swimmy
@swimmy

I feel like the greatest "happy places" in video games are often tied to to powerful memories of a time one felt especially joyous or at ease while playing a game. There are, of course, objective elements that can influence a player's mood such as music and art direction, but for me the best examples of these come from a time when a game felt especially like an escape from bad times, or when it complimented an especially exciting time in my life. I think the subjective nature of this is good and should be celebrated, even if others can't relate to your own feelings!!

Anyway I haven't really seriously tried to write anything since my college days, but I hope you can join me on a tour of some places in games that make Swimmy happy ...

Granblue Fantasy Versus, Player Lobby

(im upset no one has a better picture of this area btw, but im too lazy to open the game and take my own screenshot)

GBVS is truly the little (as little as a fighting game released by a major publisher can be) fighting game that could. Released right before the start of the pandemic, it was really denied its spotlight in the larger FGC at first with the cancellation of EVO and other majors. But a passionate scene for the game (and the popularity of the franchise in Japan lmao) kept it going, with a follow up coming soon and frequent appearances at majors.

For me, the personal player lobbies really evoke strong memories of just, being somewhere to disconnect from the uncertainty of the pandemic, especially living in Florida at the height of it. Fighting games are often very Hype in their design, but the gentle menu music and the cute interior design of the player lobbies (styled after the interior of the grandcypher airship from the game) really bring me back to a time when I was a part of the community just focusing on improving my own gameplay while also reaching out and trying to meet others. I may not be a part of that community so much anymore but even still, when booting up the game and playing with others in these lobbies its impossible for me to be unhappy.

Animal Crossing New Leaf, Island (at NIGHT)

Insomnia is the enemy of sleepy bitches worldwide. In our war against the tired sleepy, grinding in a video game in bed is one of our greatest allies. It feels like if we're talking about video game "happy places" most people could have wildly different answers for an Animal Crossing game. New Leaf came out while I was in the middle of college, dealing with a shitty friend group AND maintaining a retail job, not a great time to be Swimmy. Every night to decompress from all that, I would just lie in bed, go to that island, walk around and catch rare beetles until I conked out, then sell them in the morning. There was no place I'd rather be at night. Of course I would go night time fishing in New Horizons, but I felt the more connected nature of that game (via the more robust online options AND everyone sharing their villages/progress on twitter) made it somewhat more stressful for me to engage with. A big part of why New Leaf remains my second favorite AC game (GameCube AC undefeated).

Destiny, Ship Screen

Another game that came out during a strange, literally transitional period of my life. Destiny arrived as I was graduating from college, planning a big move across the country to be with my significant other down in Florida AND having just came out as trans to my friends (who were all my co workers). Unfortunately, I know this might shock you, but my family who I was living with did not take the news of my transition well. The only people who had my back were my significant other (who didn't play) and my friends I worked with in retail (Spencer Gifts, in case you were wondering).

Destiny was kind of our meeting place after work. While the game didn't launch in a great place, with a lack of end game content and a basically incomprehensible story, it was still a retreat for me where I could be with people who would call me by my real name and respect my pronouns. When I think back, my strongest association with those times is the ship screen (basically a lobby, maybe I have a thing for video game lobbies). Waiting for your oomfies while watching your ship drift through space to the ethereal score (I feel Destiny 2 lost this element in its score, obviously due to the departure of Paul McCartney) are all still things I associate with the beginning of my transition.

WILD CARD: Wii Menu

Honestly not a lot to say about this one. Much like IGN with Ikaruga, my frothing demand for the Wii to launch throughout 2006 only continued to increase. My excitement for the console was something I can only describe as irrational, the idea of motion controls was something I was all in on and my excitement only grew once I got to try in store units.

My Wii was a well loved console, used until it literally started to overheat and shut itself off (probably no thanks to my family using it for netflix endlessly, honestly). Not really much else to say, I think a lot of people can relate to loving the lively Wii menu with its animated channel icons and pleasant ambiance. I even feel the Wii U retains this energy, it's something I REALLY hope they can bring back in the Switch's successor.

If you're down here, thanks for reading!! I haven't written in a long time and a lot of this is real sloppy, stream of consciousness stuff but I hope you enjoyed reading it regardless. Of course, if you have similar feelings about a game area and feel comfortable with sharing, I'd love to hear about it too!!


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