< PreviousBest vegan gaming snack You won’t have to feel bad for munching all day with these vegan, smoky corn snacks. Not only will you be feeling filled-up, but you also won’t feel bad. Love Corn Crunchy Smoked BBQ, Dhs7 Best Twitch stream snack This refreshing iced tea with lemon tastes like bottled vacation, and packaging is pretty enough to be featured during your Twitch stream. Another thing: You’ll cure your hunger and thirst at once—no extra charge. Arizona Lemon Tea, Dhs13 Best gaming candy for a sugar rush These little bites of rainbow-hued bliss are equal parts fruity and sour, making them the ultimate pots o’ gold for any and all sour-heads. A warning: You’ll be in full pucker mode even as you reach back into the bag for “just one more.” Just make sure that stream cam is off. Chupa Chups Sour Bites Jellies, Dhs4 Best snack for a quick-bite mid-game Pay attention to your protein! Gaming for long hours on end means obviously feeling fatigued. You’ll need a bite from this bar so that you can fully concentrate once again on the game. Think of it as your levelling up. Pure Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar, Dhs13 Best snack after a heated game There’s no way to prepare thyself for this ice cream snack on a stick dipped in berry and white chocolate. It’ll be the exact treat you’ll need after *almost* getting tilted. Magnum Remix Ice Cream Berry & White Chocolate, Dhs10 Best snack to share for a multiplayer game Take a seat with your controller, drop the old snack and pass these peanut ones to a friend. Pro tip: Hold these minis in your hand until they’re just a little melty. Bon appétit. M&M’S Classic Mix Chocolate Candy Sharing Size Bag, Dhs150 Cinematic snacking at its finest. 80 BitesBest snack to fill you up for a long game These little spicy and sweet jerky bites are the most flavourful way to power through a day of gaming where you know you’ll need the energy. Did we mention that they’re all-natural as well, so you won’t be snacking on just sweets? Gg, wp. Brave Good Kind Tender Chicken Bites Hot Honey, Dhs174 (2.5 ounces) Best pretzel snack Bert and Ernie, Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly, pretzels and sea salt. That last one is the everlasting romance you didn’t know you needed and will never get enough of—ever. Lorenz cocktail mix, Dhs12 Best salty and sweet snack Watch your back, granola bars. This cashew-flavoured one features savoury and sweet flavours with just the right amout of chewy you need. Nature Valley Chewy Granola Bars Sweet and Salty Cashew Flavoured, Dhs18 Best fruity snack Take your dates obsession to the next level with these much-need cookies. Please clap for these delicious goodies. Halwani Maamoul Original With Dates, Dhs15 Best fancy snack Looking for something sweet? These crunchy choco cookies bars fit for literally any time of the day. Ciao. Bahlsen Choco Leibniz Milk, Dhs12 Best Valorant snack This is trail mix perfected. Not too sugary or salty and packed with proteins. You most definitely need a quick ‘n’ easy snack while playing this game so the packaging just makes it perfect. Power Up Protein Packed Trail Mix, Dhs32 Because trail mix isn’t just for trails. 81 BitesBY JA K E R E G I S T E R Capricorn Congrats! You’ve reached a major point in your professional life and you could end October with a bonus, a raise, or even a promotion. Celebrate your big win after the 23rd— Scorpio season is all about spending every second of your time with your crew. Virgo Maybe you got ghosted or you just drifted apart— whatever happened, there are some words left unsaid between you and your ex. Answer their DMs and talk it out once and for all. Afterward, you can ünally move on (like, for real). Or maybe get back together? It’s up to you. Sagittarius Libra season is turning you into a social butterýy. And while all your new friends seem great, free advice: Be picky about who you spend your time with. Starting on October 30, Mars Retrograde is exposing toxic connections. Trust me, they’re there. Leo Whoa, your calendar is packed. You’re making all sorts of new connections— both platonic and romantic—but there’s one problem: Mars Retrograde begins on October 30. You know that saying about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer? That’s your new life motto. Aquarius I know you hate to hear it, but you need to try to loosen up. As October ends, Saturn in your sign is forming a tense square with multiple planets in Scorpio, making you turn every little disagreement into an all-out üght. It’s time to learn the value of compromise. Libra Happy birthday, Libra! Have fun partying it up until Scorpio season begins on October 23 and your work life gets a little (or, okay, a lot) hectic. Good news though: The Sun connecting with Venus in your chart’s money zone means your hard work will be generously rewarded. Scorpio Your season is coming very soon, and once October 23 hits, it’s time to let it all out. Get creative and write or paint! Get physical and dance! Tell people you love them! Post 12 TikToks a day! Just be your genuine self and you’ll attract tons of love, luck, and (positive) attention. Cancer You’ve been coming out of your crab shell and having a blast! You can send a thank-you card to the Scorpio vibes activating your chart’s zone of romance and fun. Jupiter in your travel zone means you’ll also have a great vacation before November ends. Taurus Work is taking over for the ürst part of October, but on the bright side, you now have tons of networking opportunities. Your schedule clears up after October 23, when you’ll have plenty of time to spend with your BFFs and a new crush. Gemini Wow, you are living it up right now, Gem. But at the end of October, you’ll want to start taking things more seriously. Your to-do list is a million miles long, and although I know you want to rush through, taking your time will make everything go more smoothly. Pisces It’s an introspective Libra season for you. Your deepest emotions, fears, and bad habits are coming to the surface, and it’s time to change what you can and accept what you can’t. It’s rough, I know, so plan a Scorpio season vacay with your friends—you’ll need it. as trology Aries Libra season is oþcially your own personal cuþng season, so count on some ~action~ very soon. Then, starting on October 23, Scorpio season is all about diving deeper into intimacy. As in, a serious, real connection with your new (or current) cutie. Q4 82 Chit ChatIf you follow any tarot readers or astrologers on Instagram or TikTok, you might have gotten a message that says something like, “Grand Rising! I read your name and thought you might need a reading from me.” And to answer your immediate question, no, “Grand Rising” is not a real astrological term—it’s the kind of nonsensical phrase being used in a scam that’s becoming much more common. It goes something like this: A scammer creates a copycat profile of a tarot reader or astrologer, changing the username slightly—like replacing the letter “O” with the number “0” or adding an underscore, period, or extra letter. Then they message the account’s followers to offer personalized readings, sometimes for as little as Dhs100 and sometimes for Dhs1,000. They may add pressure by talking about an “urgent message” or messages from ancestors or spirit guides. After the person sends payment (via PayPal, for example), the scammer blocks them. Elizabeth Bodine-Baron, PhD, a senior information scientist at the RAND Corporation, calls it “a natural evolution of the Nigerian prince email scam,” often operated not by a single person but by an entire organization. Luckily, there are ways to spot a fraud. First, double-check the username for the aforementioned tells (and for a blue check mark, if the original account is verified). Then look at their posts: Scammers download and repost the original astrologer’s content, but weeks’ worth of photos may be posted all at once—and likely without comments or engagement. And if you’re proactively looking to book a session, know that real astrologers and tarot readers will have a website with a contact form or at least a professional, public email address—they don’t need to be in your DMs. As for those professionals, they’re now finding their incomes and reputations at risk: “I got a message from someone saying that they had paid for a service, and they had actually paid an impersonator account,” says Jessi Ujazi, creator of the Afro Tarot. “I was like, Okay, now I see that they’re actually creating distrust with potential customers.” The problem has become so prolific that tarot reader Nova Magick Tarot created the @ScammerAlertPage to document them—her goal is to expose 3 to 10 fake accounts per day. So far, she’s revealed almost 2,000. There are some steps you can take if you’ve already fallen victim to one of these cons. Definitely report the account to Instagram, and you can file a report with the payment service you used, although there’s no guarantee of getting your money back. Ultimately, the best defense, as they say, is a good offense— and that looks like blocking the heck out of anyone who dares to “Grand Rising!” you. Here’s how to tell. BY E R I K A W. S M I T H The tarot reader in your DMs might be a scammer 83 Chit ChatCheesing While some of us may *think* that ‘cheesing’ means smiling, in gaming it refers to an easy strategy to eliminate an opponent. Players who cheese will use the same tactic that they have repeatedly to win a boss fight. Clutch Coming in ~clutch~ isn’t an uncommon phrase for Gen Z-ers. In gaming slang, this refers to when an outnumbered player takes down the opposition one by one, winning the game. Tilted Getting angry while playing because you’re feeling competitive? ‘Tilted’ would be the best way to describe yourself, similar to being ‘triggered’. Noob /N00b If you’re a newbie to gaming, or an online community in general, you best believe that you’ll be called a ‘noob’. GG Also known as ‘GG WP’, an acronym for ‘Good Game Well Played’ or ‘GG EZ’, AKA ‘Good Game Easy’. ‘GG’ is mostly used after multiplayer matches where gamers want to thank their teammates and opponents on a good game sesh. Camping This term is quite common if you’re playing first-person shooter games like Call of Duty. Players strategically sit on advantageous places in a map, or hide, and this tactic is called ‘camping’. NPC A non-player character, ‘NPC’, is a character in a game that you can’t control. They usually have important roles to help you progress in a storyline, especially if you’re playing an action-packed game like Resident Evil. Poggers Taken originally from the original emoji PogChamp (you know the one, it resembles the Pepe frog meme), ‘poggers’ is used to express excitement or joy. It’s also mostly used on the gaming streaming service Twitch. Ganking If multiple players are ganging up on a single player to eliminate them, it’s also referred to as ‘ganking’. FTW ‘For The Win’ is an acronym that gives us flashback to MSN chat days, but it can still be used in a gaming chat box to hype up your teammate’s pre-match, or post- match as a way of congratulation. 84 Chit Chat THE GAMING GLOSSARY FOR NOOBSEaster Eggs Similar to their real- life counterparts, video game ‘Easter eggs’ are hidden messages and features that have been placed in a game to either help you progress, or they’ve been placed by developers as a funny feature for players. Sus Short for suspicious, this term isn’t new to those of you who played Among Us during quarantine (guilty-as-charged). If you’re playing multiplayer role-playing games like League of Legends or World of Warcraft, this is common when calling out opponents preparing sneak attacks. AFK ‘Away From Keyboard’ is used often by PC players who are participating in multiplayer online role-playing games and want to let their teammates and friends know that they might be unavailable for a bit. Sorta like ‘BRB’ back in the BBM days. OP Think of describing something as the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), but in gaming slang. A strong weapon or player who’s super skilled would be coined as ‘OP’, AKA overpowered. Smurf Nope, we’re not talking about the blue animation. Smurfs are high- ranking players who create secondary accounts to play against low-ranked players. That’s either to manipulate the scoreboard, or it’s just their fun way of passing time. Ragequit If you’ve ever seen a video of a ‘ragequit’, then you’ll know *exactly* what the term means. When a player is in an ongoing match but leave out of frustration and anger from losing, it’s also known as a ‘ragequit’. PWNED This gaming term which was also used on MSN and BBM back in the day (like 2012) is a purposeful misspelling of ‘owned’. When overtaking or beating a player in a match, some would say ‘PWNED’. Most of the time it would be followed with keyboard emoticons: ‘XD’ or ‘XP’. Major #throwback. Furries While it would be a *sin* to associate gamers with the furry fandom, it also isn’t uncommon that gamers, weebs, and otaku’s alike definitely know what furries are. This internet subculture dresses as animals in fur suits, speak like them, and fully take on a separate alter ego. Honestly, even furries don’t know how to define themselves, but one search on Google Images will give you a good idea. What does gg no re mean? And come to think of it, what does 1v1 mean? If you don’t know the answer then don’t enter a Discord server or Twitch stream without reading on. We’ve taken the liberty of collating the slang-to-know when it comes to the gaming word. Good luck, n00b! W O RD S BY S A RA A L H U MIRI Scuffed If a player has low-quality skills or equipment, other gamers would refer to that player as being ‘scuffed’. (But let’s stay friendly and far from this kind of cyber- bullying!) 85 Chit Chat 86 Chit ChatCCChhhiiitttt CCCCChhhaaaaattttBY M A D E L I N E H OWA R D PHO T O G R APH E D BY PA L O M A R I N C Ó N Picture headsets and army gear–clad avatars. Now open up to the idea that losing yourself in a pixelated world is a powerful mental health tool. Believe it: Gaming fosters connections, sharpens problem-solving skills, and allows you to peel back layers of yourself. Just press play. 87 Chit Chat BY M A D E L I N E H OWA R D llaayyeerrss ooff yoouurrsseellff.. uusstt pprreesss plaayy..CREDIT LINE HERE ALL C A P A TNA TIONAL RE GULAR 5 - 4 .5 It can help heal trauma Achievement- based gaming can be a coping mechanism for those with post- traumatic stress disorder—possibly due to the way gaming intensely distracts from the past and present. That, in turn, may help reduce the likelihood of panic attacks and depressive spells, says WH advisor Chloe Carmichael, PhD, a clinical psychologist based in New York. “There’s a meditative aspect to it,” she says. “It can be extremely absorbing, which can be very helpful if you’re ruminating on a certain topic that you really need to get your mind off of.” It’s a unique way to foster bonds. When playing against others, chatting long- distance, or accomplishing a common feat, you’re connecting in the way you would with any team sport, says psychotherapist Mike Langlois, LICSW. And unlike on traditional social platforms, you don’t need to show your face, a potential upside for introverted individuals. “I’ve created more friendships through gaming than I had prior to playing,” says AnniePants02, a self-proclaimed faceless Twitch streamer with over 40,000 subscribers (who keeps her IRL identity a secret). It gets you moving (really!). “The stigma that playing video games is somehow lazier than watching TV or movies is strange to me,” says Alanah Pearce, 27, a game writer and content creator at Sony Santa Monica Studio. She points out that propelling a character forward works your reflexes, unlike passively watching something in front of you. During COVID, for fitness, Pearce relied on a virtual reality light- saber game (see “Choose Your Own Adventure,” that involves swinging at objects, since she’s a high-risk individual who couldn’t safely work out in a gym. A surge of confidence comes too. Gaming gives you self-assurance thanks to the Proteus Effect, a behavioral phenomenon named by Stanford researchers. When people were given a taller avatar and interacted with someone in a virtual environment, they then negotiated more aggressively in a bargaining exercise in the real world than people given a shorter character. Point is: Our real selves can shift to behave like our digital ones. This can translate to just about any task, Langlois says. Scary convo on deck? Play a game beforehand that makes you feel strong and capable. and I spent hours playing Mario Kart together over the holidays last year, and in that time, I rediscovered the long-absent raw joy of cruising down Rainbow Road as baby Mario. Hit by a tidal wave of nostalgia, I clung to the escapism of zooming along in that simpler world during a radically uncertain time. Even when we had returned to our homes across the country, my sisters and I competed virtually (shout-out to Catan). After nearly a year of this obsession, I’ve concluded I am—gasp!—a gamer. At its core, gaming is a means by which we can socialize in a world where we’re not together, says Jessica Gold, MD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. It centered my family’s interactions on a shared enjoyable activity rather than on commiseration. “It was perfect timing for games to grow in popularity,” says Sonja Reid, 30, a Twitch streamer (OMGitsrefoxx) with more than 740,000 followers. “It deepened my sense of community.” Even pre-COVID, women were increasingly drawn to the gaming sphere. 41% of all women in the U.S. GAMING IS GOOD FOR YOU Four awe-inspiring health wins of logging on and playing hard “There are millions of female gamers, but some people still think that women don’t know as much as men, or that they’re not as good. You have to constantly prove yourself and show your credentials to complete strangers in ways that none of the men I’ve ever worked with have faced.” are into gaming, per recent data from Statista, and, in 2019, about 46 percent of gamers in the U.S. were female (up from 38 percent in 2006). Shocked yet? And since it never hurts to have another gadget in your mental health toolbox—ahead, the all-around bene ts of gaming, online competition, and immersive virtual lands, straight from gamers and social scientists alike. Your happier, more playful future self will thank you. 88 Chit Chat Gaming involves stepping into different avatars and roles. Why is that so clutch? ML: You experience a heightened sense of freedom in games because you have total control of how you present yourself. I have a lot of patients who take their first steps into trans identity develop ment, for example, by playing either a gender- neutral avatar or one whose gender is different from what they present in everyday life. How do you guide people through exploring an identity safely online? ML: I pay attention to the avatars my patients are using in terms of their physical and game presentations, and I will mention the qualities and attributes I see and ask about them. I might also steer them toward a game where you can customize the character, so they get a chance to create the identity they want. A character can be an unconventional way to play around with self-expression. Here’s how to explore, with advice from Mike Langlois, LICSW, a psychotherapist who specializes in using gaming to help patients heal. METAMORPHOSIS MAGIC How can you experiment in a game setting? ML: I encourage people to get curious about all the aspects of games. How do they feel when they are in a game world, either as a nonbinary person or as someone else? How much time are they spending crafting their avatar compared with the time they spend playing? All of these inquiries might help give a better sense of identity in both the game and life. 89 Chit ChatNext >