I woke up a 6:45 a.m. to the sound of my cell phone ringer at full volume. I knew immediately that there was only one person who would ever call me that early in the morning, and sure enough it was my Mom. I groaned a hello, and she practically yelled into the phone, "Rachel please don't go to class today, I don't want you to slip and fall!" Huh? Could it be a snow day?! I hadn't had one since high school and ever having one in college was unlikely.
The part of Ohio I live in hardly ever gets much snow. Last winter, every public college in Ohio shut down for two days because of snow. That is, except us, because while everyone else was covered in 10-15 inches of snow, we had half an inch that melted by 10 a.m. I was skeptical until I looked out my front door and saw two inches of ice coating everything. Amazed, I opened my email and learned that the University was shut down. By 9 a.m. my three roommates were awake, and we all knew exactly how the day would be spent: LittleBigPlanet.
My roommates aren't gamers by any means, but something about LBP drew them in. Initially the game's cute visuals (and the intro's British voiceover) piqued their interest. Aside from that, LBP seemed to bring up nostalgia for NES games we all grew up playing. That month I bought a third PS3 controller so we had taken to having marathon sessions.
Soon all of our friends started playing "that sack game" and people would come over to just watch us play. There is plenty of entertainment to be had in watching four normally mellow women become loud and competitive gamers while playing something so absurdly cute. Or so I am told.
I think what really made the day so amazing was that it was the ultimate realization of my childhood snow day fantasy. No one tried to tell us we should be using the time to get ahead in school, not one of us showered, I made cupcakes for lunch, and we stayed in our PJs all day. Because we live in an apartment complex, we didn't have to worry about shoveling the walk or dragging out bags of salt. We really did play video games all day.
It says a lot about LBP that we were able to keep ourselves busy all day without using the online content (our Internet was slow or down all day). Instead we worked to complete all the multiplayer sections in the story mode and never got bored with it. The story mode is incredibly replayable when playing with a group and making sure everyone picks up all the bubbles. Moreover it's a testament to the game's level design that I never got bored even though I had beaten the game a month before any of my roommates became interested.
By 12 p.m. I was lying on the floor staring at the ceiling (sleepy after a day of doing nothing) contemplating going back to bed when one of the girls glanced down at me from our couch. "Best day ever?" she asked. Hell yes.
Not to be sappy, but I was thinking about "The Snow Day" recently because two of my roommates are seniors and will be graduating in a week. Of all the awesome memories I have of these friends, getting to spend a day with them acting like a bunch of kids stands out. Sure college lets us act like kids all the time, but this was special.
Does anyone else have a day that really stands out as a gamer?
