As soon as the pandemic hit, many Humboldt State University students were cut off from the world. With isolation and stay-at-home orders increasing, staying connected to the community was often challenging. However, students were able to find a glimmer of hope for it seemed as if video games brought them closer than ever before.
In order to stay connected, many sisters from Delta Phi Epsilon, a sorority on Humboldt State’s campus, had turned to video games as a way to bond and still be in touch with sisters during extremely tough times. Sorority sister Krystal Padilla had a particular love of Animal Crossing.
“I played Animal Crossing New Horizons with some of my sisters and we even made a group chat, it was nice,” Padilla said. “During the pandemic, I would just eat and sleep but playing with sisters helped me calmed down and reminded me why I loved playing video games in the first place.”
Padilla even named her island Opal which was her nickname in the sorority.
Fellow sister Tabitha Page was able to also share her experience about how the pandemic brought her closer to sisters and reminded her of her love for video games.
“Since classes take up less time, I can sometimes hop on and play on my Switch more than I could before,” Page said. “Animal Crossing had a big impact on the first few months of COVID and I was able to stay connected with some of my sisters.”
Page named her island after Lofoten, Norway, a place she hopes to visit one day. She also enjoys playing The Legend of Zelda on her Nintendo Switch.
“Similar to Animal Crossing, my older brother was really into video games, so I saw him playing Legend of Zelda and I wanted to play too,” Page said.
Meghan Burket, another sister from Delta Phi Epsilon, also shared her experience about how video games helped her get through this pandemic.
“I started playing Animal Crossing New Horizon from the day it came out, it was something great to play with during quarantine and helped a lot with my motivation,” Burket said.
