Quarantine and COVID-19 have had a multitude of effects on everyone, but one thing we have in common is being bored out of their mind. 

A lot of hobbies and habits have lost the luster they once had and aren’t as interesting during quarantine, but video games haven’t suffered the same fate. If anything video games have become more popular.

Junior Will Wright said he has played “a lot more than normal.”

A variety of games are popular among students at South High. 

“I’ve been playing The Last Of Us Part II and, of course, Minecraft,” junior Cadence Meskine said.   

Freshman Alexander Meusey said he mainly plays Minecraft.

Sophomore Guadalupe Manriquez said she plays Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto and Fifa 2020.

Quarantine and COVID-19 have also introduced students to new games. 

“I really like Among Us, but I had never heard of it before the quarantine. I like that it involves a lot of strategy,” junior Aidan Chastain said. 

Students have differing opinions on which gaming systems are the best. The contenders are Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

“I think both PlayStation and PC are great platforms to connect with friends and play games,” Chastain said. 

Hornung gives his opinion on how the next generation of consoles will affect quarantine gaming. 

“I feel like the new NZXT starter PC will really come into play for this next wave of new consoles as it is at a competitive price compared to the new consoles and many players have been wanting to switch to PC in favor of exclusive games and higher performance,” Hornung said. 

Gaming has clearly been a big help and distraction for some people during COVID  but not everyone thinks they are that important. 

Meskine said she would be fine if video gaming didn’t exist during COVID-19. 

“Probably the same, honestly. Disney+ is really coming through,” she said.

Chastain disagrees with Meskine.

“I think quarantine would be incredibly boring without video games because they are a way to keep in touch with my friends even when we can’t be physically near each other,” he said.

Wright believes “gaming has kept me from being bored because without seeing friends and having no work or almost anything else to do it was something and because there’s such a wide variety of games I think it helped and could help a lot of people during a time like this.”