It’s Okay to Say

I grew up playing video games.   I played them shortly after the point I got my TRS 80 Color Computer in 1980 and stayed up Christmas night programming the computer to change the background color.  Games were basic and cryptic back then but got more and more complex as I grew older.   I met friends playing games.  I spent time with gamers.   I was a “gamer” long before there was such a thing as casual gaming such as playing Angry Birds on your phone while you watch television.

I played hardcore FPS (First Person Shooter) games and held LAN parties at my house.   With a group of friends we held weekend-long gaming competitions with up to 120 players, bringing their heavy PCs and CRT monitors.   Gatherings that were such a power drain on the location that we had to find hotels that could sustain the power requirements, built our own power box to separate the load across groups of computers and brought loads of power cables and extension cords to handle the space.   And that’s only on the power side.   We had equal challenges getting the network signals coordinated because back then there wasn’t internet or WiFi available to communicate across.   We had to bring it all.

Later I got into MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) games.   This was before social networking and before every game is interconnected with everyone else who’s playing it.   I met my husband during this time.  We played a game for years every day—for hours—with a group of friends, some of whom we never met and some we’re still very close to and see regularly in town.

I was a consultant, working for or with IBM during a lot of my working career and during all that time I was a gamer.   But for the most part, I never mentioned it.   It wasn’t necessarily the most noble of hobbies to have.   Gaming, while being seen as cool among the nerd and geek crowd, wasn’t the most impressive thing to say you did in your spare time when working with banking managers in New Zealand when they asked what you, as the high-price consultant they’d hired, did when you weren’t writing code and teaching classes.

Gaming has changed though.   It’s more mainstream in some ways and with the advent of social media and smart phones/tablets, everyone seems to be playing something, even if only casually.   And yet I’ve still never felt comfortable throwing out that I still love playing video games—and so does my husband.   He’s more competitive than I am and I don’t play the type of challenging, large group multiplayer games he does, but we still both play.

Except now the game has changed, so to speak, with the absolute world-wide phenomenon of Fortnite,  Everyone seems to be playing it, or if they’re not, they know someone who is.   And I speak about it all the time.   It’s okay to say.   I’ll say, “I’d better get home, my husband probably wants to get the children to bed so he can play Fortnite.”  

The Big Boy Update:  My son isn’t interested in taking the dog out.   But he has been helping clean up any messes she might make.   On the whole, I think I like that he’s picked that option to help with.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter’s new phrase is, “you’ve got to be kidding me”.   She says it in this tone that makes you think she’s rolling her eyes, even though she doesn’t know how.