There are some gamers among us who played World of Warcraft but played CS Go or Minecraft or Quake all the more. Besides the Lan-Parties and was not only talked about the network, but also servers were set up. They were called ICQ, IR, Teamspeak or Discord. One used and uses these tools today as a matter of course. What can we learn from our gamers?
What can we learn?
There are always areas and industries that have already learned through mistakes and thus already master the area we currently need. This means gaining experience and not making the same mistakes. In the field of video conferencing and
1. suitable hardware
We can learn from the professional gaming industry that we need both suitable hardware and suitable software.
In the field of hardware we see larger devices with fans, ergonomic mice and keyboards and that ladies and gentlemen practice for a long time and spend a lot of time in front of the computer. Accordingly, this includes the right chair for an ergonomic seat in front of the computer and at least 1 better 2 really good displays.
The headsets are light-fitting headsets that are connected to the computer via USB plug and cable and have a microphone close to the mouth. The small arm reaches almost to the mouth and often has a puschel to improve the sound and appropriate software to suppress breathing noise.
We can already learn a lot from this for the hardware.
- not the thinnest computer is the best
- not the smallest Bluetooth headset is the best
- not the standard computer is the best
- Computer with fan, 8 – 16 GB RAM, decent graphics card (no OnBoard) and at least 512GB SSD
- hard disk space and a good high resolution display
- USB bound large headsets with microphones near the mouth
special computers adapted to the purpose (secretary / consultant / developer) // One computer for all is never the right way
2. suitable software
This will be very exciting in this area. Because here, too, it is often true that not every software is right for everything. In my childhood Skype was frowned upon and Teamspeak or Discord was already in use, because not only the hardware but also the software was optimized for performance. Teamspeak also ran alongside the game and didn’t cost as much resources as Skype or Zoom or teams today. Latency, performance and jitter are important values and on top of that many gamers still use streaming to Twitch or Youtube, OBS and this parallel to their game. The software is used minimalistically.
Windows 10 has partly understood how to combine streaming and performance and still provide very good performance of the computer. This is still missing in teams and also the competition.
3. discipline
Discipline to pursue a goal and this with all means often leads to addiction, but also to finding a solution and not giving up. We can learn this from professional gamers, who play virtually in FIFA against the competition and then jog a round through the stadium. Because balance is everything. Concentration on one goal and exactly the balance beside the gambling/work is part of it.
4. native handling and practice
Not everything is possible from the beginning, it requires practice and the most native handling of hard- and software, so that you can work quite freely. Key combinations have to be practiced and also how to stream and how to deal with the situation. We only get better through practice and repeating the exercise. My first stream was a catastrophe, but by the 40th I was already used to it and problems didn’t scare me anymore.
The Top 5 for video conferencing
- Be at least 15 minutes earlier and test the hardware and software
- reboot the computer before a conference
- use a neat and good headset with microphones close to the mouth (USB)
- Insert a tidy camera at the right angle
- know key combinations, have practice and know how the tool works
Do we all have to become gamers now?
Of course, this can’t apply to everyone, but being a gamer is not wrong. Today, employees who used to play multi-player games have considerable advantages, and you can see this more and more. These people find it easiest to switch to the home office and start streaming at work. Join gamers, watch how gamers stream their Let’s Play with OBS and use it for your meetings!
We need to become more open and become a gamer a little bit more!