28/06/2022
Destiny Islands the opening stage in Kingdom Hearts is my true home. I first played it when I was five years old, but I remember that opening level like I do my childhood bedroom. I can play the Destiny Islands theme song in my head for hours and never be sick of it. Video games have this feeling of “hangout-ability” to them that is entirely new for humans. I will never go to those islands, but I have lived there for 17 years. I’ve spent a good portion of my life hanging out on a Minecraft server jumping my character around abstract constructions in circles not focusing on the act of playing a video game but hanging out inside it. Every truly memorable game has these hangout spaces. Kingdom Hearts is full of them. GTA Online exists as one of these and works extremely well at doing so. There’s very little “game” there however the population for that world only grows.
The RPG town is a good example of the hangout spot. Its important for the flow of an RPG to give respite from the dangerous fields and dungeons and a time to just explore a well-designed European style but made by a Japanese guy town where you can talk to it’s natives and they give you a meaningless 2 lines of dialogue. Final Fantasy XIII’s downfall was not the different but good combat system or the way it tells its story through text logs found in the menu at the game’s beginning, but the eradication of the town. It happens in the story the characters do find townly respite in cutscenes, but the players never do. Square Enix clearly saw the town as superfluous thinking it slowed down plot and game progression.
For a generation Whiterun from the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a famous hangout location. The first city you most likely come to in the game holds most of the memes from Skyrim that are parroted every day. These spaces give you the ability to live in the world of the game. To really soak in the atmosphere that combat, or any other phase doesn’t allow. You remember the town you lived in 6 years ago much better than a film you saw 6 months ago.
I believe that Minecraft’s success is that the game that allows the complete design and construction of your own personal hangout space. Its not the first but its low resolution allows an ease of creativity and with a small barrier of material collection the creative spirit is exercised within limitations allowing a home to be crafted.