Game Nights Help Students Connect and Cope

Husan Ahmed, a student at the City College of New York (CCNY), sent a text to a private WhatsApp group chat late on a Saturday afternoon. “Among Us?” he asked. His classmates from architecture school began to join his Zoom call through the link he sent. They talked about the new semester and their professors and waited for others to show up. When they had six, Ahmed opened the online game, Among Us. Game night began.

Simple multiplayer games without a set storyline allow anyone to play. They help break the boredom and isolation of quarantine. Because not every game is the same, players never know what is going to happen. It often gets exciting and competitive.

Among Us is an outer space saboteur game released in 2018. In the game, people work as a team to save a malfunctioning spaceship. “Imposters” are hidden among the crewmates; they want to kill the crew and sabotage the mission. The real crewmates can win by completing all the tasks or identifying the “imposters.”

Game nights provide a much-needed outlet to let off steam, socialize, and break the monotony. “It’s a form of getting together with your friends from the comfort of your own home during these times,” Ahmed remarked. “It feels like we are interacting more during quarantine.”

During the pandemic, video games have skyrocketed in popularity. 100 million players downloaded Among Us. Another multiplayer video game, Jackbox, has seen an explosion in players in March, April, and May of 2020. This increased interest in video games shows how college students and other people look for ways to connect.

When virtual school replaced in-person classes, students lost the little moments when they could socialize in school. They no longer have the five minutes before class where students can just talk to each other. They do not have the lunch break where they can hang out. Their quiet study sessions with friends are gone. These online get togethers offer a space for people to meet up outside of classes.

“We can’t do things like go shopping or play paintball or other activities, so we realized that another form of media that we could use as entertainment was video games,” said Michael Khuu, another CCNY student. He too runs game nights. “That’s why we started hosting game night, so we all started playing video games together.”

Back in Ahmed’s Zoom call, people laugh and accuse one another of sabotage as they play along. Eventually, some people leave the call. Those who remain talk with each other. They gossip about a classmates’ presentation. They laugh at videos of someone’s nephew dancing. They recall childhood bullies. They talk about whatever is on their minds. Ahmed ends the call for everyone at 3 a.m. At the end of the night, students say they feel content.

Khuu appreciates the break he experiences through these gatherings. “Granted the pandemic’s always going on in the background, but at least for some amount of time, you can think about having fun. You don’t need to think about other things.”