During the numerous coronavirus lockdowns, the very core of the United Kingdom was shaken, the normal way that our lives, communicated and discussed with others was torn apart, with everyone being asked to stay at home to save lives, as the government tried to save as many as they could from the pandemic’s cold grasp.
But despite the temporary destruction of the normal way of communicating with one another, people prevailed, with the use of online platforms such as Discord and Zoom that allowed for people to communicate via voice and video chat, meaning that families could see each other from the safety of their own homes, friends could play games together and have the fun they wouldn’t have otherwise been able to, elderly grandparents could see their own grandchildren for the first time and so on.
This was the one thing that truly brought people together over this period in time, something that helped people connect with one another at a time where they could not physically meet, this of course came with internet crashes, freezing cameras and pets disturbing important meetings. It truly felt like everyone was connecting in a way that hadn’t been seen before, and this was on a UK wide scale.
Video games in particular were a very popular way of people, especially the younger generations connecting with one another, as it allowed them to connect and communicate with their friends easily, and on a UK wide basis 62% of all adults were reported as having played videogames during the pandemic.
This significant statistic shows that people were using other ways of communication, ways that they could use to express their creativity, for instance in my personal experience me and my friends played a lot of the blocky 3d building game Minecraft, which allows players to build and design anything their imagination comes up with.
This was the great power of videogames during the COVID-19 lockdowns, that their very nature of being online, allowed for people to be connected to one another with a simple push of a button, which gave the vast majority of people access to this new way of interacting with each other, it opened people’s eyes to the vast possibilities of the online world.
This higher use of gaming and the online industry as a whole caused a lot of video games companies to see a significant rise in profits, for instance, as reported by the BBC Nintendo’s profits tripled in 2020, due to the high popularity of their games during the lockdown period, namely the new ‘animal crossing’ game, which, on top of being one of my personal favourites, was one of Nintendo’s biggest games of the year, and sent places like Twitter and Instagram into a frenzy upon it’s release. This significant growth in profits shows that while most industries suffered from the pandemic, the Video games industry boomed, and continues to be on the upward trend as of writing this.
There is an argument to be had, however that with the additional revenue that the companies have made, that they should now be paying more taxes in places that were hit hardest by the pandemic, such as the UK, and that they need to give some of the money they made to the government or other regional bodies in the places that they make their games, for instance Nintendo UK’s Headquarters is listed as being located in Windsor, and as such, they could be required to give some of their revenue over to the local authorities in order to revitalize the local economy.
This would be a good idea because it could help the hardest hit regions of our country come back from the pandemic, as the money from the games companies could be put into the industries hardest hit by the pandemic, as such, it could be argued that the online and gaming industries could actually be a way to solve the UK’s post-lockdown economic turmoil, and help to rebuild industries such as hospitality and smaller retail up to what it was at pre-pandemic levels.
This additional money, which would come in the form of additional tax, would be a good strong base to help other industries become robust again, and would also do well to challenge the media’s long running opinion of the Video game and online world as dangerous and prone to causing violence, by showing that online industries such as video gaming can be used as a source for good, and that the revenue created by them can help the country in this time of economic turmoil.
As the pandemic still persists, more and more people have realised that there is no need to risk their lives to communicate with each other, when they can do it from the comfort and safety of their own homes.
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