Shoot First, Have Children Later

I fondly recall frosty mornings in the winter of last year, getting up at 5 am, hopping in a friend's car and then driving off to the local "Everything -You- Could- Ever -Want" store to wait with three other schmucks in a dark parking lot for a Wii. My diligence and persistence were paid off with nothing, nothing, a claim ticket for a PS3, and finally a Wii. How joyful that day was. My whole family played a game of Wii Sports Bowling that night. "Look at us," I thought "Just like the commercial, minus the old people and multiculturalism". What a wonderful night that was. I believe it goes without saying that night would never be repeated. We would never get everyone together like that to play. My mother was not swayed by the Wii's cutsey allure and my father ... well actually my father loves it. Even after I grew tired of the spastic flailing, he continued to play at least one game of bowling a day. It would be cheating him to say he got better. He practiced and became great. The funny thing is he manage to boil down the movement needed to throw the ball into one quick wrist-flick, ignoring the full form throw idealized in the commercials. He did stand up whilst playing though, and that has got to count for something.

Wii Bowling was a breach of my father's normal gaming protocol. He has grown very fond of first person shooters and after he bowled a 300 game, he proclaimed "It was only going to go downhill from there" and took a hiatus. I convinced him to go in halves with me on an Xbox 360 a little down the line and he agreed after I showed him some trailers for upcoming FPS, mainly Bioshock. My Father is not the type of guy who cares about plot. He would opt to skip through cut-scenes in even the most emotional of stories and get to the killing. He is impatient and easily annoyed. He hated Portal purely based on GLaDOS' voice, getting up and leaving the room after Test Chamber 2. I don't expect to hear him start a conversation with me about a game unless it's to ask me what to do next. We have talked, albeit briefly about Half Life 2's virtues, but at the end of the day he would prefer games like Black. That's why his reaction to Bioshock came as a surprise to me. He, to this day has not defeated the final boss. This is not because he can't, but rather because he won't. He says it's because he doesn't care when you ask him, but I don't believe him. There was one time we were driving home and I asked him why he never finished, and he said in the most sincere tone I've heard, "You don't understand. I love Rapture." and I swear, it brought a tear to my eye.

Currently, I introduced him to the Condemned series, which I figured he would enjoy because it's 95% bludgeoning the homeless with blunt objects. He moved on to the second game in the series about a week ago. I think he's having fun with it, I would hope so seeing as he is now encroaching upon my gaming time, or walking in disappointed when I'm already playing. It's really not that big of a deal to me as he usually buys a new game, finishes it and then doesn't play for sometimes months. I, on the other hand, am in a perpetual state of game play, going back to finish games I began months ago, starting new games, and buying more Rock Band songs. His way is totally fine, and I'm glad he shares my interest to some degree. I don't feel as bad when I start to talk to him about games, but engaging the conversation is like testing the temperature of water; If I start talking about them during Jeopardy!, I'm likely to get burned.

My dad is a normal guy. He's not "hip and groovy" (his words) and he doesn't go out of his way to learn about new games or try to impress me by playing games. For me, the way he plays is probably as pure as it is going to get. If it's fun for him, he will be engaged in the game play and keep going, and if it's not, he'll stop. It's that simple. Sixty hours into Grand Theft Auto IV, many of those hours spent gritting my teeth down to little nubs, and I still can't bring myself to stop playing it, despite my deep seething hatred. I should learn something from my father...or, ya' know, more things. I heard dads are good for that sort of thing.