For most of us, quarantining began in March 2019, when the effects of the pandemic reached a point where it was simply safer to remain at home and distance ourselves for everyone’s health. For many gamers, staying at home meant more time to play games——in theory. In reality, the nature of the pandemic shaped the ways we experience, play, and think about games differently than the days before our pandemic experiences.
We asked members of our Game Studies Group to reflect on what it meant to play during a pandemic. How has the pandemic changed our encounters with games? Do we find that games help us cope with world changes? Or has the pandemic negatively impacted the way we view games and gaming? Ultimately, was the pandemic helpful or harmful to gaming culture?
Fifteen of us responded, and the thoughts are telling. We invite you to scroll through our reflections and thoughts and draw your own conclusions.
John Rawalt Jr.
During this pandemic, many people have turned to video games as a coping mechanism, myself included. I took the opportunity to explore older games from my childhood, since they carried emotional memories that made it easier to power through these difficult times. One of these games was Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. This 2004 Playstation 2 title was one of the first video games I had ever played, as it was owned by my late grandmother and I would play it while over at her house. I not only played it again after years, I also beat the game all the way through for the first time. It was fun to revisit a game from my childhood and nice to find a way to distract myself from the troubles of the world.
Hunter Padgett
The pandemic has offered me a lot more play time, as it has for just about everyone. I think that extra time has actually degraded my opinion of a lot of the games I own. I’ll just be listening to their story or lore, and either feel bored or feel like my time is being wasted. I’ve started judging games a lot more on their mechanics than their storytelling or visuals. I just have more interest in how Prey’s Gloo Cannon can break the game, than reading an in-game compendium, nowadays.
Max Marsh
When the pandemic first hit, I was spending a lot of time working as a cashier at my local Walmart. As you can imagine, work basically beat me up whenever I went in- the stresses of being a cashier, plus the knife of the coronavirus at my throat? I thought I couldn’t do it. At some point, though, I started playing the 2019 GOTY nominee Death Stranding. In this game, the protagonist must make arduous deliveries on foot, all while dealing with the isolation of a once-tamed world where everyone retreated inside due to collective fear of a largely unknown force. Game director Hideo Kojima might be a prophet of some kind, because this game——5+ years in the making, and which had come out four months prior to the disease’s widespread acknowledgment——astonishingly depicted life in 2020. The engrossing story and the sense of duty that the game imbues the player with kept me going where not much last year could. It helped me cope in some weird way——if Norman Reedus and I can keep going to deliver the hunks of scrap metal weighing down his back through a field of floating nightmare zombies, why can’t I keep being my own essential worker self and make it through this pandemic? I can honestly say the game changed my life, and I constantly think of it during these trying times.
Hannah Mummert
I started quarantining just shortly before Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out, so Animal Crossing became a sort of liferaft for me during the beginning of the pandemic and over the summer. New Horizon’s feature to visit your friends’ islands felt like a step closer to speaking face-to-face than texting, FaceTime, or Zoom meetings did, which helped cut down on some feelings of isolation, and the peaceful and slow-paced nature of the game (doing daily chores and cleaning up your island and so on) really established a sense of control during a time that felt very out of control. At the same time, the pandemic and quarantining gave me more time to explore games I had yet to play, finish games I had never finished, and even revisit classic games that I hadn’t played in ages. The pandemic itself was (and still is) a time of chaos, isolation, and uncertainty, but for me, the chance to dive into games helps alleviate some stress and establishes a sense of normalcy.
Photo Credit: Hannah Mummert
Jack Hoda
In junior high, a close friend convinced me to start playing World of Warcraft, which I obviously badgered my parents into purchasing a subscription to. As a slightly obsessive person, much too young to realize those tendencies, I became the cliche pre-teen, white kid glued to the computer screen. Within a few months, I realized my fights with my brothers over the family desktop were getting a little out-of-control, so I, bravely, asked my mother to cancel my World of Warcraft account. Many times over the years, I have felt the urge to dive back into that world, and 2020 was the year that made it happen. The game has changed a ton since 2008, with at least six new expansions, but the euphoric feeling of the fantastical world was much the same. Much more than when I was a kid, World of Warcraft has provided a unique route of community during these isolating times. If you’re feeling lonely or bored, it's not too hard to find a partner to take on quests, dungeons, or raids.
Charlie Luttrell
At the start of the pandemic and lockdown, I knew that I would have plenty of extra time at home, so I of course, filled a lot of that up with video games. I got Civilization VI and learned how to actually play Civ, which is something that I had been wanting to do for years. With the weight of everything that was happening in the world, learning new games and getting to play every day was one of the most comforting things. I didn’t sit all day playing video games, but I turned it into what I thought was a productive hobby. I visited old games on my XBOX 360 and Gamecube, which brought up nostalgia and positive experiences from my childhood. I then played the entire Uncharted series, which I had never played before. It turns out to be one of my most favorite series now. So, video games during the pandemic might have saved me from a lot of stress. I still tried to stay active and productive in other ways in my life, but video games offered a relief that nothing else was really doing at that time. I really couldn’t cope well with online classes at the beginning at home and the lack of social interaction with friends was something I wasn’t used to. I was still able to connect with friends online and play games during the pandemic, which helped so much.
Michael Mapp
I recently had Covid. While I was quarantined at home for ten days, the online multiplayer game Valheim helped me to stave off boredom. With the help of a Discord voice channel, my friends and I played together non-stop, building a Viking mead hall, killing giant trolls, and weathering maelstroms in our longboat. The game allowed me to interface with a physical environment with its weighty physics engine. Chopping down trees in-game felt so good that I forgot I was stuck in my house for over a week. I would definitely suggest this game to people who like a co-op multiplayer survival experience. You really feel like you’re part of a band of Vikings who answer to none.
Ollie Wright
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, I found myself trying and playing fewer games than usual and obsessively playing just two. In the spring, summer and fall, that game was Animal Crossing: New Horizons. From December onwards, it was World of Warcraft. Both are franchises whose games I'd played and enjoyed in years previous, but hadn't played recently due to the stress of college. I found myself losing patience very easily when I tried new games during 2020, and it was far easier for me to just slip back into franchises, stories, and series I already knew and loved, flawed though they may be. I find I have less tolerance for confusing systems, disliked tropes, and learning curves nowadays than I did before the pandemic.
Photo Credit: Ollie Wright
John Doligale 5th
A lot of people may have found comfort and new likings to video games through the COVID-19 pandemic, but my experience over the past year was oddly different. I found myself not enjoying games as much as I used to. This coming from someone who would spend hours after and even before school as a kid. However, since getting to college, I don’t find video games to be as fun when I play them all the time. Therefore, my solution to this (because I still have a passion to play) was to simply pace myself. I needed a game that I could play solo and not have to worry about how long it took me to finish it, or stress out about the competition of multiplayer. So I went out and got a game that I knew I would thoroughly appreciate, Dragon Ball Z Kakarot. It has a story that never fails to give me chills of nostalgia. With beautiful graphics and fighting mechanics, and makes me feel like a kid again going on a journey. The Pandemic has given me a chance to rekindle my love for games without burning myself out.
Alfonso Zapata
I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time at my desktop during the pandemic because of my work as a tutor, so much that I can’t really bring myself to play games on it anymore. I had to add an old throw pillow onto my flattened computer chair just so I don’t perish, It’s upsetting, my lower back hurts. Clearly this whole COVID situation has put me in a bad mood, but it’s had the strangest side-effect: I’m more aggressively me this way. Angry, for sure, but also less self-conscious and easily thrown off at the slightest issue. I used to play games as if there were some silent observer making me feel bad, quick-save quick-load whenever I failed something, if anything didn’t work out I would struggle. Now, in Disco Elysium, screw it, I’ll be as communist as I want to be, it’s my experience, and sure I failed the drama dice roll that ended up making my character shriek through a sad karaoke night but you’re damn right I’m sticking with that. In Phasmophobia, I don’t care about the win, or even surviving, I’m gonna role-play as Zak Bagans from Ghost Adventures even if it kills me. The stresses that have come from the past year have shot the moon past anxiety and despair to irritation, and the weird self-assuredness that comes with it. That computer chair sucks, and I can handle that.
Mary Osborne
The pandemic coincided with several big life changes for me. Just as we were entering lockdown, I got engaged. Then, rapid fire, I defended my dissertation, my mother died, I graduated with my PhD, I moved, got married, and spent a year seeing very few people. All of this is to say that gaming was the one constant in my life. Even when change is exciting, it still has the potential to frighten and nudge me into a sense of panic. My husband and I spent hours and hours playing games over the past year. Instead of wedding showers, we spent our weekends exploring Japan in Ghost of Tsushima. Instead of going to a funeral for my mom, I stayed in my room, alone with Kentucky Route Zero. Games have always been an escape for me, but the pandemic has made them my comfort, my bonding time, and even my livelihood. 2020 and 2021 have taught me that games are more than bits of entertainment. They’re a coping mechanism.
Photo Credit: PlayStation Blog
Todd Osborne
In a year when it seems like everything was on a screen, video games offered something different. Instead of a window into another part of the world, I could explore the decrepit state of Old Yharnam or try to save Midgar from an ecological disaster. I couldn't change the state of the world I lived in but I could try to save these worlds, and when I finished, there was another world to save. Or I could just start the adventure over again.
Hannah Guthrie
Before the pandemic, college took up most of my freetime, so I wasn’t able to play games as much as I did when I was younger. When the pandemic began, I found myself overwhelmed with boredom, so I decided to redownload Minecraft and The Sims. I poured hours into these games as a child, so playing them again filled me with a sense of nostalgia. These games also seemed to fill the hole left by the inability to leave the house. With Minecraft being a sandbox game and The Sims being a simulation game, it was almost like I was able to live a normal life again. I was able to wander the world aimlessly or talk to others without the threat of COVID-19 because in these worlds COVID didn’t exist. It was very comforting to have this escape while the real world seemed to be falling apart around me.
Lena Kinder
Is it difficult for you to remember what it was like before the pandemic? Because for me, it’s next to impossible. Of course, I can recall memories—duh—but I can’t remember the feeling. I can’t imagine being near someone again, especially a stranger—no offense. I mean, when I see people with their noses out of their masks, I assume they’re a part of the plumber-crack-crowd (I just Googled this phrase and discovered a video game called Plumber Crack. Let’s just assume it’s a masterpiece). Will the nose always be the butt crack of the face from now on? These are the questions I ask myself late at night.
Still, the pandemic changed me. Even though I can’t imagine being near others, I want to be near them. I’ve always been anti-social—mostly because I’m awkward as hell—so I never thought that being separated from people would hurt so much. All of a sudden, my connections to the outside world were just poof gone. Like everyone else, I worried about my finances, my living situation, and, above all else, losing my loved ones. It was—and still is—a dark time. So, as any sane person would do, I turned to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I combated the darkness with virtual cuties, except for Goose (I hate you). I spent my nights talking to my buds on the phone and rejecting ugly villages (Goose, if I could have evicted you, I would have). I traveled to strangers’ islands and found trash buried all over my own (I’m surprised I didn’t find Goose buried there). This game took my mind off of the stresses of COVID-19.
As crappy as I was at the game, I found joy in it. Well, except for my ever-looming debt, being chased by tarantulas and scorpions, finding rotten turnips all over the place, and starting out the game with Goose. With all that considered, isn’t Celeste the absolute cutest?
Photo Credit: Animal Crossing Wiki
John Constantine Tobin
I heard the whispers of the virus spreading in Wuhan when I was working in Shanghai as the Narrative Designer at Merfolk Games. Not long after, the Chinese Government started enforcing strict lockdowns. I had a quick decision to make: get locked in China with the virus or try to get back to the US, where I hoped to hunker down with my family and help them through what was coming. China’s shutdown was swift, so I decided to book a flight to Japan to try to buy myself time. I ended up stuck in Tokyo for a while until the US Consulate let me travel to the US.
During this stay in Japan, I was hearing back from PhD programs, and you know, getting my slew of rejections, living in constant anxiety, and wondering about funding. I distinctly remember sitting at a little AirBnB in Tokyo, wondering what was going to happen to me, feeling totally lost and alone. This was coincidentally the same time Warcraft III: Reforged was released, which was a formative game in my middle/high school years. Yes, I know the remake itself was a total failure, but I was grasping at straws for some familiarity and comfort. When I felt overwhelmed by my stay in Tokyo, I’d play through Warcraft’s campaign or organize some times to play with friends online back in the US. All these years, I’d held onto those memories of playing together and talking about the storyline of the game. It was surreal to relive the experience in Tokyo so far away from home and reflect on how much time had passed since then with the same friends I’d played with long ago.
I was never able to retrieve the half of my belongings that are still in Shanghai. I was accepted into the Creative Writing Program at USM. I’m now the President of the Game Studies Group, where we’re all swapping stories about how meaningful games are as a medium. I really believe in the richness of game studies and the value of the artform. It’s high time we showcased video-game related work and have some serious literary conversations about video games, and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of the launch of Quest Log.