Videogames Divide Families. Discuss.

A phrase that must be familiar to any member of the gaming generation:
“Will you get off that bloody PlayStation now and come and eat your dinner before it gets cold?!”

Despite the interruption of the call to eat and no matter how hungry one might get, it's never possible to stop a game straight away, is it? There's always just one little bit more to do, just one more platform to cross, one more corner to turn or one more enemy to shoot.

Go from this…

During the later half of the ‘90s when the PlayStation took off, that exact phrase could be heard in my parental home on a regular basis. My Mother would call out and my Father would fail to respond. Or rather he wouldn't respond until he'd gotten to a point in a game where he could safely pause or save. Fortunately, mum was never bothered by dad’s refusal to put down the controller. Being a gamer herself, she would excitedly ask dad if he'd gotten any further in Tomb Raider.

My parents had been interested in gaming ever since we got our first Spectrum on which mum enjoyed the likes of Dizzy, while dad opted for anything with guns, tanks or warplanes. These days, mum has her PS2 for the Jak & Daksters of the day, whilst Dad has his XBox for the Conflict: Desert Storm series-a-likes. They say that nothing for them has changed. They enjoy games as much today as in the past, but that: “Graphics are better now”.

…to this.

For some reason I find it awkward to speak openly with my parents. It's particularly hard to talk with dad because he's partially deaf, so conversation with him has to be very clear all the time. Sure, we can talk about the weather, work and relationships in that back and forth manner where everything is always “fine” or “the same as last time we spoke”, but with games it's different. Mum and dad could actually bore me to death when they start talking about games. They can witter on for ages about the camera in Tomb Raider being a bit of a pain or how they feel ripped off at splashing out 40 quid for a rubbish movie tie-in. But I enjoy listening to them. I enjoy the fact that we have the same passion for the subject.

The stereotypical image of gaming is a lone teenage boy, sitting in a dark room, isolated from his parents because he's engrossed in some kind of ‘evil game’. Well, fuck that. I’m living proof that it is possible for games to be ‘fun for the whole family’.

‘Hikikomori’.
Family Therapy Association.
Smell like Lara Croft.
A Tomb Raider fan with a great deal of time on his hands.

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