126: We Always Play Videogames

[Leigh Alexander]

We Always Play Videogames

"We'd have paper plates full of Hanukkah cookies, butter treats in holiday shapes and crusted with blue sugar, as our game fuel; we'd send my sister on missions to bring more sweets, assuring her of the vital importance of her role - if we didn't have cookies, how could we beat the boss? And even though the three of us were still too young to be obligated to gift one another, we had my sister's crayon Sonic art, the sheaf of color printouts of game characters my cousin had gleaned for us, the full-size Twisted Metal poster I'd pulled out of a game magazine to give him. These marathon idylls are my holiday memories."

Leigh Alexander recounts the memories, both good and bad, of a succession of holiday game fests.


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[sharp_as_a_cork]

I enjoyed reading this very much. I should probably try gaming more with my cousins, who I'll hopefully meet this Hanukkah.

 

[SatansBestBuddy]

I enjoyed this article a lot.

But it's, to me, a painful reminder that my dad was the only one to ever get me games for Christmas, the last one being a GBA and Golden Sun, before his passing.

I've only gotten one game for Christams since, and it wasn't very good....

;.;

 

[knivy]

Great article.

I used to play with videogames all christmas day with my older cousins when I was like 10-12 years old, but then they stopped gaming and then I spent a couple of years being the only one playing anything. While I would asked for a GBA, they would ask for money and clothes.

It was like that for a couple of years until my younger cousins finally started getting to the age where they just don't button press. So I'm looking forward to next christmas, finding out if they did manage to finish the Megaman Aniversary Collection I gave them and showing them how to if they couldn't.

 

[Hyperfly]

Wow, nice read

It reminds me of some of the times I've had the privelidge of playing with my cousins Stateside. I'm stuck in Australia so it's kinda hard to meet in person, but Xbox Live helped ease the pain somewhat

One of my cousins has just come of "gaming age", where she actually has an idea of what she is doing, so we are slowly training her in the ways of TF2. She's a pretty damn good sniper for an 8 year old.

 

[mechanicalsockmonkey [deprecated]]

I really enjoyed this article.

I have a brother who's ten years older than I am, and gaming was mostly how we connected when I was younger. I have many great memories of the three of us and our Uncle Bill hiding out in the basement of my Grandma's house, playing our new video games on Christmas morning, and this brought them all back.

Since then, gaming has become a hobby for almost everyone in my family except my mother (I try desperately, but to no avail). But although we all game individually, I miss being the sort of cabal-feeling troup of gamers in grandma's basement.

 

[Hyperfly]

Man.. I didn't need that. Now whenever I get pwned I'm going to be thinking that it was an 8 yr old who did it. A guy only has so much self-esteem to lose, you know?

Yeah... you'll have been pwned by an 8 year old girl too.

Ouch.

Disclaimer: Ohgodohgodohgodpleasedon'tkillmeTammynooo!
She resents the term "Girl Gamer"

 

[FunkyJ]

Great article, and I wish all the Dr Walsh's and Jack Thompson's and Sen Lieberman's of the world would read it and understand how people, including families, can bond over games and gaming.

 

[Vortigar]

Good read.

Now I feel like travelling across the country to play Streets of Rage with a friend I had back in the day. There's definately no gaming feeling in my family, not like that, I'm part of the first generation of gamers there and me and my brother never really enjoyed the exact same type of games. Though whenever I run out of subjects when talking to my cousins I can always bring up gaming and have some decent discussions.

This also made me wonder about the future, when I have kids, will I be playing games on the console with them in ten years time? I'd really love to see gaming bridge the age old gap between generations like that. Also: how will the balance between video and board games settle in the struggle to gather the family?

Kwil, Hyperfly:
A week ago in CoD4, everyone on the server sounded like 18+ and then a voice cuts through that felt like a 6 year old. Checking the stats revealed he was the 2nd highest scoring player in the match at the end of the round... That made me feel really really old somehow.