Self Control By Yared Mckaughan

Gaming and Self-Control

The unlikely masters of discipline. Story by Yared McKaughan

BuddyRV after his team scores the winning goal. “Busy, stressful, fun, exciting.”. These were the 4 words Joe used to describe his life. Joe, better known by his fans as Jamaican Coconut, is a multi-platform content creator with thousands of fans, so why would he use these words as representatives of his life? Well, Joe is also a student.

He may be a streamer, Youtuber, and a TikToker, but he also majors in computer science at Penn State. “I built my own PC in 7th grade, I’ve been interested in a career but I also had dreams.”

Joe had many aspirations growing up but they dwindled down once he got older. “I used to play soccer in High School, now I just play as a hobby.” This is the story of most of his aspirations growing up, big dreams turning into things to do on the weekend.

A day in the life of a student is hard enough, so try to imagine working a full-time job while conducting your studies. If you can’t, here’s a breakdown of collegiate gamer life. In this case, Joe’s life.

“I wake up around 8 and eat breakfast. I take the bus to school because I’m only a sophomore and have 2-3 classes a day. After school, I go to the gym and get a lift in. Then I get home and try to finish my homework, but sometimes I don’t and I go straight to editJoe admits that at first, he didn’t take his studies seriously, but this year, things have changed. He’s had to become an expert at setting his priorities and knowing exactly what he needs to do in order to keep on top of things. He admits that it’s hard sometimes, but he understands college is his backup plan, he wants to be a gamer.

Joe started his career humbly. “I started to upload just clips of cool shots I made, but people didn’t like that too much”, remarks Joe.

“Then I started making videos, like longer content with funny moments and things like that.” This is when his following started to increase.

Since the start of his career, freshman year of college, he has gained 10,000 YouTube subscribers and 60,000 TikTok followers. But back to the question of why would he go through this every day? “I love my fans, when I went to the Winter Major in LA I got recognized and it was beyond surreal.” He described the out-of-this-world experience as rewarding and almost overwhelming.

You can imagine how hard it must be to juggle school, a job, and other adult activities. The life of a content creator in school is very challenging,

especially if gaming is your first priority like Joe.

But Buddyrv sees things through a different lens. “I always put school and education above gaming. He takes his studies more seriously than Joe, which could be due to Buddy, Ryan, being a junior in high school.

“I always prioritize school before creating content.” Buddy wants to major in marine sciences, but keep the option of a gaming career open. He has always been a great student, so juggling Rocket League and school isn’t as challenging for him. Along with this, he is on his school’s varsity soccer team. He balances all of these by setting his priorities. “I get right to work with my schoolwork as soon as I can, then give myself a break to start to think of ideas for content or just play the game.”

Ryan is interested in playing at the collegiate level. ”Right now I’m just growing into it, and preparing myself for it in the long run”. He hopes to play in CRL and later play professionally.

But does this apply to only one game?

“I always prioritize school before creating content.I balance this by getting right to work with my schoolwork as soon as I can, then giving myself a break to mentally focus and start to think of ideas for content or just play the game.” -BuddyRV

No. Even other gamers go through the same process and have the same feelings. Paz, an Overwatch player for Penn State also has a tough time balancing his time. Paz is on a professional team as well, so he has to factor in mandatory team practices which makes it all but easier.

“I wasn’t putting enough time into my academics. I could get away with it in High School, but not in college.”

As you can see, these are different lifestyles. Ryan, a high school student, is more focused on the academic side of things, Joe focuses on the gaming side, So, can we learn things from these three about how to live your student life? Well, Ryan believes that self-control and dedication play a very important role in his life.

“Having self-control and keeping everything in check is very important.”

The need for discipline can be found in many careers, but with gaming, it’s a little different. Video games are an addictive activity that can take control of your life, so playing them professionally takes a lot of dedication and control. You may not have expected so much discipline and principle from this career path which shows that you should respect gamers a little bit more. They are just as talented as regular athletes.

The life of professional gamers is chaotic, so when you factor in school, part-time jobs, and extracurricular activities, it now becomes a problem of keeping an equilibrium between activities. These three gamers are masters of self-control and prioritizing. If they can balance a career and academics, it means that you can too, with whatever you’re balancing.