‘You feel like you've found a place where you belong’: Symbolic Interactionism and Online Social Video Games in the Age of COVID-19

This paper investigates how players perceive and understand the sociality afforded by online social video games (OSGs), framed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilising data from semi-structured interviews (n=20), we apply Blumer’s (1998) concept of symbolic interactionism to explore the ways in which video games take on new meanings in co-constructed, collaborative and contributory digital spaces. We argue 1) that games offer a meaningful social experience, 2) that this sociality flourishes due to the perceived lack of social risk particularly due to OSGs characteristics of perceived or real anonymity, 3) that this works to facilitate social development, and 4) that these characteristics were valuable in the context of a pandemic at a time of reduced social interaction. Our contribution shows that online video game spaces alter the risk profile of forming and maintaining connections by reframing interaction as the cooperation towards shared goals.