Places to inhabit

I remember as a kid how I used to roam Hogwarts, hunting for the perfect hideout, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on the original PlayStation.

The game didn’t ask for one. There was no reason at all to have one. As a kid, I was treating video games as any other space: a place where you exist and hang out.

I don’t play this way anymore. Because I’m an adult. Now I mostly try to make progress, to finish the game. Adults tend to play games moving from objective to objective, measuring games in percentages, rather than moments and places. We still like testing the edges of a world, but we explore to advance, not to belong.

Only a kid would care about having a hideout in a game that is not designed at all to support it.

So I started playing differently. We are no better than NPCs following their loops if we can’t forget about missions and actually react to what is in front of us. If I find a cozy spot, I claim it for a minute. If rain hits a tin roof just right, I stand and listen. I let myself be part of that place.

Games can be places to inhabit.