OPINION: Video Games and Friendships

I recently started watching the new Netflix documentary High Score, which is about the history of video games in the world. It made me reflect on how relationships are made through video games. Whether it’d be at the arcade on a Saturday or walking up to someone in the school hallway holding a Nintendo DS.

Sometimes, those are the friendships that you cherish most.

In other cases, friendships are made between people that have never met each other in real life. Recently, I’ve read a few stories about a group of gamers that became friends over a Halo multiplayer lobby. They were a close group, but sadly they all grew apart and didn’t play together for years. It wasn’t until eventually the group learned that one of their own had passed away. Because of that they resolved to play one more game in his honor.

It’s those kinds of relationships that you don’t always hear about.

Now, gaming has become a staple in pop culture, and with it, more people are being exposed to the world of video games that haven’t experienced it before. Video games are like sports, they have a way of bringing people together, especially those that feel as though they feel alienated from the rest of the world. There’s a stereotype associated with video games in that people that are typically shut-ins will pick up their controllers and play all day into the night.

Video games have been shown to help grow friendships, especially those that are in socially vulnerable situations. Some examples include people that are shy, depressed, anxious, and those on the autism spectrum (Fishman). Even if kids don’t spend time outside with friends a lot, they’re making up for it by playing online and talking away through headsets. It’s a sign of how society is changing and how the days of our parents having game nights are slowly going away in favor of a more virtual setting.

Even before the quarantine, the world of video games was already bigger than the games themselves. Conventions like Comic Con and BlizzCon have brought thousands of gamers and enthusiasts together to celebrate games. Many successful Youtube channels bank their success on the success of video games.

At the end of the day, the human interaction is still there. People love to talk to other people about what their passionate about, and that passion only grows if the feeling is reciprocated. Already, there’s so much buzz on the internet about the new console wars between Sony’s Playstation and Microsoft’s Xbox. Now that Zoom and Discord have taken over the virtual space, more and more people have been able to talk to each other and play games.

In summary, video games are helpful for making friendships. Even though nobody is really going out anymore because of the pandemic, video games have given people ways to interact with people and make new friendships in a multiplayer chat room for Halo or playing something more lowkey like Clubhouse 51.

Writer: Stuart Codd