I have put in over one hundred hours into Blizzard Entertainment's objective-based shooter Overwatch. I have a full-time job, as well as other responsibilities that do not allow me to play games as much as I would want. I have other games that are great and warrant significant play time, but something keeps drawing me back to Overwatch. Is it the finely-tuned balance between each character that makes the game feel different each time you play? Maybe. Is it the Goldilocks pace of play, where matches aren't too long, or too short, but just right? Could be. Or is it just that the game is fun in a way a game hasn't been for me in a while? Possibly. Overwatch is certainly all of those things for me - it will probably be my Game of the Year - but what keeps me coming back to it doesn't have anything to do with what the game does well, but instead how it is best way for me to hang out with my friends. Put simply, Overwatch is a major part of my social life.

Moving to a new place is that special mix of excitement and fear - like a horror movie that you are excited to watch, even though you can't shake that pit-of-your-stomach anxiety the entire time. Moving means meeting new people, experiencing new restaurants, and hearing (and maybe deciphering) new accents. There is a magic of discovering a new place -- the feeling so many games try to capture as the player-character enters a new area. If you're lucky, the new place retains some of this magic even after the luster of "newness" wears off.

New places are not always shiny and filled with real-life volumetric god rays (my new favorite video game phrase maybe of all time). Moving to a new place also inherently means leaving the familiar in exchange for the new. Plus, if the old place was good, leaving it behind is not always fun. Moving is a little death followed by a new birth: the death of old experiences, opportunities, or ways of life, followed by the hope of that magic new places can bring.

I have recently moved to a new place for my career, and thankfully it has been a positive experience. The biggest downside: I am geographically far away from the majority of the people I would consider to be inside my closest social circle. I am not in particularly close driving distance to most of my closest friends, and would even need airplane tickets for others. Sure, you can never really be out of touch with anyone any more in 2016 (see: social media, smart phones, video chat, etc etc etc), but the experience of getting together with friends to do something cannot be replaced simply with text-only communication, or even the occasional phone call. This is where video games have provided an often overlooked benefit: the ability to stay connected to those who might be far away.

This is not the first time I've moved to a different place. I moved twice between 6th and 10th grades, and when I moved the second time, my friend got me Xbox Live for Christmas so that we could continue to "hang out" in the virtual space even after I left. Back then, it was Madden 2005, Halo 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare that kept myself and my friends on the controller for hours at a time, allowing us to stay connected to each other for experiences unique to gaming, and in ways that felt more substantial than simply talking to each other.

Today, that game is Overwatch. What started as a game that myself and one other friend played has turned into a semi-regular full group of six, putting in hundreds of hours blasting away at the other team, healing each other, and screaming in triumph as we win a closely-contested match. The colorful roster of heroes is diverse and charming, leading to the creation of a running head-canon of character behaviors and motivations that keep us entertained. The accessibility of the game's Quick Play mode allows us to experiment with different team makeups, even if that means we try out an impossible gimmick-team of six of the same hero (even if it makes zero strategic sense to do so). The nature of the game makes communication vital, so we have not only grown closer as friends, but also as a legitimate team. We have shared the joys in finally getting the coolest hero-skins in loot boxes, just the same as we have shared lament in receiving far too many grey-grey-blue-grey loot boxes (the lowest possible combination of reward items you can receive upon leveling up). I could go on and on about features within the game that have created so much joy for our group, but our enjoyment of the game has gone beyond simply the in-game content. We keep a running message feed when we aren't playing, where we speculate on future content, strategize, or post hilarious memes. I do not remember a time where everyone in this group hung out together in real life (even though we were all friends pre-Overwatch), but the game has created a vibrant social space for all of us, and one that is immensely valuable to me, personally. I am glad that I can still hang out with my friends, even if none of us live close to each other.

Playing online games with friends is not a new phenomenon, and my experience with Overwatch is not a new story in the world of video games. That being said, online gaming is still relatively new -- Xbox Live arrived in 2002, giving console gamers an accessible path to online gaming while also bringing it into the mainstream. World of Warcraft, Blizzard's immensely successful MMORPG - and arguably the biggest online video game ever - was released in 2004, making it only twelve years old.

There is still a stigma about people who play lots of video games as people who are anti-social, people who have "no life," or worse, the dreaded "live in your parent's basement" stereotype. I am baffled as to how anyone could continue to make these kinds of statements, but I think the relative youth of online gaming is a contributing factor. Games are praised and criticized on so many factors, usually of mechanical and artistic value. All of this is fine and necessary, but games are also done a disservice when their social nature is not as publicized as how pretty they might look, or how good they might play. Online games provide the opportunity for unique shared experiences, and in our increasingly connected world, they have the potential to be key components of a social life.

My new place is not one of isolation. I interact with other people daily, and I have created and fostered new relationships and friendships in the time since I have moved. I have participated in new, shared experiences with people here that have been valuable. I hope and believe that I am creating a healthy social life in this new place...but I am also thankful for the social life that Overwatch has given me, and what it has meant for me as a way to stay connected with people who are close to me. We often do not give games the credit for the meaningful experiences that they give - especially when it allows for keeping real relationships alive and well.