Pressing Pause

The present crisis has had a freezing effect. Maybe you’ve felt it; I know I certainly have. It’s easy to make jokes about introverts seizing this moment of opportunity to really shine, or about how gamers have been preparing for this pandemic their whole lives (which is laughable for any number of reasons I don’t care to get into right now), but honestly, the jokes stopped being funny about a week ago — if they ever were to begin with — and now there’s just kind of a low-grade panic there buzzing at the bottom of my consciousness, never cresting with a wave of fear but always just kind of revving up my endocrine system with little a adrenaline, as a treat.

I already work from home. I’m already practicing good social distancing; that is to say, I’ve been shitty about face-to-face human interaction for months now. There’s this website, #StayTheFuckHome, that I’ve publicly pledged to, that says among other things:

11. Replace as many social interactions as possible with remote alternatives like phone calls or video chat.
12. Do not leave your home unless absolutely necessary.^[1]“A Movement to Stop the COVID-19 Pandemic.” #StayTheFuckHome, https://staythefuckhome.com/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2021.

And so naturally, at this exact moment, I’ve become stir-crazy.

I have it lucky. Hell, if you were to talk to me last year around this time I’d have told you directly that I was fucked, that my job was as good as done and I might as well quit to save myself from the indignity of getting fired or laid off. Shit’s a lot worse elsewhere. The hospitality and service industry is basically dead in the water. The retail industry is chasing restaurants to the grave. Thousands of already-at-risk workers in food service and retail and in-person customer service more generally are right there on the edge of a cliff that has no visible floor at the bottom. A friend of mine who lives in Washington state texted me tonight and told me that their job had been eliminated as a direct result of efforts the state government is taking to stop the pandemic’s spread. They were a bartender. I don’t know what they’re going to do, and neither do they.

Last week everyone with a twitter account and a rose or black flag in their profile made the same basic observation: the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how thin social norms are. As it turns out, cities and states can just… stop landlords and mortgage companies from evicting people. They can stop utility companies from shutting people’s water and power and heat off. They can provide shelter for every homeless person. Or at least, those ideas are on the table. Remember when we were told they weren’t? When every government, city council and state legislature said those ideas were too radical and didn’t have a place in American democracy? Of course, we’ve all got that “friend” who doesn’t want the government to take care of anything for people, who thinks we all should pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, but when even the city of Oklahoma City is considering eviction moratoriums, something fundamentally has changed in the discourse.

I don’t mean to say everything is all good. It’s not. My friend lost their job but they don’t have any safety net to fall back on, except the dubious promises of increased unemployment checks and the possibility of winning a private grant for bartenders. I know plenty of other folks for whom the future is by no means certain, people who might very credibly not survive the coming weeks and months.

I don’t know what to do in terms of concrete action, if anything. But that doesn’t mean that others are standing idly by. This article over at It’s Going Down covers several autonomous organizations doing work to help fight COVID-19, care for the elderly and sick, and provide mutual aid to all. They’re all over the United States. Consider supporting them in between sessions of Doom: Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Also, there are a couple of sales I do want to point out in case you really must play video games:

1. Mutazione, A Short Hike and Anodyne 2: Return to Dust are free on the Epic Games Store from now until March 19. They are all excellent games.
2. Connor Sherlock’s Far Future Tourism: A Walking Sim A Month Club Vol. 1 is free from now until March 30.
3. The Uncensored Library is free for anyone who has Minecraft: Java Edition.

If you’re looking for something to read:

1. Bullet Points Monthly is focusing the March issue of their zine on Kentucky Route Zero.
2. REBIND continues to release new podcasts and articles all the time, covering a host of indie titles you might find interesting during this moment of social isolation.
3. Critical Distance always gives you a grab-bag of good video game writing to choose from.

I want to see all of you on the other side of this, you hear me?

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