“Do you have the game Roblox?”

For freshman Cassandra Mission, this simple question — posed by a friend in third grade — opened a whole new world. After installing the game, she was entranced.

Mission continues to enjoy gaming on Roblox, an online platform offering a variety of user-created games, because of its
multiplayer features. Two games that Mission has completed with her friends are The Mimic and Apeirophobia. The Mimic is a survival horror game that has two main stories, while Apeirophobia involves solving puzzles while facing dangers.

“Overall, it’s a fun experience because there’s also times where you can just goof around with friends,” Mission said. “(And Apeirophobia) is a fun experience because we thought the game was very well made and the details are good.”

However, Mission balances her gaming life and school life with a system that works well for her.

“I usually tell myself, once I get home, that if I get my work done, I could have the rest of my time to play games for as long as I’d like,” she said. “It’s actually very useful.”

On a particularly dreary day during quarantine, sophomore Yuyou Zhang’s brother introduced her to what is now her favorite game, Valorant — a team-based tactical first-person-shooter game.

Exploring new gameplay strategies allowed Zhang a reprieve from everyday life, and she enjoyed looking out for new skins or updates.

“There’s a lot of techniques in the game,” Zhang said. “Sometimes I watch streamers or pro-players and try to improve myself.”

Nowadays, Zhang finds herself gaming less, but Valorant remains her favorite game: She enjoys its competitive nature and being able to play with friends.

“It’s more fun that way,” Zhang said. “I would definitely recommend (joining) with people who don’t get angry easily based on how you or your teammates are playing.”

Familiar with the darker side of gaming, Zhang encourages aspiring gamers to be aware of their limits.

“When you keep losing games, it gets kind of frustrating,” she said. “Don’t take the game too competitively or too seriously because it will ruin your relationship with (it).”

As the finish line looms, junior Max Zeller’s fingers dance across the keyboard. His body coursing with adrenaline, he pivots his character to the portal. Zeller finishes the run and lets out a sigh of relief: He’s beaten his record completion time for Minecraft.

Zeller began playing Minecraft in elementary school. Every time an update came out, he had a tradition of beating a new “hardcore” world — one that did not allow respawning.

In middle school, Zeller discovered speedrunning — the act of trying to finish a game in the shortest amount of time — by repeatedly playing Subnautica and Stardew Valley.

Although he finds speedrunning fun, he believes there is still value in playing through games normally.

“Before speedruns, I always go though the game once (to) experience the game and feel the adventure,” he said.

While Zeller still enjoys speedrunning, he has now been drawn toward more strategic games, such as Starcraft. He believes these games sharpen his skills.

“Some aspects can help improve my reflex skills and strategy,” he said.

Senior Ethan Zhou remembers playing his first game, Purple Place, when he was a few years old. While he did not fully understand how to play, he was still hooked: The colors and audio of Purple Place — which included a tile-matching memory game and a cake-line management game — enticed him.

“I thought the cake game was hard,” Zhou said. “(But) it was a great and constant stream of tasks with no room for vacation.”

Today, Zhou enjoys various games, especially Valorant and The Witness, a single-player game with over 500 puzzles. Zhou appreciates Valorant’s capacity to explore the various characters.

“(In Valorant,) I can be the cool assassin I’ve always wanted to be,” he said. “I love to play Neon, (and) my friends call me Dr. Thunderfinger.”

The Witness, also colorful, involves mazes and methodical combinations of rules and
symbols.

“It is (mostly) about perspective and philosophy,” he said. “This is the greatest recommendation to people who enjoy intelligence — it is the quintessential puzzle game.”