My parents sent me abroad (New Zealand) in January due to the situation in our country and honestly even after almost a year here I still feel homesick and lonely even though I’ve made some friends.
My parents sent me abroad (New Zealand) in January due to the situation in our country and honestly even after almost a year here I still feel homesick and lonely even though I’ve made some friends.
I used to bury myself under a copious amount of videogames. Unlike what one could expect, mostly online but never engaging with people (I’ve never engaged with the rather common habit of inviting people to duo / coop / join the party after a good performance, having stranger’s voices invade my head and other rather normal experience for 2024).
I guess it worked, to an extent, because it kept me busy.
On the long run I never said no to any chance of socialization that arised from work (I guess School would be the equivalent here).
It can leave you vulnerable to rejection, or rather unentusiastic spotty invites, but it should eventually lead to a couple of lifetime friendship, possibly more if you are not as caustic as me.
Your gaming experience sounds similar to mine. I used to love MMOs (probably to the point of addiction tbh) but wouldn’t talk to people if I could help it. I don’t really play MMOs anymore, but now that also means I can avoid public matchmaking like poison.
It’s something about the anonymity of the internet, the unlikelihood of encountering each other again, or just the frustration present in some games which turns people into the nastiest sort of keyboard warrior.
And now I’m on Lemmy. The irony mounts.
It seems there’s a trend of pushing games towards community. And I’m sure that’s great for the people who like that sort of thing. But typically I want to play in a private lobby with my friends, and not have strangers running around goofing on me in public zones.
That’s not to say I don’t appreciate a good goof, I just want to goof on my terms