Games, for the most part, are thought of as a night time activity. A time where the only lights in the room are colorful LEDs. Everyone else has gone to bed, leaving the player with zero distractions. While there is something to be said for the late night gaming session, I receive much more enjoyment by moving my game time from the dead of night to early morning.
I used to be a morning person. Before I went to college and had the option of starting my day with 11 o’clock classes, I enjoyed waking up with the sun. I can understand if your schedule mostly revolves around staying up late and sleeping in, how you might find this early morning idea to be silly. Now that I have entered the work force however, I find myself waking up earlier and earlier and rediscovering what I loved so much about that time of day. Everything is quiet and the morning light so soft that having the time to slowly wake up to a favorite activity has become quite a great pleasure of mine. I also don’t have to interact with any roommates while my mind is still groggy. It provides me with some perfect alone time to start my day, which as an introvert I desperately need. This has become my preferred way to play any single player game and I love wrapping myself up in a story with the perfect cup of coffee.
Early mornings are the perfect time for gaming. Often thought of as a time for runners and the unnaturally fit, early morning game time provides the perfect way to start your day. Picture this: you roll out of bed still slightly groggy. You brew some coffee and move with your piping hot cup over to the couch and turn on the TV. As you pick up your controller and press the home button, the console’s power up music slowly soothes and helps wake you up. As you sip your coffee and the caffeine shakes the sleep off your brain, you decide what game to play. Maybe you can try beginning your day with an easy to pick up game like Peggle. Maybe you want to sit back and work your way through a more story driven game with slightly more relaxed gaming mechanics like Firewatch. Or maybe you want to jolt yourself awake with some adrenaline and immediately jump into an Overwatch match. Or you can even pick a fourth option, and play a little of all three. The best part is, this is before anyone else is awake.
Competitive games of course don’t quite work for this scenario. Friends are usually not up at that early hour and your brain and reflexes are not quite warmed up yet to take on opponents. But if you have a great single player game to play and a nice weekend in which to do it, I highly encourage you to take the early morning route.
The Burger Discourse 