Throughout #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth, we’ll be sharing our own – and encouraging others – to share stories of the friendships we forge through gaming and the positive impacts that these interactions have on our lives.
Throughout #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth, we’ll be sharing our own – and encouraging others – to share stories of the friendships we forge through gaming and the positive impacts that these interactions have on our lives.
“My main friendship group met through a Minecraft community…”
To people unfamiliar with social gaming, the statement above could sound unbelievable! But the games we love can be massively powerful tools that help bring people together.
And it’s exactly what happened to Alex.
Back in the early days of Minecraft, Alex joined a large online community that would meet up to play together online. The community itself was a diverse group of gamers dotted around the world who, as well as connecting in-game, also began to chat via TeamSpeak.
Branching out from their initial Minecraft sessions, within a few months, the group started playing other games together, with the focus quickly shifting to the competitive world of League of Legends.
The game is well-known for the intense levels of near-telepathic cooperation required to play it to a high standard. A quality that the members of this group were – albeit sparingly – able to tap into.
Ten Years On, Still Going Strong!
Although their days of ranked ‘League’ are now behind them (Alex rather movingly mentions that they’re “too old now”) the close-knit group continues to go from strength to strength, over a decade after they first met.
In fact, their relationships with one another are more important than ever. Throughout the pandemic, the group focused on supporting each other in whichever way they could. The friends made conscious efforts to check in with each other regularly to make sure no one was ever left feeling too isolated. If anyone ever was, impromptu support sessions were set up to help ease worries.
Outside of gaming, the longstanding nature of their friendship has meant that they’ve all been there for each throughout huge moments of their adult lives, too. For Alex, a massive example of this is just around the corner.
He has flights booked for later this month. After 12 years of friendship, he’ll soon be heading to Copenhagen where he’ll be the best man at one of the group’s weddings!
Supporting Safe In Our World This #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth
This month, Safe In Our World is calling on the community to help raise awareness of – and funding for – the incredible work it does.
The charity helps foster positive mental health and wellbeing in all areas of the games industry. It does so by providing support, information and training opportunities for players, developers, publishers, retailers and all of the wonderful people behind games.
Whether you want to offer your own support, learn more about how to provide it, or are seeking help yourself, visit safeinourworld.org
Ripstone is a Safe In Our World #LevelUpMentalHealth partner. We continue to commit to positive change, with the mental health and well-being of our team always being our highest priority. We take immense pride in our anti-crunch culture and we make efforts to ensure a positive balance of work and life across all of our studios.