You may think it’s hopeless to try convincing your school to unblock games websites, but it’s not quite as hard as you think. Depending on what sort of game you want unblocked, here are a few ideas to get you going.
1. Suggest the educational value of some games
Not all games are irrelevant to your curriculum. Plenty of games out there test your maths, English, and science skills. Teachers can use games such as Countdown as ‘warm-down’ exercises for a bit of fun at the end of a lesson.
If your school insists on keeping educational games blocked, suggest they pre-load some of the games onto the school network – a compromise that will keep the IT admins and students happy! Ideally, bring them a list of games for them to check out and approve.
2. Ask the admins to install certain software
In order to play some games, a computer must have certain software installed. Software called Flash powers most games, but other games use Java or Shockwave which your school might now have. If this is the case, try getting your school’s admins to install them! You could make up a reason for you wanting them to do it other than playing games – but don’t get caught playing them afterward.
3. Ask for your school’s network to be a little less restricted
If you want to host a LAN game on your school’s network, you may find your school network forbids you from this. Generally, such games take up few resources and should put the network under very little strain. Of course, don’t expect the admins to let you run the latest version of Battlefield or another modern game – it is extremely likely your school computers won’t be able to run such games even on the lowest graphics settings.
4. Ask for your school to open certain ports
Ports are a series of ‘routes’ to the internet that a network uses to organize connections. Different software will use different port numbers. If you want to play some online games at school, first, pick a game that isn’t resource intensive. For example, MMO games usually take up little bandwidth, and should be fine.
However, FPS games and Minecraft usually take up a lot of bandwidth and admins may be wary of allowing those games. To find out which port you need unblocked, you will need to find out by searching, or asking on, the internet. One final note – if you want to play Minecraft at school, your school needs to have Java installed on their computers.
5. Most importantly – be responsible
The game you want unblocked my not be ‘educational’ at all – that’s fine. You can convince your school’s IT admins that you won’t play any online games during lessons; instead, it’s just something fun to do during breaks. Show that you will be responsible and chances are they will let you play your games.
