February 25, 2021

Faith Hanson ’23

Amidst the chaos of our newly virtual world, sophomores have found new ways to connect through the popular game Among Us. 

Among Us is an online multiplayer game that has reached immense popularity in the past few months. Recently, the sophomore class held a virtual game night where students played the viral app together. To play Among Us, the game assigns a player a role as either a crew member of an imposter. Players can join a game with their friends or play alongside online strangers in groups of up to ten users. There is one imposter and everyone else fulfills the roles of crew members. The crew members complete a series of tasks while the imposter tries to kill other players. Eventually, a meeting is called and everyone in the game tries to vote out the suspected imposter. Think of it as a modern-day mafia. 

The online setting of Among Us has allowed the app’s participation to soar on a global scale. Users can play with people all over the world on any device and at any time. The game has also become a platform for various causes. For instance, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez live-streamed on Twitch in October to encourage young people to vote. Her stream amounted to a whopping 439,000 viewers, who appreciated the politician’s attempts to reach out to potential voters. 

The versatility and ease of the app further contribute to its success during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is for these same reasons that Among Us stood as the obvious choice for a sophomore class game night. 

Class council members Brian Zhou, Veronica Quiett, Omar Pasha, Faith Hanson, Charlie Lyerly, and Veer Prakash organized the game night and held the competition on a Microsoft Teams meeting so that the group could connect on a platform that simulated face-to-face interaction. 

Sophomore co-president Brian Zhou outlines that “the main purpose of the game night was to connect both cohorts while also doing something that the remote students could participate in too.” Brian also personally enjoys the game because of its “sense of teamwork, logic, and strategy.” He loves that this group game can make you feel like you are hanging out with friends even though you aren’t sharing the same space. He concludes that Among Us uniquely “gives you the feeling of connection that is just missing with quarantine.” 

Veronica Quiett, Brian’s co-president, adds that the game night was way more successful than expected. She explains that we were able to have multiple groups going at the same time via breakout rooms.

One of the participants, Georgie Rigby, confirms that the Among Us game night was a complete success. “Playing the game with friends, and even people you don’t know that well, was really fun. It was a great way to relax and have a chance to bond with our class,” Georgie said.

Because of this, Veronica and the rest of the sophomore class council is already planning the next game night. She explained that the next class get-together might “even offer various types of games to fulfill the differing interests of our classmates, like a Just Dance competition.” 

Veronica’s biggest hope moving forward is that “the future game nights will continue to strengthen the ties among us” because in the world of social distancing and quarantine, Among Us has proven to be a tool for escape and positivity. 

Image retrieved from Epic Games (https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/among-us)