Games have gained in importance as a "crisis hobby" - this applies both to online games, which enable shared leisure activities in times of social distancing, and to the occupation with the game console or the board game in the family living room. The second issue of Spiel|Formen takes this new role of playful action as an opportunity to focus on the topic of "crises" from the perspective of game research. For relations between game processes and crisis events are effective on different levels: Crises external to games can affect games or be represented in games; the histories of games, of playing and of game production themselves are also marked by crises. Above all, play - as a process with an uncertain outcome - can be understood as a permanent state of crisis; play can fail or threaten to fail, for example, and it is often a matter of winning or losing.