It’s a universal truth: games are supposed to be fun. They might have a higher purpose, such as helping us learn a new skill or how to play well with others, but at the end of the day they are all about enjoyment. Interestingly enough, there is a game (or two) that I’ve literally fallen asleep while playing. Sure, maybe it was during a slow section, or maybe I could have used a cup of coffee at the time, but it’s a strange juxtaposition that you could fall asleep doing something as exciting and mentally demanding as gaming.
When I polled the rest of the Geek.com staff, I learned that just about every one of them — and they are the farthest thing from a bunch of narcoleptics — had fallen asleep playing a game.
Here’s the list…
- Sal Cangeloso – Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
- Matthew Humphries – Journey
- Sebastian Anthony – Final Fantasy XIII
- Ray Walters – Alan Wake and LA Noire
- Natalie Shoemaker – Final Fantasty VIII
- Ryan Whitwam – Bioshock 2
- Sam Cook – Minecraft
Clearly the outliers here are Alan Wake and Bioshock 2. The other games are slower paced, and they are more peaceful in general. For example Broken Sword is a point-and-click adventure game that I love, but it can be slow at times. I fell asleep playing it on my Nintendo DS while on a roadtrip — I dropped the stylus and woke up about 20 minutes later wondering if I was really enjoying the game as much as I thought I was.
The Final Fantasy games are pretty likely picks for mid-game napping because they are turn-based and some have extended cut-scenes. They are also quite lengthy, so it seems quite possible that you might pass out while playing one late into the night. The same goes for LA Noire. Some people really like it, but I found it to be incredibly dull. As acclaimed as the game is, this is the least surprising game on the list for me, aside from Broken Sword.
As for Journey, it’s a fantastic game, but I’m not shocked. It’s peaceful, the music is beautiful, and you can’t die. With Minecraft, Sam had this to say, “I’ve been doing a lot of wheat farming lately, and wheat doesn’t grow unless there’s someone nearby. So basically my avatar spends a lot of time standing around while I do something else, causing the peaceful sound of flowing water to constantly play on my speake… zzzzzzzzz.” Makes perfect sense.
So, have you ever fallen asleep while gaming? What were you playing? Something predicable, like Tetris? Or were you mid-match, camped out, playing CoD MW2?
