One of the more striking realisations I had over the past few days has been the reality that even though I meet some friends online to play games and we have some great sessions. the truth is that I don’t take much time to simply be social.
In the before times, prior to 2020, we would meet at my home and play face-to-face. That is to say that the Friday Night Roleplayers would gather and play for about three hours. Prior to the session start, however, we would meet for between 30 minutes and an hour just to social.
Following lockdown in March 2020, my gaming shifted entirely online. The players in my old group have all either moved on, moved away, or become unavailable. Consequently, my gaming has moved entirely online, session times have shrunk, and the social aspect has all but evaporated – after all, if you only have 2 hours to play then you tend to push to play.
But this a significant problem, especially for my wellbeing: without social time with friends, I am prone to a sense of isolation and even swings toward depression. Having spent a few hours just chatting to gaming friends on Discord the past day or so, it hit me that this is a necessary element in our play.
We need to take social time with one another. Yes, it’s good to gather to play but it’s also good to gather to talk. Shooting the breeze, talking trash, and generally hanging out – all in the guise of being a gaming group and community – is vitally important. It’s great to get on and play… but it’s important to also get to know one another between times.
Game on!
Roleplay Rescue’s Blog 
Agreed. But I don’t find two hours sufficient for gaming. Would go with four, settle for three. Id begin with socializing as friends stagger in, allow ten minutes and then start. Afterwards I’d push for a meal or drinks out if in person, or misc conversation afterwards if online. With other activities like a movie on other nights.
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Yeah, 2 hours is not long but it’s what I seem to be able to get given the time zones, players, and my own schedule. Sometimes we get nearer 3 hours. My point is that we would benefit from finding extra time for social interaction outside of play.
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I experienced a similar situation with my gaming groups. While gaming is a social thing, I typically try to keep the online sessions focused on actual gaming. But as my groups expanded a bit and time continued on with no in- person gaming I decided I needed to change something. For a year now, I set one Monday evening aside for Gamers Chatting. We open a discord chat and any of my 30 or so players are invited. It’s typically the sane group, most of who I already knew in person but occasionally a newer online or pbp player hangs out, too. We’ve even got 1 European who stays up super late to hang out with us Americans each month. Just shooting the breeze and talking about so many interesting and weird things. It’s so much fun. I even started keeping a link list of the different things that come up in our chats.
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