#DrewsViews: 5 Virtual Ways to Hang With Friends Right Now
by Andrew Adams
The world is a vastly different place today than we ever really expected. Instead of going to parties, out to eat, business meetings, coffee shops, or other normal forms of social interaction with close friends, coworkers, or family members, we are all stuck at home, using Zoom, the Internet, and phones for our social interactions. These forms of socializing have limitations though, as you can’t really interact with someone over Zoom like you can in real life. Video games, especially ones that give you a digital form to interact with others through, are great ways to play with your friends, even if you can’t leave your house. Here are 5 games that I think are great for just that purpose.
Animal Crossing
At this point, this isn’t new information for anyone. Animal Crossing New Horizons has been out on the Nintendo Switch for two months now, and has already taken the world by storm. In this game, you can create a character for yourself, decorate your island how you want, have visitors, and visit your friends on their own islands! This game is so good for socializing that some people are even holding game shows, graduations, and other such events on their islands. AOC, the wonderful congresswoman from New York, even “spoke” at a commencement ceremony on Animal Crossing. The possibilities are endless.
Minecraft
Minecraft is over 10 years old now, which means that it’s not new to anyone that this game is wonderful. The ease at which one can join their friends in a multiplayer server, or start their own with the free 1 month trial of private multiplayer servers, called realms, makes this game really good for anyone looking to play with their friends. The open world style of the game creates endless possibilities for building, exploring, monster hunting, and of course, mining and crafting. The game even has customizable clothing options for your character (also customizable through the use of skins) to create, given you have the appropriate leather armor piece and dyes.
Roblox
Roblox is a gaming platform that is more geared towards younger children and teens, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t great for the rest of us. The Roblox platform offers thousands of games for your character to enter and play, along with a system of having your friends “follow” you into whatever game you are currently in. The best thing about Roblox, aside from the fact that it’s completely free to play, is that there is a game for everyone. There are building games, obstacle course games, puzzle games, fighting games, shooting games, dungeon crawls, treasure hunts, and anything you could possibly think of. And, did I mention it’s free? It’s free. Like, that’s a lot of options for a completely free game.
League of Legends (and other games like that)
League of Legends is another free option for people who like more of the fantasy fighting style of gaming. Simply queue up with your friends and take on another team for anywhere from 30 minute rounds to 2 or 3 hour matches, depending on what you want to do. There are also a lot of different games that follow a similar style that are all good for this sort of social interaction, such as Fortnite, World of Warcraft, and games like that. These tend to be for more gamers than people who simply want to socialize, but it is still a good option.
Club Penguin Rewritten (and other childhood games that have been resurrected)
Anyone who grew up in the 2000’s remembers Club Penguin, and the plethora of other games Disney and others made like this. Most of them have been taken down by Disney, but some, like Club Penguin, have been republished by an outside source as “rewritten.” This simply means that they copied and pasted the game, so to speak, and that it remains available to play today. These games include Wizards 101, Toontown, and of course, Club Penguin. These are simple, easy to play, free social games where you and your friends can do all sorts of things together, depending on which game you play. These are worth looking into if you don’t have a lot of gaming experience, money, or a beefy computer.
In conclusion, the world is a wild place to live in right now, and a lot of us are desperate for the social interaction that the Corona Virus has made impossible and dangerous. Video games, such as the ones I listed, can be a fairly good substitute for real socializing, at least until the pandemic is over. Stay safe everyone, and have a great day.
About the Author:
Andrew Adams is a transgender college freshman at the University of Central Florida who is committed to LGBTQ advocacy at the local and national levels. Nationally, Andrew serves as a youth ambassador and advocacy volunteer for The Trevor Project, a youth social media ambassador for the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and a Volunteer and Intern Coordinator for Point of Pride. On the legislative side, Andrew lobbies for the Equality Act by visiting with his Congressional representatives and their staff.
Additionally, Andrew has spent years fighting to change his school district’s bathroom policy to be trans-inclusive, and the fight is still ongoing. Andrew is an International Baccalaureate student and a volunteer at the Mayo Clinic, and he hopes to go to medical school and become an adolescent psychiatrist specializing in transgender health. For fun, he practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, creates sculpture art and plays the piano.
