By Jazmine Basa
Time moves too quickly. The stress of life builds upon one’s shoulders, work stacked onto another; motivation is absent from the scene. With heavy backpacks, neverending schoolwork, and constant pressure to succeed calls the need for a break. The world moves too quickly, and it’s hard to catch up. For some students comes a relief to this void: video games.
A light, playful tune pops up as one joins a Discord voice call. Vibrant colors flicker on a small, yet welcoming computer screen, dancing in delight as laughter clouds the air. The adrenaline kicks in as one clicks away in hopes of achieving victorious. The world stops as one is lost in the moment, luscious music accompanies the laughter, the two providing comfort for everyone. At times, comes rage, at other times, comes relief. Nonetheless, here is where time slows down and the stress fades away into nothingness. With video games, comes a community beyond the screen.
Video games are a seemingly distractive, negative aspect to life. However, that’s not entirely true.
According to venturebeat.com, “More than 1.2 billion people are playing games. More than 1.2 billion people are playing games worldwide, according to a state of the industry report by Spil Games. Of those, about 700 million play online games.”
According to www.aps.org, video games have been around as earliest as the 1950s, video games have been around to entertain thousands. In October 1958, Physicist William Higinbotham “Pong,” what’s thought to be the first video game. Nowadays, video games have grown to become something bigger. Some video games have grown to make billions of people together, bringing in billions of profit as well.
“Each year, the video game industry rakes in over $17 billion in revenue,” according to wonderopolis.org.
However, they’re more than just a use of entertainment or money. For most gamers, video games is a way to connect to friends inside and out of San Jose.
Jonell S., a senior at Yerba Buena High school, explains “It helps me meet new people and be more social rather than being comfortable in my own social circle. I put myself out there to make new friends, increase my social ability, and it really helps make me who I am. Before video games, I was really shy and isolated myself. When I met people in real life that connected over video games we bonded over video games. Nowadays, it helps me build social skills which help you in life since you have to learn how to collaborate with people.”
Yet, Jonell isn’t the only one who believes so.
“Back when I was a child I was diagnosed with clinical depression and due to that, I have a lot of social anxiety,” Joey Garcia, a junior at Yerba Buena High School, explains. “Video games helped me get through that anxiety because I don’t have to talk to people face-to-face. It really helped me with my social skills. Now I’m very confident.”
Time moves too quickly. The stress of life builds upon one’s shoulders, work stacked onto another; motivation is absent from the scene. With heavy backpacks, neverending schoolwork, and constant pressure to succeed calls the need for a break. The world moves too quickly, and it’s hard to catch up. For some students comes a relief to this void: video games.
A light, playful tune pops up as one joins a Discord voice call. Vibrant colors flicker on a small, yet welcoming computer screen, dancing in delight as laughter clouds the air. The adrenaline kicks in as one clicks away in hopes of achieving victorious. The world stops as one is lost in the moment, luscious music accompanies the laughter, the two providing comfort for everyone. At times, comes rage, at other times, comes relief. Nonetheless, here is where time slows down and the stress fades away into nothingness. With video games, comes a community beyond the screen.
Video games are a seemingly distractive, negative aspect to life. However, that’s not entirely true.
According to venturebeat.com, “More than 1.2 billion people are playing games. More than 1.2 billion people are playing games worldwide, according to a state of the industry report by Spil Games. Of those, about 700 million play online games.”
According to www.aps.org, video games have been around as earliest as the 1950s, video games have been around to entertain thousands. In October 1958, Physicist William Higinbotham “Pong,” what’s thought to be the first video game. Nowadays, video games have grown to become something bigger. Some video games have grown to make billions of people together, bringing in billions of profit as well.
“Each year, the video game industry rakes in over $17 billion in revenue,” according to wonderopolis.org.
However, they’re more than just a use of entertainment or money. For most gamers, video games is a way to connect to friends inside and out of San Jose.
Jonell S., a senior at Yerba Buena High school, explains “It helps me meet new people and be more social rather than being comfortable in my own social circle. I put myself out there to make new friends, increase my social ability, and it really helps make me who I am. Before video games, I was really shy and isolated myself. When I met people in real life that connected over video games we bonded over video games. Nowadays, it helps me build social skills which help you in life since you have to learn how to collaborate with people.”
Yet, Jonell isn’t the only one who believes so.
“Back when I was a child I was diagnosed with clinical depression and due to that, I have a lot of social anxiety,” Joey Garcia, a junior at Yerba Buena High School, explains. “Video games helped me get through that anxiety because I don’t have to talk to people face-to-face. It really helped me with my social skills. Now I’m very confident.”
In fact, Joey recalls that video games are actually how he meets his best friend, Darren Duong. Despite two being in different schools--Joey at Yerba Buena and Darren at Silver Creek--the two were given the opportunity to meet thanks to the popular, MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena), League of Legends.
“I hopped onto League of Legends, was invited by an acquaintance of mine, and I was invited to a Discord Server. I meet a guy named Darren--who I thought was named “Derek” at the time--who was playing with our group. Anyways, I was left in a call with him and we both talked until 4:30 AM. After that, we just kept playing with each other and we met real life. We just instantly clicked. It felt like we knew each other for years just because of the game.”
Now, two years later, the two are still best friends in 2019 thanks to a video game. Despite the distance between the two, they’re connected with through online games like League of Legends and Hearthstone. Discord, a call and texting platform, also helped the two communicate.
“I prefer multiplayer games just cause they’re more interactive and allow me to interact with more people,” Samantha C., a freshman at UC Merced, states. “It’s a great way to make new friends and spend time with them. I feel like gaming is a hobby, and like any other hobby draws you to other people with the same interests which I find really really cool.”
Such socially-produced video games are specifically team-based, or perhaps multiplayer games. Examples of this include the aforementioned League of Legends, Overwatch, Minecraft, Monster Hunter Worlds, Neverwinter, Stardew Valley, Super Smash Bros, and Apex Legends.
The Entertainment Software Association reports, “...56 percent of the most frequent gamers play with others and 54 percent play in multiplayer mode at least weekly.”
Whether multiplayer or singleplayer, video games tend to have a common ground: a fanbase that connects people together.
Ken Banh, a junior at Yerba Buena prefers single player video games. He explains, “I play video games like Assassin’s Creed, some Marvel mobile games, & Spider-Man. I prefer single player because I don’t like to rely on people, it’s also hard to manage or work with strangers.”
Ken states that he’s in both the Assassin’s Creed and Marvel fandoms. Occasionally, there is dispute between new and old fans within the Assassin’s Creed fanbase, but the overall plot of most games makes it worth it. For Marvel, it has helped him start small talk amongst strangers and make some acquaintances
People like Joey Garcia, who prefer multiplayer games feel the same way.
“I play multiple games like League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm & Hearthstone,” Joey exclaims.
“Whenever I talk about things like League or World of Warcraft in public someone always asks me what my rank is, what class I main, etc. etc., and some of them actually get to be close friends with me. Others are just random conversations.”
Video games have a bigon San Jose’s community. Although they appear addictive or distracting, they’re a good way to connect and bond with the unexpected. Like most hobbies and interests, it helps form a community where similar people could meet.
As a member of the video game community I found that I have made numerous amounts of friends through video games. This includes people outside and inside of San Jose--from Washington, to Texas, to Minnesota, etc. If it weren’t for video games, I wouldn’t have been as close to the majority of my friends; it’s a big portion of my social life.
Video games are not “just a game”; they’re more than that. It’s several stories, and a community.
“I hopped onto League of Legends, was invited by an acquaintance of mine, and I was invited to a Discord Server. I meet a guy named Darren--who I thought was named “Derek” at the time--who was playing with our group. Anyways, I was left in a call with him and we both talked until 4:30 AM. After that, we just kept playing with each other and we met real life. We just instantly clicked. It felt like we knew each other for years just because of the game.”
Now, two years later, the two are still best friends in 2019 thanks to a video game. Despite the distance between the two, they’re connected with through online games like League of Legends and Hearthstone. Discord, a call and texting platform, also helped the two communicate.
“I prefer multiplayer games just cause they’re more interactive and allow me to interact with more people,” Samantha C., a freshman at UC Merced, states. “It’s a great way to make new friends and spend time with them. I feel like gaming is a hobby, and like any other hobby draws you to other people with the same interests which I find really really cool.”
Such socially-produced video games are specifically team-based, or perhaps multiplayer games. Examples of this include the aforementioned League of Legends, Overwatch, Minecraft, Monster Hunter Worlds, Neverwinter, Stardew Valley, Super Smash Bros, and Apex Legends.
The Entertainment Software Association reports, “...56 percent of the most frequent gamers play with others and 54 percent play in multiplayer mode at least weekly.”
Whether multiplayer or singleplayer, video games tend to have a common ground: a fanbase that connects people together.
Ken Banh, a junior at Yerba Buena prefers single player video games. He explains, “I play video games like Assassin’s Creed, some Marvel mobile games, & Spider-Man. I prefer single player because I don’t like to rely on people, it’s also hard to manage or work with strangers.”
Ken states that he’s in both the Assassin’s Creed and Marvel fandoms. Occasionally, there is dispute between new and old fans within the Assassin’s Creed fanbase, but the overall plot of most games makes it worth it. For Marvel, it has helped him start small talk amongst strangers and make some acquaintances
People like Joey Garcia, who prefer multiplayer games feel the same way.
“I play multiple games like League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm & Hearthstone,” Joey exclaims.
“Whenever I talk about things like League or World of Warcraft in public someone always asks me what my rank is, what class I main, etc. etc., and some of them actually get to be close friends with me. Others are just random conversations.”
Video games have a bigon San Jose’s community. Although they appear addictive or distracting, they’re a good way to connect and bond with the unexpected. Like most hobbies and interests, it helps form a community where similar people could meet.
As a member of the video game community I found that I have made numerous amounts of friends through video games. This includes people outside and inside of San Jose--from Washington, to Texas, to Minnesota, etc. If it weren’t for video games, I wouldn’t have been as close to the majority of my friends; it’s a big portion of my social life.
Video games are not “just a game”; they’re more than that. It’s several stories, and a community.