The Power of Friendship in Gaming During a Pandemic
As great as your aim, game sense, and technical skills may be, you can enhance your game play when maintaining solid relationships with your teammates.
We are seeing more and more people beginning their online gaming journey, especially during this pandemic stricken time. A lot of us are spending more than half our days online- school or work in the day and then hopping online to game at night. With so many hours going into gaming, one might as well invest in things that can last long-term: friendships.
Social connections through a virtual world
The world went into a global lockdown and many of us were forced to stay inside. Soon loneliness and isolation became a battle for a lot of us. Some turned to zoom happy hours and netflix binges while others have turned to an online gaming environment that provided opportunities to make new connections and build friendships. It becomes second nature for humans to establish a bond and be with other people. When the pandemic hit, it was of no surprise that there was such a huge increase of online gamers and a viral interest in the gaming industry. For those young ones reading this article, in the pre 2000’s it wasn’t necessarily “cool” to be a gamer.
Society would associate gamers to being “nerdy” or having “no life”. There were even movies and shows that played into this stereotype. I remember I never wanted my real life friends to know I played games online or even had “e-friends”. But thanks to the rise in e-sports and the unpredictable effect of the pandemic, I believe that the stereotype of what we think of a gamer is changing. With more and more people starting to game, it provides people the opportunity to meet people from all over the world, learn about different backgrounds, and take a chance to make new friends. And when you can start developing and maintaining such friendships, it could be the x-factor in winning your next competitive gaming match.
Example of some benefits of good friendships in gaming
Those who are familiar with first-person shooter games will most likely recognize Counter-Strike as one of the first games to have a strong presence both online and in-person (LAN parties, CPL, ESL, World Cyber Games). Like any other team based game, strong communication and collaboration plays an essential role for teams to accomplish a win. Multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike (and now with a growing competitor Valorant) heavily rely on teamwork and by default, require players to communicate and work together towards a common goal.
This opens a window for individuals to socialize and foster a virtual connection. A team that has solid chemistry can make or break a strategic play. This can depend on how well you know your teammates; predicting how they’ll react, anticipating what move they’ll make next, and generally knowing your teammate’s playing style.
Some great teams in this industry also had one of the strongest relationships with one another. By building their relationships on and off the screen, and getting to know each other on a more personal basis gave these teams an advantage others did not have.
Dangerous Game, a team with more than 15 years of friendship, where the genesis of their relationship started from Counter-Strike 1.6, reached playoffs in DreamHack Showdown Summer 2020 (Female) North America league. While never playing on a team together prior to this tournament, an advantage they did carry was the personal friendships they’ve fostered through an online female gaming community. A close connection formed by Cindy “cy”, Diana “elle”, Flora “flora”, Jessica “jL”, and Angelica “jelly”; for a group of gamers that have never played on the same team before, playing in the semi-finals in a national league might be telling of how essential close relationships play.
You can have the greatest aim, the most knowledge in game sense, or be the best mind reader, but when it comes to a team based game it takes more than just some great technical skills to get yourself a winning team. Developing deeper friendships with your teammates, knowing how they think, their personality styles, can provide more information when executing a strategy on the spot.
Fun fact!
Other research has shown that there appears to be no difference in general friendships between gamers and non-gamers and that the more time you play, the more likely you are to form friendships online.
Playing video games has had a positive effect on players’ perceived well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Games have provided an enjoyable means of maintaining social contact, and a stress relieving and mentally stimulating escape from the effects of lockdown.
Other benefits
In a society where we are quick to judge by appearance, especially through first impressions, the virtual gaming community defies these odds. We know that first impressions are everything. The first time someone meets you (in person) they are generally influenced most by nonverbal communication and body language like clothing, hairstyles, accessories, and other aspects of a person’s outward appearance. When you meet someone virtually, they can’t make the same quick judgments.
Instead, the online community encourages socialization with others through common values, interests, and backgrounds rather than what the person looks like on the outside. Sometimes making online friends, or even meeting online strangers allows some people to express themselves in ways they may not feel comfortable doing in real life because of their appearance, gender, sexuality or age (I think a lot of us can relate to this). Many friendships that begin through an online connection brings such a diverse group of individuals together. Once a minority gamer in many cases, gaming has also been able to help individuals connect and empower each other.
Jay-Ann Lopez, a London-based gamer, launched a closed Facebook group in 2015 called Black Girl Gamers as a safe and inclusive space in the face of racism and sexism in the gaming community, she was able to build a vibrant community that’s since grown across platforms like Twitch. This summer, it even hosted a summit of entirely black female professionals in the industry, which has long been dominated by white men. Lopez says that games have helped old and new players alike “keep connected, social and sane” during the pandemic. “For a long time, people have either looked down on that or called gamers ‘weird’, but now people and companies want to know how to maintain relationships and communities digitally. It's more accessible for people.
Conclusion
Although the online gaming scene has its fair share of toxicity and hostility, we learn that in times of need some have found refuge in a community online. Online communication and collaboration can help individuals stay connected with old friends and even build new ones. We learn how people of different backgrounds and interests are able to connect through a single game which can spark the start of a lasting friendship. We can also appreciate the benefits of good friendships within a team and how all gamers should pursue a good dynamic if they want their team to win.
