During the first week of classes students were eager to meet their new teammates, classmates, and roommates. 

Within the first week of moving in, the students’ excitement about being back on campus quickly turned into panic. The University’s IT department decided to put a firewall on the campus Wi-Fi.  

Many students use video games to build new friendships with their roommates or teammates. It helps them become better friends by showing each other that they have similar interests. 

They can also meet new friends through these games that they haven’t met before, but the firewall isn’t allowing them to do it.  

“I usually enjoy playing games like MLB, the show, NHL, 23 games like that. But with the new firewalls that we have, it makes it where we can’t play those games anymore and it pushes us to either land bad or just kind of go do anything that we don’t like doing because we don’t have many options,” Connor Meegan said. 

Competitive multiplayer games can also create friendly rivalries and competition between players. 

Over time, these interactions can evolve into friendships as players develop mutual respect and admiration for each other’s skills. 

“The problem I’m having is that we play peer to peer games which we were blocked from with the new updates for the Wi-Fi. And it’s keeping us from giving us what we want to do. And it’s kind of making it boring to be around each other because what we usually play is just not possible anymore,” Caden Witt said. 

With the Wi-Fi blocking students from playing certain games students are getting frustrated. They feel that without being able to play games they can’t relax after a long day of class or practice. 

The new fire wall also creates problems for avid gamers. Students are nervous that if the firewall stays up they can’t play certain games that they have been waiting all year to play. 

“So I like games like MLB the show. They come out while we’re in school, but if I can’t play them on here, it only gives me the time to play it when I get back. But I only have like three or four months to play it. That puts me far behind. Doesn’t give me a lot of time anyway, so it’s not worth it,” Cayden Thoms said. 

It’s important to note that while video games can certainly help facilitate the formation of friendships, they should be just one avenue among many for building and maintaining social connections.