Mobility Humanities

Quarantine was an ideal context within which to observe the seemingly conflicted relationship between immobility and therapy. Here, games no longer functioned merely for entertainment, but replaced in-person gatherings, encouraged self-care, and assisted in education. Somehow, though quarantine limited mobility, the forward movement of life played out in games. Life simulation games provided players with a setting that closely resembled a reality
without COVID-19, permitting one to experience safety and solace. Business simulation games like Two Point Hospital and Two Point Campus, by contrast, situated players in singular settings rife with issues related, not just to the coronavirus, but also to its after-effects in different real-life sectors, specifically medicine and education. This predicament begs further examination, as healing becomes contingent to the space available and the extent of movement permitted to the player within such games. These games’ singular premises, settings, and sets of controls strikingly resemble the quarantined player’s own immobile and limited circumstance. Thus, this study seeks to explore the promise of this moment of resemblance between the real and virtual. While the virtual game space is oft-conceived as contained within a “magic circle,” it is possible that, despite the pressure of quarantine to limit actual movement, therapy may lie within the permeability of a virtually immobile game space.