Life in the great indoors
When the weather’s too hot or too rainy, indoor gaming can be a great mini vacation
Photophobia is the name given to both a medical and a psychological condition. The former is an extreme sensitivity to light, the latter an extreme fear of it, and dim-witted villagers in lowbudget movies take either to be an indication of vampirism or some other monstrosity.
Agoraphobia, meanwhile, is a panic disorder associated with a fear of open, public spaces. Acarophobia is a fear of itching or the insects that can cause it.
Agyrophobia is the fear of crossing streets, amaxophobia is the fear of driving in cars, ancraophobia is the fear of wind, anthophobia is the fear of flowers. Bronotophobes fear thunder and lightning, and nephophobes fear clouds. Pluviophobes fear rain. Thermophobes fear heat.
Such fears aside, there have been a number of reasons to stay indoors this summer: the 30 days of rain we’ve had so far, for example, or the 13 days on which the mercury reached 30 C or higher. Fridges and air-conditioning are typically found indoors, too, as is indoor plumbing, large flat-screen TVs, comfortable beds and, generally speaking, most of your cool stuff. Additionally, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the latest instalment of Tom Clancy’s popular video game series, was released a week ago, certainly cause for some basement woo-hoos and online high-fives among that franchise’s pale-skinned fans.
“That week when it was 40 degrees every day? I just stayed inside and played games,” recalls 28-year-old Ottawa gamer Ashley Quade. “Closed the curtains and put the air-conditioning on: It was even too hot to clean.
“But weather aside, if I was just tired and didn’t want to do anything, I’d stay home and play games.”
Contrary to popular belief among non-gamers, this is not (necessarily) an anti-social activity. While playing Diablo III, a current favourite of hers that was released last year, Quade frequently chats online with similarly interested friends.
“My husband and I will sometimes sit in different rooms with headsets on and play and chat.”
At Midway Family Fun Park, meanwhile, the Kaladar Avenue family entertainment centre, a recent rainy day found some families squeezing into the arcade where handfuls of day-campers in identical blue T-shirts must have thought they’d gone to heaven.
“We’re supposed to be in the pool,” said 12-year-old Lauren Davis, who, along with her uncle, Kelvin, was kicking up a storm on Dance Dance Revolution in their fourth consecutive hour at the centre. “But this is pretty awesome.”
Nearby, brothers Alexandre and Vincent Thibaudeau, 16 and 13, were motorcycling in tandem at high speeds along a pixelated landscape while father Stéphane looked on.
The three Gatineau residents regularly go to Midway for such father-and-sons bonding, usually but not exclusively on extremeweather days.
“We’re on a vacation,” said Stephane, “and we wanted to do different activities, including this.”
Metres away, friends Kurtis Ikkers and Jacob Charbonneau, both 11 and from Orléans, dropped basket after basket through a hoop almost within arm’s reach, and were rewarded for their efforts with reams of tickets they could later redeem for candy and toys.
“I like being out in the sun,” admitted Ikkers, whose summer has partially been spent fishing at Petrie Island and who never before had been to Midway. “But I like this, too.”
Gardeners have bad summers. Hot-air balloonists have bad summers. Fishermen have bad summers.
But barring power outages, gamers generally don’t. And with Grand Theft Auto V coming out in three weeks, it looks to be an excellent fall, as well.