Our entire lives have led up to this, my friends joked with me in mid-March.
I was sitting in my tiny New York City apartment, panicky and coming to terms with the reality that I’d be trapped inside for weeks, potentially months. But my friends reassured me that as lifelong video game enthusiasts, the prospect of sitting on a sofa in front of a TV for an interminable stretch would be a cakewalk.
But even sitting alone for hours, gamers aren’t necessarily isolated. In many cases, far from it. With the rise of social media, gamers – particularly in Gen Z – have perfected the art of building communities in and around video games. Gamers don’t just compete with strangers on the internet, but forge genuine, enduring friendships.
In this age of long-haul social distancing and mental-health strains, gamers have long had a tool that’s now bringing some relief to those who’ve never picked up a controller before. The explosive growth of gaming during the pandemic has shown that many have found a new outlet for much-needed connection in isolation.
When shelter-in-place orders came down, millions of people around the world turned to tech-fuelled diversions to stay in touch with family and friends.
But although the concept of socialization in a game is new to many, video game enthusiasts have been using tech like this to build friendships online and stay connected for years.
The online role-playing game Everquest said their favorite part of the game was connecting with other players. He says the study was a direct and early contradiction of the stereotype that video games are isolating, and gamers antisocial (even though those early pandemic memes).
He says, “Ten percent of those in the survey actually ended up forming romantic relationships outside the game... The idea of socializing in a game is not new at all.” Fast-food to 2020, and Griffiths says that when lockdowns began and people had nothing much to do, “maybe they’re gaming for the first time, and they realized this was an outlet you can naturally socialize in”.
For example, in Animal Crossing, players can visit the towns of both real-life friends or strangers who share their village code online. Flying on a virtual seaplane into my brother’s village, filled with friendly koalas, has become our 2020 ritual as he continues to isolate from Washington, DC, and we miss family holidays. I also visit friends scattered all over the world, including one from secondary school, whom I haven’t seen since 2000.
The pandemic “really opened a lot of people’s eyes – even non-gamers – to what games can do to bring people together,” says Daniel Lulu, the founder of Nookazon, who’s a software developer and an active gamer based in Washington, DC. He says one of his site’s most popular top sellers is a 50-year-old woman who’s “never played video games in her entire life”. “I think the reason Animal Crossing has become so successful is because anyone can play it. There are tons of cute items, tons of fun characters, tons of customizations,” he says. “It really helped show that video games aren’t just all, like, Call of Duty.”
Wayne adds as Twitch has become more popular, it’s expanded its platform beyond gamers, especially during social-distancing restrictions in 2020. Book authors are hosting book launches, musicians are holding concerts and even drag queens are putting on shows, all following the gamer-streamer model. There are also new communities of gamers that have formed on the site, including LGBTQ gamers and gamers who’ve served in the armed forces.
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