Though it took a month off, Blog Banter is back and again forcing us to write editorials, which is something I wanted to do anyway. This month’s topic is gaming with your significant other.
The curious thing about having dated my wife since we were 16 is that there’s been plenty of time for me to bug her about video games. I’ve been a geek/nerd (yes, they are different things, and I’m both) for as long as I can remember, so it was my sworn duty to convert this nice young girl, right?
Well, things didn’t go so well. She tolerated certain games (much like I’ve suspected she tolerated me at various points of the last eight years), but never embraced them wholeheartedly. For one, she said, no killing. I guess I can be fine with someone who doesn’t get their jollies from the pain of others. On a more mechanical level, generally games involving multiple actions at once — say, running and jumping — were also out.
As strange as it seems, she did try to make a few forays into Halo 2. This wasn’t because she had eschewed her previous two tenets: oh no, this was out of jealousy, because a forum I had set up for our high school crowd had a secret hidden forum for our clan Dynamo Dorfman, and she didn’t like the idea that there was something she couldn’t see. She played for a few Fridays during our weekly LAN parties before finally losing interest.
Foundations have been laid, though! The Gamecube we purchased in 2003 was quickly joined by — and you all know where I’m going with this, right? — Animal Crossing. Yes, that lovable mafioso son of a bitch Tom Nook has enslaved both of us for three games now, and we have eaten it up. ‘Hey,’ I said when we first started playing, ‘the first person to pay off their debt gets a golden statue in the town! Try to get there before me!’
But then she did, and it sucked. To this day she’ll bring it up if the game is mentioned.
It wasn’t all lilacs and rainbows, though. Keep in mind that this was the original, not this polished City Folk you kids are playing these days. Nook had one tool in his shop per day, which meant if you were lucky enough to get a fishing rod the first person to play that day would buy it, screwing over the other. I collected more than my share of venus combs and sand dollars, I can tell you that much.
So Animal Crossing, including Wild World and City Folk, is a hit. How could I expand on this success? Time has shown that she’s much more capable of taking care of a Nintendog than I, and she spent a good number of nights wrapped around Brain Age’s sudoku. We’ve played some Wii Sports together (she most enjoys the Power Throws), but are you seeing a pattern? I haven’t gotten her into gaming at all! I’ve just made a… shudder… casual gamer out of her. Nintendo didn’t put out a Zelda game this year because they were too busy making Wii Music for my wife and it’s all my fault.
(For the record, we didn’t buy Wii Music. I can occasionally convince her to hop on the drums for some Rock Band, but she still refuses to recognize the superiority of Coheed and Cambria over Garbage, so hope may be lost on that front.)
There appears to be no gateway drug for video games. Marijuana doesn’t lead to cocaine, it leads to more marijuana. Yes, I did just call Nintendo pot. How do kids get into video games these days? I’m a product of the 8 bit era, when games were easier for my five-year-old self to play because technology had not yet lended itself to the dual joystick shooter or the real time strategy game. To be clear, I’m not making this a male/female distinction: would I be writing this today if I hadn’t been allowed to cut my teeth on Ice Hockey instead of NHL 2009? I’ve babysat my little brother in law almost since he was born, and once the ‘you can help me by playing with this unplugged controller’ scheme stopped working it became significantly harder to get in gaming time while he was around. Recently he’s fallen in love with Tak and the Guardians of Gross, but that is a kids’ game: I plan on having kids of my own eventually and want to share gaming experiences with them. My dad and I had Rock n Roll Racing: will I have to put up with the endlessly iterative Mario Kart series?
So it stands: I’ve given up on my wife. She does enjoy certain games, and I’m happy for her, but she no longer gets prodded to enjoy something she’s just not wired to like. bs angel and many others have proven that women can like games, so please don’t think I’m saying this is a man’s field. It’s a hobby; one I happen to have gone far, far down the rabbit hole of, but a hobby nonetheless. I also brew beer, watch hockey and read vampire books about real vampires, not sparkly ones, none of which she seems inclined to care about. If the almost-decade we’ve been together has taught me anything, though, it’s that this doesn’t matter. It’s great to have shared interests — quote any line from Dr. Horrible and we’ll break into song — but it’s also fine to do your own thing.
Besides: if our foray into Animal Crossing taught me anything, it’s that we don’t share well. ‘Your hour is up!’ ‘But I haven’t done anything yet!’ were standard exchanges that summer so long ago. Those of you who do share this hobby with your loved ones, how the hell do you do it?
Other participants!
Gaming with my wife, You could be doubling alone, Next Gen Killed Our Gaming Relationship, Forced Perspective, Playing With My Toys, From Gaming Geek to Heroes Freak, My Lady and Gaming, Gaming with your significant other, Gaming Together, Maybe?, Girl Gamers = Hawt, Gaming with my significant other, Move Over Hott Boy, I Want to Play, ‘Til Mongoose Mowdown Do Us Part
That’s an occurence every evening, when the fiance wants to get to bed and I just “want to do one more quest!” in The Shivering Isles. xD
Interessante Informationen.
I remember when I used to play Animal Crossing time would just fly by. My boyfriend could never get into AC but that didn’t bother me at all since it gave me more game time =)