The other night when staring into our fireplace at home, a feature I’ve come to appreciate a great deal since moving house in 2015, it dawned on me how many of the best things I’ve enjoyed over the years included campfire scenes. That is books and games more specifically, my favorite, most formative titles then and now came with special campfire moments that I remember always –
The Dragonlance companions, by Larry Elmore
The heroes camping in Chrono Trigger, the Green Dream
The Witcher 3, first chapter
Recently, myself hanging in Eorzea
Campfires are obviously the romantic locality of choice to gather your heroes in fantasy tales or listen to the minstrel play; fire is a most enigmatic and evocative force that will also transport to the screen, be it in live action or otherwise. Video games come very close these days in emulating the real thing and the atmosphere it inspires. Fire stirs us on a deeper level.
I cannot pass campfires in MMOs without standing still and gazing into the flames. Wherever it is I am headed, I will take a solemn moment and join whatever company has gathered, be it players or NPCs. There’s an irresistible draw for me that’s hard to explain; as if I was touching something timeless and with it, a realization that the fire before me is all fires. There lies a gateway within the flames to all the other moments that there were in so many tales of beauty and peril, a gateway to all the memories of happiness stored away inside of me. Fire is the thread.
Fire is escapism.
RT @Gypsy_Syl: All the best Things have Campfires: The other night when staring into our fireplace at home, a … https://t.co/MqSqGDBmx9
RT @Gypsy_Syl: All the best Things have Campfires: The other night when staring into our fireplace a… https://t.co/w8zI9vFlxi #MMOGypsy
@Gypsy_Syl Not exactly relevant… but I made this for @BigBearButt a while back: https://t.co/hAiP0gn3zo
That first image brought back so many memories! It’s been a long time since I’ve thought about Dragonlance!
I reread the Chronicles once a year 🙂 The books are very dear to me and about the homiest place there is.
“When I was a child, we had almost nothing. But on the nights when we had a fire, we felt very rich indeed”
Nice quote! Did Bane say that in the third Batman by Nolan?
It was Miranda Tate – sorry, I lost the second half of my post which credited it. We have 2 fireplaces in our house (living room and master bedroom) and there is nothing more comforting on a cold winter’s day. 🙂
That’s something Tera did very well, a minor gameplay feature, the campfires. You regen stamina at them and can use incense buff items to give a short buff to all nearby. It encouraged players to gather before heading into the wilderness around the fire – a really nice touch!
Yes, this is how it used to be in WoW also – anyone could start a campfire anywhere, with a bit of wood. 🙂
One of my old time favorites is from Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny. I found a link to a pic from it from shroudoftheavatar.com, but I’d prefer to not link to it here.
Butbut….I neeeed to know now! :O
It has more to do with not being sure whether the link of a link would work than me being a putz. The link the shroudoftheavater.com post points to is one of those that I’d be a bit hesitant at linking to.