Random Encounter #4: In Which the State of Things (pandemic) Affects the State of Play

UW-Green Bay Associate Prof. Bryan Carr’s (Communication, Information and Computing Science) monthly article features how video game playing is affected by the current state of things regarding the pandemic. “Normally, that means thinking about a particular game or topic that will be relevant in the publishing window and putting together some kind of pithy commentary or academic dissertation on it. For reference, I was thinking about writing about the Final Fantasy VII Remake, something about commodifying nostalgia and remaking the past so it aligns with our memory of it. It probably would have been passable. Maybe for May. But you may have noticed the world isn’t exactly a place for ‘passable’ at the moment. COVID-19 has hit us all, whether personally, professionally, or even just by disrupting the familiar rhythms of contemporary life. Remember when you could go to grocery stores without anxiously doing the math in your head to make sure that complete stranger is six feet away from you? Those were the Before Times, as my wife and I half-jokingly call them as the old normal recedes further into the past. Our country calls on us to stay at home, to serve our fellow citizens by coming nowhere near them.”