The psychology behind video games during COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of Animal Crossing: New Horizons

ABSTRACT

With the emerging outbreak of a novel coronavirus, millions of people have been followed social distancing rules to self-quarantine at home. Given the continuation of this pandemic trend, people who have suffered from the anxiety of coronavirus and experienced social isolation their psychological well-being started to be concerned. During this time, one popular video game called “Animal Crossing New Horizons” successfully get everyone's attention and led us to explore the psychology behind video games. On the one hand, New Horizons provides a dreamland for the players to temporally escape from the cruel reality with a risk of losing in escapism. On the other hand, the New Horizons world becomes a perfect social platform to keep social interaction with others to get rid of the loneliness.