Within weeks of the COVID-19 quarantine going into effect, internet use in the United States surged with average daily data usage rates exceeding 16.6 GB.
In particular, weekly data usage for online gaming increased by 75%.
While some gamers found themselves with an abundance of free time to immerse themselves in the most cutting edge interactive entertainment, other more casual players returned to the comforting nostalgia of the games of their youth.
But as technologies evolve and fickle tastes change, once-thriving communities migrate and dissolve. Many of these games no longer sustain viable player bases.
Curiously, some of the servers that function as the infrastructure of these virtual realms remain operational. In nondescript rooms all over the world, warm machines continue to blink and twitch, the engines of other vacant realities running in perpetuity.
“Waiting in a Vacant Lobby” is a 25-minute sound collage comprised of field recordings from a selection of these empty servers.
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