Ejercicio Grupo A - 2 · Inglés PAU Canarias Julio 2021

How online gaming has become a social lifesaver

Gamers have known for a long time something that everyone else is starting to figure out: there’s

community connection on the other side of a screen.

When the lockdown started, for lifelong video game enthusiasts, the prospect of sitting on a sofa in front of

a TV for an interminable period of time was a piece of cake. After all, gamers do already spend plenty of

5 time in front of their screens all on their own.

But even sitting alone for hours, gamers are not necessarily isolated. With the rise of social media, gamers

have perfected the art of building communities in and around video games. Gamers do not just compete

with strangers on the internet, but make genuine, enduring friendships.

The explosive growth of gaming during the pandemic has shown that many have found a new prospect for

10 much-needed connection in isolation. Gaming has increased dramatically during the pandemic, engaging

people who had played every now and then, or even those who had previously ignored it entirely. And at a

time in which many industries are in a desperate situation, sales in gaming are booming.

Although the concept of socialisation in a game is new to many, video game enthusiasts have been using

tech like this to build friendships online and stay connected for years.

15 Mark Griffiths, a professor at Nottingham Trent who has been studying socialization in video games for

decades, has now written about gaming friendships in the pandemic. In 2003, he published a study that

showed a quarter of 11,000 players of the online role-playing game Everquest said their favourite part of

the game was connecting with other players. He says the study was a direct and early contradiction of the

stereotype that video games are isolating, and gamers are antisocial.

20 Amazon-owned Twitch, where people watch other people play video games in live webcasts, has also

become very popular. It has expanded its platform beyond gamers, especially during social-distancing

restrictions in 2020. Book authors are hosting book launches, musicians are holding concerts, among

others; all following the gamer-streamer model.

As the pandemic rolls on and millions around the world face months of social isolation, gaming continues

25 to be a surprising lifeline. Those new players may keep on gaming even after they are allowed to socialise

in person, too.

“Now a lot more people have realised what it can do – gaming bringing communities together has always

been there,” says Daniel Luu, active gamer, “It has been there for years.”

Fragment adapted from BBC, December 2020

2. ANSWER the questions below. COPY no more than 10 words and/or a number from the text to answer each question. (1.5 points)

a)

Who saw the lockdown as a manageable situation?

b)

Besides occasional gamers, who turned to gaming during the pandemic?

c)

According to Prof. Griffiths’ study, what did gamers enjoy the most?