2023-12-31 17:00:08
It was exactly a year ago. Alex and Paul climbed onto the roof of the Los Santos casino, counting in unison. « 10, 9, 8… » Their heads tilted towards the sky and their vision blurred by the snowflakes, they had waited. « 7, 6, 5… » Just a few more seconds before taking action. « 4, 3, 2… » Suddenly, out of nowhere, two imposing cannons were pointed towards the city – « 1… »… The immediate explosion and the whistle of the fireworks then covered the ” Good year ! » launched in unison.
Except the two boys weren’t really next to each other. Separated by the approximately 600 kilometers that separate Montélimar from Villejuif, their respective towns, it was through their screen and their microphone that they experienced these New Year’s Eve outpourings, in the fictional universe of Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Onlinedeveloped by Rockstar Games.
Paul and Alex are far from being the only video game enthusiasts to indulge in this type of ritual on the occasion of the New Year. This year again, while some will opt for a party room, the apartment of a friend or the Champs-Elysées, thousands of players have met in the fantastic worlds of Fortnite, World of Warcraft (WoW) or League of Legends (LoL) in order to celebrate, in their own way, the first moments of 2024.
Everyone has their own tradition
Agnès is one of them. Although New Year’s Eve is for her “an evening like any other”she intends to mark the occasion this year. “All my friends in real life are far away but, with video games, we can still interact”entrusted to Monde this surface technician living in Savoie. Last year, the 31-year-old invited several acquaintances to an event insideARKa virtual world populated by dinosaurs. “We did lots of little activities there: a drawing competition, hide and seek, an orienteering race, a naval battle and a countdown to the last ten seconds. »
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Many of these video game celebrations take up the festive codes of reality: the traditional end-of-year countdown, dancing, fireworks… A cocktail that we find in particular in the two video game behemoths World of Warcraft et Fortnite. In the first, Mark, a British man in his fifties, fired dozens of light flares with other players over the New Year’s Eves he spent online, creating countless memories . “We often have fun watching people [du monde entier] shout “Happy New Year!” in the chat when changing time zones »he says.
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