Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin A man looks towards a bridge in heavy fog on December 14, 2004 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Guang ..
. [+] Niu/Getty Images) Video games have a longstanding reputation for contributing to poor social skills and isolation—but games like Fallout 3 (2008) remind us that being alone can be a valuable experience. The image of the lonely gamer is an entrenched stereotype.
In the nineties, concerns about video game violence and teen behavior led to moral panics. A lot of parents were afraid that video games would turn kids into violent, antisocial outcasts. People are less worried about this now, in part because the supposed causal link between violence and gaming has been largely debunked .
Moral panics still come up occasionally, but video games are pretty normalized. Our society has also become more aware of the important ways video games foster connection. In children, social play (or playing together) is viewed as more sophisticated than solitary or parallel play (when two people play independently alongside one another).
From competing in Fortnight to collectively building a city in Minecraft , games help us to play with one another, which is great. But games also allow people to play (and be) alone, which feels valuable and rare in our hyper connected society. For me, Fallout 3 is the quintessential “lonely” game.
I’ve dipped back into Fallout 3 (in an attempt to figure out why I didn’t love Starfield ) and I’m f.
