Making the Space: How Games Bring People Together

Alex Cook • October 28, 2025

There is a stereotype that games are isolating forms of entertainment, especially once you leave the realm of family board games and playing house, and move to video games. When you are staring at a screen, it's easy to feel lonely. What I am here to tell you today is NOT a list of fun games to play with the family or about how playing games can help with social anxiety . Instead, I am here to share with you the most potent part of games, the community they create, without ever having to roll a d20 or pick up a controller. This is how games can bring people together without playing them. Hopefully, by the time you finish reading this blog post, you'll feel ready to create or engage in your own spaces with the power of games!

This post was created in collaboration with Unschooling Mom2Mom, a supportive community helping families embrace self-directed education with confidence and joy. Together, we wanted to explore how gaming brings people together. This is part of a two-part series of blogs about gaming clubs and community. Over at Unschooling Mom 2 Mom, we are covering how to start a club. Here on GameSchoolCon, we are covering why gaming clubs are a good idea and how games create community.

Games are excellent at building community because of 3 core attributes that break down most social barriers and lead to long, fun, and engaging conversations. These attributes are Discussion, Time-Investment, and Shared Passion.

Discussion

With the advent of social media came the ability to discuss games with anyone across the world. But even before the internet, people were using games to spark discussion among strangers and start conversations!

Games are great for starting conversations because they're a common interest that comes with built-in icebreakers. If you find out someone plays Dungeons and Dragons, you immediately have a series of questions you can ask to learn more about them and create enjoyable small talk. “What was your last character?” “Which class is your favorite?” etc.

This is why branded t-shirts and media merchandise are so popular. A Pokémon sticker is a conversation starter; it signals a shared interest, instantly piercing the awkward social barrier many kids struggle with as they enter their teenage years.

Time-Investment

Depending on the game, a lot of time can be spent on activities outside the game. Take video games, for example. In a fighting game, a significant amount of time can be spent going to tournaments. In a first-person shooter, you might spend time watching tutorials or your favorite streamers play, and even something as calm as Minecraft has a vast community of people making discoveries and sharing them online.

The time people invest in games provides a natural excuse to connect with others. A common cause of anxiety for Gen Z is “wasting their time.” Do you really want to be the person pulling people away from their weekend to hang out? But games already require time investment, and that time invested is spent engaging with others. You already came out to a tournament, why not socialize? If you are trying to improve your skills, why not sit down and share tips? Suddenly, that weekend hangout is in everyone's best interest cause you are just doing your original plans together!

Shared Passion

Let’s not kid ourselves, games are fun! They inspire passion in us, and we just like to talk about them. Whether it's stories from past games, the excitement of starting a game, or looking to the future of a game, we are eager to talk about games at any given opportunity.

Sharing that passion is healthy and necessary. But the best part about that shared passion is that you never have to worry about whether people want to be there. If you have found a game you are both interested in, your conversations are guaranteed to be filled with energy and excitement!

It also means people will go out of their way to talk with you. People will take any excuse to share their passion. If you start a group chat, start a gaming club, or invite people to an event, people will show up because they want to share that passion as much as you do.

From Players to Community Builders

The time-investment inherent to games encourages spending time with others; the discussions they create make conversation easy, and the shared passion guarantees those conversations will be fun! These three attributes of games make them naturally great at forming community, and give us a clear understanding of how we can bring people together with games. These attributes transcend the age barrier, too! Even if teenagers cringe at the idea of playing like they did as a kid, they still engage with these communities daily through programs like Discord or Reddit. In fact, as kids get older, the ability to just approach someone becomes more complex, but games act as fantastic icebreakers commonly used by Gen Z.

For Parents

For parents of kids, trying to help their kids build a community through games, whether it's a club or otherwise. Just remember these three core attributes and why people like games. We are naturally social creatures, and want to talk to each other! So just remember that “if you build it, they will come.”

Building Community, One Game at a Time

For many kids and teens, gaming clubs are more than a hobby. They are a lifeline. They offer a place to belong, express creativity, and connect without the pressure of traditional social settings.

Games naturally foster discussion, shared passion, and time spent together, three ingredients that make friendships stick. Whether you are rolling dice, building in Minecraft, or solving puzzles side by side, you are not just playing games, you are building community.

If you are ready to start your own gaming club but want more encouragement and real-world examples, visit our collaboration with Unschooling Mom2Mom. Together, we share how families can use play to build confidence, friendships, and meaningful learning experiences, one game at a time.

Written by Alex Cook for GameSchoolCon. Alex is a grown gameschooler, writer, and speaker. He’s a senior in college studying Strategic Communications and loves exploring how games, media, and storytelling shape the way we connect and learn.

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Why Playing Games Together Still Matters for Tweens and Teens

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As kids move into the tween and teen years, family time changes. Interests shift. Schedules fill up. Conversations get shorter and sometimes more guarded. Parents often feel the distance growing and wonder how to stay connected without forcing it. What many families discover, sometimes by accident, is that games become one of the most reliable bridges during this stage . Not because games solve communication challenges, but because they create shared space where connection can happen naturally, without pressure or performance. And for tweens and teens, that kind of connection often matters more than ever. Connection Looks Different at This Age Tweens and teens are in the process of separating and redefining themselves. They want independence, privacy, and autonomy, but they still need connection and safety. Direct conversations can feel intense. Forced family bonding can feel awkward or unwanted. Games offer something different. They allow parents and kids to be side by side rather than face to face. The focus is shared activity instead of emotional spotlight. Connection happens through problem-solving, strategy, laughter, and shared frustration, not through heavy conversations that can feel risky or uncomfortable. For many teens, this is the sweet spot. Games Require Interaction in a Way Other Family Activities Do Not Many families default to movie night when they want time together. Movies can be cozy and familiar, and they have their place. But movies are passive. Once the film starts, everyone is quiet. Interaction drops off. And realistically, phones often enter the picture. Even when everyone stays present, the experience is parallel rather than shared. Games work differently. Playing a game together requires interaction. You have to respond to one another. You make decisions, negotiate rules, react to outcomes, and adapt together. 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Playing a video game with your child, watching them play, or letting them teach you their favorite game is not about becoming a gamer. It is about showing interest in a world that matters deeply to them. Kids notice this immediately. They love seeing their parents try their games. They notice when you ask questions, when you laugh at your own mistakes, when you genuinely engage. Even sitting beside them while they play communicates curiosity and respect. You are not just playing together. You are entering their world on their terms. That kind of effort builds trust in a way lectures and rules never will. Shared Play Builds Mutual Respect When parents play games with tweens and teens, power dynamics soften. You are no longer just the rule-maker or evaluator. You are a teammate, an opponent, a collaborator. You follow rules together. You lose sometimes. You adapt. You learn. Kids see their parents as participants, not just authority figures. Parents see their kids’ creativity, competence, and problem-solving in action. That shared experience builds mutual respect, which is essential during the teen years. Games Make Returning to Each Other Easier One of the hardest parts of parenting tweens and teens is maintaining closeness as independence grows. Games make returning to each other easier. A game becomes a natural re-entry point after a busy week or a tense day. It gives families something familiar to come back to without needing to resolve everything first. For many households, games are the constant that remains even as everything else changes. Playing Together Still Matters Playing games together is not about reliving childhood. It is about meeting your kids where they are now. Whether it is a board game at the table, a cooperative video game on the couch, or sitting beside your teen while they show you a world they love, these moments matter. 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Families are not short on options when it comes to events. Every year brings a steady stream of activities, conventions, programs, and weekends promising fun, enrichment, or connection. Many of them sound appealing. Fewer of them genuinely work for the way real families function. When time, energy, and money are limited, the question is rarely “Is this interesting?” It is “Is this worth committing to for our family?” GameSchoolCon stands out not because it rejects familiar event formats, but because it rethinks how those formats are combined. It takes elements families recognize and reshapes them around participation, choice, and shared experience. The result feels noticeably different once you are there. What Family Events Typically Look Like Most family events fall into a few familiar patterns. Some are activity-based , like fairs or expos. They offer a lot of variety, but engagement is often brief. 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Throughout the weekend, there is a full schedule with structured opportunities happening all day. Families can choose from tabletop roleplaying game sessions, strategy and crunch-heavy board games, active games like Nerf or laser tag, video game tournaments, and a small number of discussions and panels. Alongside those scheduled activities, the game library remains open for drop-in play. What makes this different is not the absence of structure, but how that structure is used. Instead of funneling everyone through one track or defining value by how many sessions are attended, the schedule creates parallel opportunities. Families choose where to spend their time based on interest, energy, and curiosity. You can commit deeply to a session, sample different activities, or spend long stretches in open play. The structure exists to create options, not obligations. Participation Is the Center, Not the Periphery Another key difference is how participation works. At many events, families watch things happen. At GameSchoolCon, families are actively playing together. Adults are not spectators while kids participate, and kids are not rushed from attraction to attraction while adults wait on the sidelines. Parents and kids sit at the same tables. They learn rules together, negotiate strategies together, and experience wins and losses side by side. Active games, tournaments, and roleplaying sessions are designed for engagement, not observation. This shared participation changes the tone of the weekend. It feels less like consuming an event and more like spending time in a space built around play. Discovering New Games Without the Risk One of the most valuable parts of GameSchoolCon is the opportunity to learn and play new games in a low-pressure, low-risk way. Families often arrive curious about games they have heard about but never tried, especially larger or more complex titles that feel like a gamble to purchase sight unseen. At GameSchoolCon, those games are already on the table. You can sit down, learn the rules, play a round, and get a real sense of whether a game fits your family’s interests and play style. Some games click immediately. Others do not. Both outcomes are expected. There is no pressure to finish, no obligation to stick with something that is not working, and no sense that moving on means you missed out. Exploration is part of the design. At the same time, when a game does resonate, there is room to stay with it. Families often return to favorites, build confidence with repeated play, or discover new strategies as they go. Over the weekend, many families naturally narrow in on the games they genuinely enjoy most. That is why people often leave GameSchoolCon with clear favorites in mind. Through raffles, play-to-win opportunities, or the vendor hall, families go home with games they have already learned, played, and loved, rather than guesses pulled from a shelf. The Connections Do Not End When the Weekend Does One difference families often do not expect is how relationships continue after the event. Kids regularly meet friends they stay in touch with long after GameSchoolCon ends. They keep playing games together online, reconnect through shared platforms, and build ongoing friendships that extend well beyond the weekend. Because of that, returning to GameSchoolCon feels different. It does not feel like starting over. It feels more like a family reunion. Kids look for people they already know. Parents recognize familiar faces. There is a sense of continuity that is rare in one-off family events. That ongoing connection changes how families experience the weekend. It becomes part of a longer story rather than a single isolated experience. What Tends to Stay With Families After the weekend ends, the impact is usually subtle rather than dramatic. Families talk about playing more games together at home. Kids suggest games they discovered or revisit ones they learned at the event. Parents notice increased confidence around social play and collaboration. Everyone remembers what it felt like to spend time together without rushing. What stays is not a checklist of activities or a set of instructions. It is the experience of shared play in an environment designed to support it. Why This Difference Matters GameSchoolCon tends to resonate with families who enjoy structure but want flexibility, who value learning but do not want to sit through lectures, and who want to participate together rather than divide into separate experiences. It does not try to be everything. It combines the strongest elements of several familiar event types into something deeper, more participatory, and more human. For families looking for an event built around games as a shared experience rather than a performance or a lesson, that difference is what makes the weekend memorable. Learn More About the Weekend GameSchoolCon takes place at the end of February and offers a wide range of ways to participate. If you want to explore further, you can: review the schedule to see the variety of sessions and activities browse the game library to get a sense of what is available to play visit the registration page to see attendance options You do not need to do everything to have a good experience. You just need the space to play, explore, and connect.