The Pandemic Renewed my Enthusiasm for Gaming

Video games have been one of the few sources of joy over the past nine months

I’m an adult now. I don’t have time to play video games. I need to get a real 9–5 job and move out of my parents’ house. It’s time to get on with my life.

I am laughing at myself now. My mindset has changed quite a bit since COVID-19 rampaged through the world. I’ve lost track of the months, and my previous misconceptions of financial and mental stability have all but vanished.

Impending roll-backs are on my mind now. My home state, sunny California, isn’t feeling so sunny anymore. An ominous cloud has hung itself over Los Angeles ever since the latest “Stay-At-Home” order was enacted.

For a single millennial in his mid-20s, I’m not sure how to feel. It seems like an inopportune time to be locked inside my parent’s house without an idea of when the world will return to normal.

My gym went out of business, I don’t see my friends very often, and I can’t travel like I used to.

At least I managed to get a PlayStation 5.

I’m fortunate in many ways, and snagging a PS5 preorder is definitely one of them. The fact remains, however, that games have always been there for me. I just didn’t look in their direction for a while.

I have a new sense of appreciation for modern gaming, and they have saved me from a small sense of depression I might’ve felt over the past year if they weren't there to be played.

Gaming kept my friendships together

Before the pandemic, social media connected me to those I saw on a daily basis to those I hadn’t spoken to in over four years.

It’s an oddly familiar feeling to go long periods of time without communicating with someone. When you finally do, the time gap seems to fade away.

That’s how I feel now about the pandemic. Once we return to some sense of normalcy, the past year is going to feel like a distant memory.

It’s hard to put into words, but I already know what I’ll tell my kids about 2020: “Wow wasn’t that a crazy time. I sure did play a lot of video games.”

Fortunately, I’ve stayed connected to my friends through gaming. In a way, we’re more connected than we used to be.

Now, instead of getting together and watching Netflix, or going to the bar and getting drinks, we gather in the Playstation lobby and hang out there.

At this point, it’s a routine. We log on each evening and ask each other how we’re doing. We sincerely want to hear about each other’s days.

We spend as much time talking over the comms as we do playing actual games. The games are just background noise. You don’t usually go to the bar for the bar itself. You go there because it’s simply a place to be with your friends.

We made new memories when life hit the pause button

Have you ever played Warhammer: Vermintide 2? Simply put, that game is wild. I’ve screamed at plenty of games in my life (thank you Rocket League), but this one made me scream, and laugh, in a different kind of way.

Going in, we didn’t know what to expect. Then, when the first horde of angry, human-like rats came in, none of us were quiet about it. We were yelling at the ridiculous nature of it all. We really felt like death surrounded us, and the only way to get out was to work together.

Torchlight 2 was another interesting throwback. After playing my fair share of Diablo, this game was a cakewalk, but it was a way to introduce my other friends to loot-based RPGs for the first time.

The vast variety of games available makes it impossible to be bored. I never would’ve considered any of the games I played over the past few months if my friends weren’t willing to play them with me.

All this gaming takes up a large chunk of my recent memory. I’ve gone on a couple of camping and backpacking trips, but other than that, games take up most of my brain’s storage space.

I wouldn’t have many new memories if it weren’t for my dusty PS4 and once-neglected Nintendo Switch.

I felt a renewed sense of competitiveness

From Rocket League to Apex Legends to Call of Duty: Warzone, I rekindled the competitive spirit locked inside of me. The pandemic put that side of me away for a while. I had lost most of my motivation to do anything.

Before the pandemic, I was too occupied with work to care about online games. I would just fall asleep to some show on Netflix.

Now that I’m off work around 6 pm, I have a little more energy to compete against other online gamers. It reminds me of my high school days when I’d come home from practice and log onto Black Ops 1. I played those maps until I’d memorized them pixel for pixel.

There’s one game, however, that my friends and I picked up recently. In our long line of quarantine games; games that stretch from The Division 2 to Torchlight 2, Armello stands out the most.

If you don’t know what Armello is, it’s a turn-based strategy game that pits you against three other characters on a hex board. In the middle of the board is a King who is slowly losing his mind each turn, via the rot.

Each character is unique, and some are suited better than others to win the gamer one of four ways: prestige, spirit stone, kingslayer, or rot victory.

It’s a surprisingly deep game, but not as complicated to play as Civilization. Regardless, it puts my friends and I against each other to our wit’s end. I usually end up furious with someone by the end of each game, but I love it anyway.

The competitiveness that comes out of each game is exciting because like sports, you never really know what’s going to happen. You play the cards you’re dealt, and it’s exciting to come back and play the game day after day.

Because I know the game is always available to play, I feel a sense of security knowing that I have something to look forward to every night.

Even if the days are long and boring, and even if there isn’t much else to look forward to in life right now, at least I have one thing going for me.

Final thought

My last point is that video games have brought a sense of normalcy back into my life in these unprecedented times.

Once we return back to the way things were, I can’t be certain that I’ll play as many games as I have the past few months.

What is certain, however, is that games saved a part of me, and kept me sane when I didn’t have much else to do. Instead of sitting in my room and digging into my own head, I had something to fall back on.

It feels good when my buddies log on and ask me how I’m holding up. I’m doing great, but it’s nice to stay connected and hear from them.

Instead of going to bars and unnecessarily drinking on weeknights, we just hang out in a digital hub instead. Our relationships are enhanced because we are in fact together more often than we would’ve been if there wasn’t a pandemic at all.

I’m thankful for the experience, and as much as I hope life goes back to normal soon, I also hope video games remain a major source of joy in my life.

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