Gaming and Gamers in Times of Pandemic

Piotr Siuda is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Cultural Studies at the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He is a media studies scholar and member of the AoIR, DIGRA, and the Polish Society for Social Communication. His research interests include gamers communities, esports, media sports, and dark web communities.Jakub Majewski is Assistant Professor at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. His research interests include role-playing games and cultural heritage, game storytelling techniques, game industry history, among others. He is also a game developer with two decades' worth of experience and a portfolio of about forty diverse games.Krzysztof Chmielewski is Senior Lecturer of Game Design at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He is a LARP researcher, game designer, and a R&D specialist in experiential learning and gaming solutions.

• List of FiguresList of TablesIntroduction: Gamers and Gaming in the Strangest of Times Piotr Siuda, Jakub Majewski, and Krzysztof Chmielewski (Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland)Part I: During the Pandemic…1. Roblox in Lockdown: Understanding Young People’s Digital Social Play in the Pandemic Hugh Davies and Larissa Hjorth (RMIT University, Australia)2. “I’ve Played More Minecraft with the Kids”: Gaming and Family Dynamics in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic Mikko Meriläinen (Tampere University, Finland) and Maria Ruotsalainen (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)3. Uses and Appropriations of the Cozy Game Animal Crossing: New Horizons During the Lockdown Gabrielle Trépanier-Jobin, Débora Krischke Leitão (University of Québec, Canada) and Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon (Université de l’Ontario français, Canada)4. Gaming (the Pandemic) with Vision Impairment: An Autoethnographic Account Lobna Hassan (Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland)Part II: The Lasting Impact of the Pandemic5. When the Virtual Office Became Reality: Digital Game Development During and After the Lockdown Jakub Majewski (Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland)6. The Influence of COVID-19 on Newspaper Discourses on Video Games in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Between Safe Social Spaces and Video Game Addiction Stefan Brückner (Toyo University, Japan)7. A Review of Studies on Location-based Live Service Games During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Players’ Behavior and Reluctance to Return to the Pre-pandemic State Bastian Kordyaka (University of Bremen, Germany), Juho Hamari, and Samuli Laato (Tampere University, Finland)8. Pandemic Gaming and Wholesome Philosophy: How New Players Reimaged Gaming Practices Noel Brett and Sasha Soraine (McMaster University, Canada)Part III: Lessons Learned9. “It Was All Without Emotions, and This Wasn’t the Same Anymore”: “Replacing” Traditional Sports with Esports During the COVID-19 Pandemic Piotr Siuda (Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland), Michal Jasny (Jozef Pilsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, Poland), and Dobroslaw Mankowski (University of Gdansk, Poland)10. Playing as the World Falls Apart: The Use of Video Games During the COVID-19 Crisis: The Case of Italy Arianna Boldi, Maurizio Tirassa, and Amon Rapp (University of Turin, Italy)11. Reflection Inception: Creating a Reflective COVID-19 Game by Reflecting on the Pandemic Adam Jerrett (University of Portsmouth, UK)List of ContributorsIndex

Every aspect of our lives was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The widely accepted view is that the digital game industry benefited from the lockdown, whether by measures of sales or attention. This book offers the first collection of studies to rigorously examine games in the age of pandemic and challenge such easy conclusions. It delivers nuanced and informative essays about the ways in which games changed how we lived, played, learned, and socialized during those difficult times.