Jackbox is offering 'practice friends' to rebuild your social skills

There's a good chance your social skills have atrophied after more than a year of COVID-19 lockdowns, and Jackbox Games thinks it can help you remember how to human now that the pandemic is finally (hopefully? Maybe? Please?) winding down. As of next week, Jackbox will give you the chance to hire free "practice friends" that will remind you what contact with other people is like. You'll have to sign up and compete for a limited number of time slots, but get in and you'll have 30-minutes of "judgment-free"Jackbox Party Pack game time with a crew that will help you brush up on the art of conversation.

Of course, this is partly a pitch for Jackbox's software. Get in some quality time with those practice friends and you'll also get a code for a copy of Jackbox Party Pack 7, ostensibly to share your restored social graces with others.

We've asked Jackbox for more details on how this works, including who you'll meet and just how long the initiative will last.

Is this a marketing tactic? Absolutely. But it's also a symbolic moment — it's marking the end to a long, long stretch of having to socialize with most people through video chats. If all goes well, this will be a promo campaign you'll never see again.