Gamers have long understood what the rest of the world is only now realising: there is a sense of camaraderie on the other side of a screen.

In mid-march
, one of my pals laughed, "Our entire lives have led up to today."

I was panicked and coming to grips with the fact that I might be imprisoned indoors for weeks, if not months, in my cramped New York City apartment. But my pals told me that, as lifelong video game fans, sitting in front of a TV for an extended period of time would be a piece of cake. After all, gamers like myself already spend a significant amount of time alone in front of our computers.

Gamers aren't inherently alone, even if they sit alone for hours. In many circumstances, the opposite is true. Gamers, particularly those in Generation Z, have mastered the ability of creating communities in and around video games as a result of the emergence of social media. Gamers form real, long-lasting connections with individuals they meet on the internet.

Gamers have long had a tool that is now offering some respite to individuals who have never picked up a controller before in this age of long-haul social separation and mental-health pressures. The enormous expansion of gaming throughout the epidemic has demonstrated that many people in solitude have discovered a new outlet for much-needed interaction.