reality.
All in all, juggling separate schedules of education and entertainment is one hard mountain to climb. But no mountain is insurmountable.
1. Game Smart
Personally, the only game I frequently play (or at all) nowadays is Star Rail, which is honestly my limit.
As Star Rail has an ongoing storyline that is updated every six weeks, the aforementioned first hours of gameplay are usually devoted to going through the latest continuation. It doesn’t help that most, if not all, of the limited-time events are also locked behind completion of the story, with no skip buttons available. If progress is to be made with the game, clearing its story quests is an inevitable and crucial aspect of the experience.
Depending on the genre and playstyle, different games have varying levels of commitment. Some games are light snacks that can be eaten quickly in several bites – perfect for short bursts of play. Albeit not exactly quick-fixes, Pokémon and Stardew Valley are easy to pick up and put down, due to their inherently leisure nature of gameplay with no need to worry about real-time “deadlines”. Others are akin to a seven-course meal that can only be finished by constant chewing, where hours of dedication are but the norm. Nearly every RPG that has a gacha mechanic – Fate/Grand Order, Wuthering Waves, Reverse: 1999 – are prime examples of this, driven mostly by the need to rake in profits within a specified time frame before the new cycle of content hits the servers.
For the busy bees, not being able to speed through content may discourage them from playing story-heavy games entirely, so my first tip would be to choose your games wisely. When pressed for time, go for games that allow for easy saving and quitting, or those that require shorter sessions. That way, fitting them into packed schedules without compromising academic grades would be a less stressful process. The most important thing about playing games is to have fun and relax. Fretting over missed and time-consuming content is the exact opposite of that, and precisely what we want to avoid.
2. Know When to Hit Pause
Inevitably, life gets hectic.
When examinations are around the corner, or the school event you’re hosting is in its final lap of preparations, the stress shoots up like weeds. When the pressure exceeds a certain threshold, the psychological need for distraction starts to set in. In other words, procrastination. And that’s the last thing you need when you should be kicking yourself into gear.
In these times, it’s okay to press the pause button on your gaming routine. Your favourite games aren’t going to sprout legs and run away. They will still be there when you’re done crushing your academic goals.
Remember, the fear of missing out is but a social construct.
3. Prioritise Like a Boss
Let’s face it, not all assignments are created equal.
When your Project Work Summary and an essay outline both need to be handed in on the same day, which one would you tackle first? Obviously, the one that ranks higher on the scale of priority: the Project Work Summary.
Putting in your utmost effort for everything may be a sign of diligence, but some things are inherently more critical than others. When the cycle is ceaseless, the inability to finish every bit of work to perfection is understandable. Sometimes, you can remove yourself from the ever-growing pile of assignments to recharge. Either way, the influx of homework never ends, and there’s a difference between staying on top of your work and stressing over keeping yourself ahead.
An eternity of mathematics… How apt.
Obsessing over completing every task before allowing yourself to take a break only stretches you thin in the long run. Your productivity would plummet and by the time you’ve wrapped up your work, you would be too worn out to even indulge in any actual downtime. That’s absolutely the best of no worlds.
So, make a list of assignments and sort them by due dates and importance. Knock out the high-priority stuff first so you can game guilt-free later. Plus, it’s always more fun to game without that nagging feeling of urgent work looming over your head.
We should treat our breaks like we do our work – with 100% seriousness!
4. Time Management: The Real MVP
With Star Rail’s system of Daily Missions and Assignments, the developers rely on meagre rewards sprinkled throughout little quests to incentivise players to log in daily. While they do so to retain engagement, certain players incontrovertibly fall into a black hole of their time.
What I instead do is take advantage of my long travelling duration to and from school – a grand total of one hour – to speedrun such daily tasks, but not everyone is “fortunate” enough to have such intermediate pockets of time for games like me.
So I say start by trying something like the Pomodoro technique – 25 minutes of focused work followed by a 5-minute break. Repeat this cycle a few times, and you’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish in terms of your in-game and academic goals. Just don’t get too sucked into your game and forget the time!
This way, you know when it’s time to crack open the books and when it’s time to get your game on.
5. Take Care of Yourself
Last but not least, don’t forget about taking care of yourself. After all, the Self Care Bingo cards provided by the JC1 PSL Core Team aren’t just for show. The many little things aren’t just a mindless KPI to do to claim prizes.
Getting sufficient sleep, having a balanced diet, and staying active are stepping stones to not only maximising efficiency, but also keeping you healthy and happy. A well-rested body and mind will help you focus better during your study sessions and enhance your gaming performance.
At the end of the day, grades may be important, but that doesn’t mean we students are completely forbidden from indulging in games. While downtime drastically dwindles with every step of education’s ladder, it isn’t rendered obsolete or non-existent, so seize it when it serves itself to you on a silver platter.
Study hard, play hard — it should always be about work-life balance.
For EOYs and Promos alike, may we all manifest our As into reality!
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