Video Games Provide a Healthy Outlet during Coronavirus
How gaming helps maintain social interaction during quarantine.
Many people are unable to leave their homes because of the quarantine orders issued by world governments, but that does not preclude people from existing in the alternate realities that video games help create.
From games simulation the development of civilization to alternate realities to sports, video gaming has become an outlet for people trapped inside their homes. Instead of focusing on how the real world seems to be crumbling by the day, people can focus on tasks such as which town upgrade they should buy in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It has also blossomed into video game sports leagues which have helped keep sports connected to their fans.
One important way that video games help bridge the gap is that they unite a player or multiple players around a common goal. In a game of Madden, it’s winning the game, but in Animal Crossing it can be getting rare items that your friends don’t have.
My brother, Carson Pittman, is a freshman at Southern Methodist University and we are constantly going back and forth on video games. Most of the time, we play in a cooperative manner, but every once in a while, the sibling rivalry juices flow and we try to out-compete one another.
For both of us, it is a way to connect outside the normal realm of academics or our weekly lunches. We can relax and focus on being ourselves for a few hours instead of worrying about the pandemic or school.
“It’s a way to be social during social distancing,” he said.
Scholars remain divided on the overall impact of video games, but a 2014 review of research by American Psychologist, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Psychological Association, found that nearly 70 percent of gamers play with other people.
During social distancing, that helps people stay connected, even when they can’t get together in a common location to play video games. It also helps maintain social skills because gamers are working together to complete objectives and beat the game.
Chat services, such as Discord, allow for gamers to exist outside of the game too. Many games develop their own servers on the site and it can be a way to connect gamers from around the world or host a gaming session for friends.
Pittman and his friends have begun to use Discord more since they have been quarantined inside their homes across the United States. It has also allowed them to play together and hang out for one of the few times since they graduated high school last spring.
Jack Hopson, a freshman at Virginia Tech University studying biology, is one of the members of the group. Unlike Pittman, who goes to school far away from his friend group, Hopson had an easier time physically meeting up with old friends from high school who went to college in Virginia.
His favorite games are those that have multiplayer elements that force him to collaborate with other gamers in order to succeed. He contrasts this with his analysis of the types of digital assignments students are given which often prohibit working together.
“Playing with my friends is not only something fun to do in the evening, but prompts us to converse with one another and solve digital puzzles as a group,” he said.
As people were forced inside, video games became a way to continue connecting with others around you. According to TIME, there was a 75 percent uptick in gaming in general during the first week of self-quarantine.
Additionally, the supply of Nintendo Switch consoles available drastically dropped and Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, sold over 3 million copies in Japan alone after its March 20 release. Consumers also took to the shelves to obtain other gaming equipment as gaming posted one of its strongest quarters since the Great Recession in 2008, the same article pointed out.
Certain scholars have even praised the necessity of video games, despite gaming disorder becoming an official disease in 2019, according to the World Health Organization.
Currently, video games function similarly to social networks and they help us stay connected, even as the world shuts down around us.
As Hopson and Pittman have found, video games fill the void left by social distancing. It allows for people to still connect and interact while also enjoying a little bit of fun.
For Pittman, it has allowed him to rebuild connections with friends from high school that had become weak over time and distance. Over the past week, they have been able to get on a couple of nights and play Unturned, a game set in the zombie apocalypse.
Even as the world burns, they find solace in the teamwork they use to help fulfill the common goal of continued survival. They use Discord to coordinate their actions in the game talking to each other to communicate their in-game actions.
Another group member is Sean O’Connor, a freshman math and computer science student at Johns Hopkins University.
O’Connor rarely has time to engage in much social action outside of his schoolwork since he is studying two intense majors.
Video games are a way to escape the anxious realities of the real world by plugging in and ignoring the outside world, even for a short time.
O’Connor also plays Unturned with the group, but he has also made more of an effort to just hang out in the voice chat and catch up.
Even when games aren’t being played, Discord can be a way to share the common experience of living through the transformative coronavirus pandemic.
“I’ve been able to talk to and play with a lot of my high school friends on a regular basis cause of video games, as they give us a reason to come together and chat,” he said. “Playing games helps distract me from the pandemic, which is nice since it prevents me from worrying, as I’m not in a position where I can do much to help.”
