COVID-19: Social video games to play throughout the coronavirus quarantine
This short article, written by Joe Todd, University of Waterloo, initially appeared on The Discussion and has actually been republished here with consent:
The #PlayApartTogether project has just recently been promoted by the World Health Company (WHO) to encourage individuals to remain socially connected from home. Regardless of having actually just recently categorized unmanageable gaming as a condition, the WHO could be beginning to see the advantages of online gaming.
Considering that the pandemic began, free-to-play games such as Fortnite, Peak Legends and Call of Task: Warzone have actually been even more popular. The video game platform Steam recorded a record of 20 million simultaneous users.
As people strive to stay social throughout a time of physical distancing, online gaming is seeing a boom in users. With a user base growing each day, and people wanting to not only pass the time, but stay social, what better way exists to remain in touch with loved ones throughout a duration of seclusion than computer game?
While board video games stay popular with the increase of board game cafés, we are sadly unable to get together with one another at these cafés. When video games ended up being multiplayer, they were– and numerous still stay– localized, “ sofa co-op” video games.
And now thanks to online services such as Xbox Live, PlayStation Plus, Nintendo Switch Online, Steam, to name a few, we are now connected to countless games but also millions of individuals. During this pandemic, the closure of cinema, the stoppage of expert sports and the general state of quarantine indicates that leisure and socialization is limited to what is discovered in the house and online.
Online socializing: Advantages and disadvantages
Video game analytics specialist Nick Yee states there are three significant reasons why people play computer game, among which is the social component. Chatting with others, making buddies and developing long-term relationships are some the social activities that take place in online video gaming.
Socializing online is what scientists Constance Steinkuehler and Dmitri Williams call an “ online third place” Popularized by American sociologist Ray Oldenburg in 1999, the third place concept explains a setting where people can collect and socialize beyond house and work such as coffeehouse and bars.
The qualities of a 3rd location– conversation, ease of access, playful mood, house away from home and more– use to enormously multiplayer online (MMO) games such as Wow(WoW). Online third places are a place where people from worldwide can gather and interact socially.
But online gaming is not without its concerns: homophobia, racism and sexism prevail challenges. Some online video gaming neighborhoods have developed a hazardous behaviour: one that includes cyber-bullying and basic game interruption.
You require only look at personal stories from within the gaming community to see that mingling through video games can make for strong and significant connection. Research to date has revealed the capabilities that video games have for developing online relationships
Here are some ways to stay linked via video games during this time of isolation:
Dip into house as a household
If you’re wishing to have a household game night with those in the house or further away, look no further than JackBox Games With 6 different celebration loads featuring a variety of various video games, all you need to play is a cellular phone and eight of your many enjoyable relatives.
Jackbox Games has actually even provided a convenient guide of how to play through videoconferencing apps like Zoom or Google Hangouts
Make brand-new pals
If you’re wanting to make brand-new friends or connect to millions of strangers, attempt playing an MMO game like Wow While a regular monthly service fee and a decent computer are required to play, the collaborative aspect of questing and battling monsters in MMO video games is the best in WoW For more affordable options try The Elder Scrolls Online or a number of free-to-play MMO’s like Bless Unleashed and Neverwinter
Get schooled
It is a family-friendly game that motivates creativity, teamwork, problem fixing and much more. Minecraft is likewise using an edition of the video game with lessons available in mathematics, science, language arts, history and visual arts.
Video game on, granny and grandfather
Finally, it is necessary to highlight the most vulnerable population, the older grownups. About 53 per cent of the population older than 65 have access to a mobile phone. Rather than a gaming console, try a mobile-based game like Words with Buddies or Candy Crush, which are both addictive and social.
It is necessary to remain socially linked at a time of physical distancing. Online video games offer us a chance to stay linked as we physically separate.
Joe Todd, PhD Student in Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo
This article is republished from The Discussion under a Creative Commons license. Read the original post
Lockdowns pile job losses and hunger onto Syrian refugees’ plight
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Ahmad al-Mostafa can’t afford milk for his baby daughter. A Syrian refugee, he has barely been able to feed his family since Lebanon sank into economic crisis last year. But now, a coronavirus lockdown has made things even worse.
“Nobody will hire us anymore,” said the 28-year-old, who lost his restaurant job a few months ago. He racked up hundreds of dollars in debt at the local minimarket getting food before the owner said he could borrow no more.
“We’re afraid of tomorrow,” he said. “We don’t know what will happen to us.”
His plight echoes that facing many of the 5.6 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, who had scraped by on meagre daily wages but now find even that is denied them as the coronavirus pandemic forces their host countries into shutdown.
Many Lebanese have themselves been hit by a financial crisis that has evaporated jobs and sent prices soaring, and have become less tolerant of the Syrians who have boosted the population by around 1.5 million to some 6 million.
‘THEY DON’T HIRE SYRIANS’
“Every time I go looking for work, they tell me they don’t hire Syrians,” said Mostafa, who fled into north Lebanon in 2014. “I’m sitting indoors – and everything is expensive.”
He can no longer afford diapers, which have doubled in price, and he relies on a charitable neighbour who gets milk for his one-year-old daughter.
More refugees say they are worried about starving than about the virus, said Mireille Girard, representative of the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR in Lebanon.
In a survey last month, UNHCR found 70% were going hungry, while many could not buy soap. Since Syria’s war erupted nine years ago, many have languished in crowded camps where aid workers fear any COVID-19 outbreak would be rapid and lethal.
Syrian refugee girls carry stacks of bread on their heads, as Lebanon extends a lockdown to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon May 7, 2020. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho
‘NOT A SINGLE PENNY’
In Jordan, the Zaatari camp, home to 80,000 Syrian refugees, has been closed off by the authorities during a two-month lockdown, meaning those who used to go out to work on farms every day can no longer do so.
Jordan hosts some 900,000 refugees in all, most of whom live outside the camps.
Abdullah Aba Zaid, who used to get work picking tomatoes, has had no income for two months.
“For the last 10 days, I haven’t had a single penny in the house even to pay for bread. I am borrowing from here and there,” he said. “Everyone is waiting for God’s mercy … hoping things will improve.”
But even as businesses return to work after the government eased curbs this week, job losses are on the rise, making more Syrians dependent on already strained aid efforts.
UNHCR is getting more calls for help from refugee families who had been largely self-reliant, said Dominik Bartsch, its Jordan representative.
Some Syrians said their accumulating debts had forced them to sell U.N. food coupons to pay for rent and basic goods.
‘EVERYONE IS HUNGRY’
Since Turkey’s economy tipped into a brief recession two years ago, the public mood towards Syrians has soured, with some saying they have driven down wages and taken jobs from locals.
Many of the three and a half million Syrian refugees work as day labourers in construction and manufacturing, especially textile factories – sectors that have been hard hit by the pandemic curbs.
Unlike millions of Turkish workers who lost their wages, Syrians do not benefit from government aid packages but can apply for food aid from local municipalities. Still, many have no basic protection against the virus.
One in five does not have access to clean water, said Omar Kadkoy of the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV). “This brings the issue to an alarming level and the government should be acting to contain (it).”
In a camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley, which authorities have sealed off during the lockdown, Younes Hamdou cannot find bread. Clean water is also scarce, illness rife and social distancing nearly impossible.
“We are prisoners … We have no immunity because of the lack of food,” he said. “Lebanese people have gone hungry, Syrians have gone hungry. Everyone is hungry.”
Writing by Ellen Francis; additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Imad Creidi in Lebanon and Dominic Evans in Istanbul; Editing by Tom Perry and Kevin Liffey
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