Last fall, around the same time as a historic amount of funding for expanding broadband access across the country passed into law, a friend introduced me to a video game called Death Stranding. Within the first few minutes, I realized that while the game was maybe not for me as a gamer. It felt a little too immersive, and I didn't like the huge monsters and assassin types floating around everywhere. But it appealed to me in my professional role advocating for universal access to telecommunications service. Though Death Stranding was released before COVID-19, the pandemic and its ensuing lockdowns created an unavoidable parallel between real life and the world of the game that revealed in both cases, the essential nature of networked communications. The game's designer has explicitly reiterated the importance of connection as one of the game's main themes.

Death Stranding is a video game about America, death, and high speed package delivery. Towards the end of the game, I was running medical supplies from one city to another. I had a truck, which made things easier, but the terrain was rocky. I tried to drive the truck down a cliff and over a river, but I miscalculated and got stuck on some rocks. I hauled myself out of the driver's seat, sighed, and unloaded the cargo, strapping it to my back. It was storming, not just a light rain, but a maelstrom that reduced visibility to just a few feet ahead of me.