This post is part of a new series that I plan to keep up as long as we’re still seeing recommendations to socially isolate in the US because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I have to keep reminding myself that I didn’t much care for Final Fantasy XIV when I did a trial of it … oh … a very very long time ago. Because I’m tempted. I’m sorely tempted. There’s so much game there for the measly $36 they want for it with this sale, and I know a lot of people who are currently playing.
I think I might be starting to feel the impact of social isolation as we’re heading into week four, because I am really really craving some MMO time. Not any specific MMO, even, although I would probably default to World of Warcraft because I know I’ll have scrolling guild chat pretty much any time I wanted to log on.
That said, my Elder Scrolls Online guild did say they’d welcome me back if I decided to start playing again, so WoW isn’t my only option. I’ve also been keeping Guild Wars 2 up to date, although I don’t know if I know anyone who’s playing that at the moment.
Hell, I even considered re-downloading RIFT, and I swore I’d never go back to that.
If you are also dealing with social isolation and shelter-in-place orders, are you using gaming, specifically online multiplayer gaming, to ease the frustration of being denied face-to-face socializing? If you are, what are you playing and how is it helping you?
Feel free to answer in the comments, or take this topic and run with it in a post of your own.
Nerd Girl Thoughts 
Well…
Being an introvert, I don’t necessarily mind a minimal amount of external contact with people. And to be honest, with all of the kids back home from college or high school, it’s actually more interaction than I’m used to lately.
Still, I’ve been fine with using my MMO time to keep up with interpersonal interactions. I’ve got lists of people I’ve friended that I contact in WoW Classic, and as long as I don’t lean on them too much for interaction and come across as being too needy, things seem to be going well. However, I should mention that I don’t have a guild in any MMOs –too many spectacularly bad implosions in the past for me to want to join another guild anytime soon– so the interactions I get are largely centered around running instances, helping out people in a particular zone, battlegrounds, etc.
For me, that works. For an extrovert, that might not be enough.
LikeLike
I am also an introvert, and even in week four, I’m not really feeling the pain of social isolation. I do, however, have a core group of people I’ve been playing MMOs with on and off for the past 10 or so years spread all over the place, and I am thinking it’d be soothing just to get to watch them chattering in game again, even if I don’t really participate. I think the other part is that I just have a lot of time on my hands, and having an enjoyable routine might make things feel more … normal again.
I do feel for extroverts right now, but I would be lying if I said I really *got* what they’re going through.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I kind of had a dry run for this last year, when i was at home for four months during chemotherapy. I had a reduced immunity system so I had to avoid social situations so as not to catch anything and I was also hyper-sensitive to sunburn, but I was able to go out as often as I wanted so long as I was careful.
I’m wasn’t really bothered then or now by the lack of socializing – luckily Mrs Bhagpuss and I are fine company for each other The routine thing is interesting – we’re already building up a whole new set of routines to give our days some structure – i do think that’s quite important or you can really start to drift.
I find blogging and playing MMOs keeps me mentally active and fairly well socialized. I was glad of Blaugust last year, though, and Blapril is proving to be a great idea. If I really feel like some virtual social interaction I tend to log into GW2 and do some World vs World, which generally has a very collegiate feel to it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I haven’t quite hit this point yet re: having a desire to jump back into an MMO almost no matter what it is. But it’s only hitting week 2 for us in NZ (of a currently planned 4 week lock-down… Extension likely? Yeah; but our numbers are trending the right way now at least.)
But I think the largest mitigation to that for me is the presence of a fairly solid core set of friends that I play online with anyway, with or without this lock down. We hop from thing to thing (currently quite invested in Deep Rock Galactic, a great up to 4 player co-op experience).
My brother has started toying around with WoW again though. Will it grab me? … I want to say no. But we’ll see. 😉
LikeLike