Wilma! where's my f'ing Game Boy?
I have managed to somehow spawn a gaming family. No mystery there since I do enjoy playing my fair share of games. Though it all kind of hit me this morning in the basement, while on the treadmill watching ESPN. Two doltish news anchors were blathering on about some story when I kind of glanced around the TV. There stuffed into the entertainment center, were 5 various consoles with wires creeping all over the place, like vines crawling up Wrigley Field.
Atari – GameCube – NES – Genesis – and the N64. Pretty common right? But I think the difference here is that we’re not in the “collecting” mind set. Various games litter the basement, willy-nilly, with out a specific place or shelf. Tubs of games lie about. None are categorized or on some purposeful list, though always at our disposal. They just kind of sit there, or over there, or under here.. Waiting to be the next game selected. Oh it’s not just with me either. I’ve ventured into the basement many of times to find two of the kids in any combinations, playing away. It’s nice to see that. It defines us well.
Imagine now that you were sitting in our kitchen on one of the barstools enjoying a nice beer, a Pils maybe. As you look out into the family room, you would certainly make no mistake that we enjoy games, and you’d assume that we play them often. A Chess board, various board games, hand helds and the like spill out from under sofas, closets and cabinets. The games mix in well with the Wii and the 360 – always accessible and quite able to get into gaming straight away.
Our sitting room boasts numerous thought provoking puzzles and more boardgames. Our computer room has more of the same. The master bedroom has an Xbox, SNES and one of those Atari Flashback 2 consoles hooked up. If you pulled open the night stand on my side of the bed, you discover a GBA(in various forms), some old hand held TOMY games and a Nomad, living along side of puzzle books and wooden puzzle games.
When we go out for a family meal, at the table, you’ll usually see all sorts of handheld gaming devices, or we’ll bring a pack of playing cards, or if for some reason all of that’s forgotten, we’ll break out a pen/pencil and make our own game.
I guess what I’m getting at, is that gaming is part of us as a family. It defines us. Sure it’s not all that uncommon to have gaming families, but with us, it seems to be a bit deeper ingrained into our lifestyle.