Version 1
: Received: 20 September 2023 / Approved: 20 September 2023 / Online: 20 September 2023 (11:08:42 CEST)
How to cite:
Somoza Medina, X.; Somoza Medina, M. Virtual Worlds, Video Games and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Preprints2023, 2023091393. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202309.1393.v1
Somoza Medina, X.; Somoza Medina, M. Virtual Worlds, Video Games and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Preprints 2023, 2023091393. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202309.1393.v1
Somoza Medina, X.; Somoza Medina, M. Virtual Worlds, Video Games and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Preprints2023, 2023091393. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202309.1393.v1
APA Style
Somoza Medina, X., & Somoza Medina, M. (2023). Virtual Worlds, Video Games and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202309.1393.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Somoza Medina, X. and Marta Somoza Medina. 2023 "Virtual Worlds, Video Games and the COVID-19 Pandemic" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202309.1393.v1
Abstract
The expansion of Open World Video Games (OWVGs) has seen the emergence of multiple new fictional worlds. This type of video game is characterized by total immersion in a world built for the players entertainment. What videogames developers want when players enter an OWVG is that they could feel like if they were open a door to an entirely new world and leave the real world behind. These virtual worlds manifest as a complement, an alternative, or the successor to the physical universe, and in some way continue the philosophical tradition of possible worlds begun by Leibniz. Accustomed to ‘surviving’ in hostile environments, millions of people continued to improve their skills in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic while locked in their homes. Once the pandemic seems to start to be left behind, the paper analyzes the virtual worlds created by the video games and the relations between the pandemic and these fictional worlds.
Keywords
virtual worlds; video games; players statistics; COVID-19 lockdown; digital-real crossovers; digital society
Subject
Social Sciences, Geography, Planning and Development
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
