Bloggers wanted: Special little places

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Go to your happy place, go to your happy place

The holidays are a special time for friends and family to gather together and share in things like togetherness and holiday cheer. It’s also a time when game releases are jammed together because the holiday shopping season is prime time to make some serious bank.

A lot of gamers are hopefully also familiar with the free time the holiday affords us to catch up on some of our favorites, whether they’re the newest releases or just a few titles from our backlogs. From the precocious student to the white-collar nine-to-fiver, many places and cultures recognize that December is worthy of a few days of universal rest.

Thinking about these precious few days of uninterruptedrest got me thinking about the actual, physical places where I love to curl up to a good game and just play the day away. My own room is, of course, an easy answer to retreat to. A comfy bed, my own TV to leave on for ambiance, and some good blankets makes for a comfortable place that’s hard to leave after a few hours plugging away on some RPGs. But there are other places I’d be mistaken not to mention.

For example, I’ve spent many cold nights out in my car, waiting for work on calls from businesses like Uber or Lyft. During those times where I was out in the chilly December air, I still got through the quiet periods with the help of my Nintendo 3DS and games like Shantae, Shovel Knight, and Pokémon. Even when driving to weird and unfamiliar places, completely dependent on my phone to get around and get home, I could still unwind after a variety of questionable clientele by doing a few levels in Shovel Knight or grinding a few new Pokémon onto my battle spot teams. I’ve done a lot of things in my car. Certainly enough that I shouldn’t even mention them. But it’s almost like a second home at this point and even when I was depending on it as a last-ditch attempt at money, it was comforting to bring out my 3DS in the silence of my car, like I was physically in my own little world.

In this month’s bloggers wanted prompt, we want to you talk about the physical places you may or may not appreciate in your daily lives as a gamer. Do you find the quiet monotony of public transportation like a train the perfect routine to always get a game in? Maybe you have a relative’s home that brings a familiar and comforting feeling as a place and memory. I was just talking about when I played my 3DS in times of uncertainty in my car, so don’t think any place is too small or insignificant to share. It could be a chair you’ve had for nearly half your life that you always sit on as you boot up your favorite gaming console. It could be the classic dream of a gaming room, filled wall-to-wall with your collection of video games *cough*ChillyBilly*cough*and memorabilia.

To join, just write out a community blog and title it “Special little places: [your blog title here].”

As I was saying, the holidays are a hopeful and busy time. I have some things from November I want to bring back since the transitional shopping season between then and December sucked away my free time. But I hope to see a few sappy memories about places you’ve parked your butt to play games. Because sitting in a chair to play games is simple. But sitting in the same spot since childhood to play every system from the Dreamcast to Xbox until a permanent butt groove appears is an entirely different story.