Opinion: In 2021, play became a way to think about life

The writer found ‘Pikmin Bloom’ – a game most wrote off as too simple – to be a work that asked us to rethink how we view the world around us, as every step we take can leave a digital flower in our wake. — Niantic/TNS

If 2020 was the year we bonded via play – stuck at home we strengthened friendships and relationships over our Animal Crossing islands or Among Us bouts – 2021 is the year that play began to feel like a way of life.

Games gave us an opportunity to not just communicate but shape how we approach our experiences. After two years of collective stress, loss and grief, not to mention a still-divisive political climate, I’ve come to think of play as crucial to simply getting through the day.