When stay-at-home orders were imposed in March last year to control the transmission of the Coronavirus, we scrambled for ways to fight cabin fever and isolation. For Dr Alpes Panchal, a consultant psychiatrist at several Mumbai hospitals, gaming became a lockdown distraction. “It stemmed from the need for social contact,” he says. “When you’re playing online with your friends, it’s a more interactive experience than Zoom calls.” 

Dr Panchal has invested in a new controller and bought four new virtual games. His interest, he adds, gradually snowballed. “It started with Rocket League, a vehicular soccer video game and then moved to RGP games in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. And then, I switched to open-world games, where a player can explore and approach objectives freely, as opposed to a more linear and structured gameplay.”