Abstract
Different precautions such as quarantine, social distance, and hygiene applications have been taken around the world to prevent the spreading of the virus during the COVID-19 pandemic. While these precautions brought many sectors to a halt, digital-based platforms have been used more actively. The pandemic changed daily work, leisure, education, and the time spent with families and how people distribute their time on these items. The interest toward digital games increased as the result of COVID-19 quarantine. As people spent more time at home, they tended to play games to socialize. This study aims to evaluate the changes and tendencies in the consumption of video games during the pandemic period in Turkey. Accordingly, the consumption of online video games in 2020 was analyzed through comparing with 2019. As a result, it was detected that more time and money was spent during the pandemic period on the digital game sector which was also important before.
TopIntroduction
COVID-19 pandemic is definitely among the most significant global difficulties faced by humanity. The problematic aspect of the pandemic is the development of severe respiratory symptoms in the latter stages of the disease and its high distribution rate (Lai et al., 2020; Lauer et al., 2020). The virus is very easily transmitted between humans, and isolation is one of the most fundamental measures to reduce its spread (World Health Organization, 2020). COVID-19 was first to identify in the city of Wuhan in China in December 2019. It rapidly spread to the whole world and was reported as a global pandemic by World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. Many countries took different precautions against this global crisis to stop the negative effects of the pandemic (López-Cabarcosa et al., 2020: 290). The lack of an effective vaccine in the early stages of the pandemic led governments worldwide to implement public health measures such as quarantine, shuting workplaces, schools, and social distancing (Nussbaumer-Streit et al., 2020). Since 11 March 2020, which was the detection day of the first patient, Turkey has taken pandemic measures just like the whole world. Apart from a mask, social distance, and cleaning precautions, quarantine was also applied.
COVID-19 pandemic has caused wide psychological problems and fear in people all over the world (Ahorsu et al., 2020; Király et al. 2020; Liu et al., 2020; Pakpour & Griffiths 2020; Xiang et al., 2020). This psychological distress still continues. Because pandemic is still not over and nobody knows when the it era will end. However, it estimates. This causes consumers to have difficulty in the face of the crisis and to worry more concerning the negative effects of COVID-19 on everyday life and even on society. It is known that mental health was seriously influenced during the peak period of the pandemic, and there was a important rise in the rates of anxiety and depression. The main reason for this is that almost everything is uncertain. People seeking to avoid uncertainty turned to search for dependable information online. The inability to access precise information at all created more uncertainty and stress. In the time allocated for leisure and recreational activities such as gaming and eSports, everyone took time to seek information about a severe problem (López-Cabarcos et al., 2020: 294). In this case, it can be thought that the most important reason for turning to video games is psychological.
Financial difficulties were observed around the whole world at the beginning of the pandemic. But this crisis did not affect some sectors. The game industry is one of the sectors which was least affected by the crisis in the markets. The game sector started to increase during 2020 since millions of people worldwide were quarantined in their homes, bored, worried, and stressed. This change aroused interest in analyzing how the gainings in one sector could be related to health (López-Cabarcosa et al., 2020: 289; 294). Various discussions were held in the media, and among researchers in the field about the change the COVID-19 outbreak has created on video game behavior and its effects on players (Cmen Towski & Krüger, 2020; Gabbiadini et al., 2020; Király et al., 2020; Ko & Yen, 2020). Quarantine has encouraged users worldwide to play more video games, learn new video games, and have fun. To respond to the increasing demand and needs, designers have innovated in the video game industry. Thus, the video game industry before and after the pandemic has experienced a significant change (Chanchi, 2020).
Key Terms in this Chapter
COVID-19: It is a contagious virus that causes respiratory tract infection and can be passed from person to person.
Consumption: Consumption is the use of goods and services to meet human needs.
Quarantine: A health measure is implemented as a temporary holding and observation of people, goods, and animals from a country where infectious disease is common.
Digitalization: Digitization is the conversion of any information from analog format to digital format.
Video Games: A type of game played using a visual user interface (television, computer, phone, tablet, etc.) such as a video game, computer, or game console.
Stress: Stress is a reaction that occurs with the breakdown of biological and psychological balance.
Pandemic: Pandemic is the spread of a disease or infection in a very wide area such as countries, continents and even the whole world.
Video Games Culture: It is a new media subculture created by video games.