Gaming in the "new world"

"The good old days"

You hear that from time to time slip its way out of a husband's mouth. It is the sure fire phrase to guarantee to not get laid for at least a week. A wife or significant other hears that and you're bound to get the dirty look that slaps you in the face with the unspoken, "What? Did I make life that bad for you?"

As with almost everything that slips unexpectedly out of a man's mouth, that's "not what we meant by that."

The "good old days" refers to a time when it was all about "us". The times where you could stay up all night in your apartment, watching TV, browsing the internet (usually for porn), and do whatever, whenever. It was your life and you answered to no one. 

That doesn't mean those days were "better", they were just different. I know that I am much more happy in the world where I have a beautiful wife and a lovely daughter to run around me. Sometimes I like answering to people and having them keep me in check.

"Uh. Shank. The theme of the post is supposed to be Gaming"

It is! It is about gaming in the new world, and to know the new world you had to be put in the way-back machine to remember the old world. One of the biggest time consumers of my life when I was all about myself was gaming. Guild Wars, Flavors of Doom, Flavors of Quake, Madden, etc. (I just looked at how much I've played Guild Wars in the past 2 years and it works out to about one hour a day, everyday. yikes!)

I used to come home from work, play games for 7 hours, then go to bed. 

Now, I go to work, come home to a beautiful wife and daughter, spend time with them until Niamonster goes to bed between 8pm and 9pm, then spend some alone time with the wife, then MAYBE, if I don't have any freelance work to do, game for an hour before my old ass gets so tired I can't keep my eyes open.

Gaming -> A family affair.

But why does gaming have to be a solo activity? How many games are left that DON'T come with a multiplayer option? Not very many I would guess. 

So I decided to get my wife hooked on Guild Wars and we've been playing a lot of that. Running around and doing missions with your S/O is a great way to spend time together, especially in an RPG type fashion. You still get plenty of time to talk, plus you develop your "working together" skills which are especially useful with a child. 

When Niamonster gets old enough we're going to allow her to play games too. I don't want to hear any crapsauce on how games rot your brain and make you fat. Shut up to all of you who think that. The right games, at the right time, for the right amount of time is a perfect way to develop hand-eye coordination, working together skills, strategy skills, etc. 

Trying Something New

While Isabella was cutting my hair last night we discussed new games that we could potentially start playing together besides Guild Wars. I mean, let's be honest, I have over 700 hours clocked into Guild Wars and it's starting to get a little old. You know what we came up with?

Nothing. All she kept naming was different expansion packs for Guild Wars. 

She has instantly poo-pooed first person shooters because apparently looking from the viewpoint of eyeballs is difficult for her. I think this would explain why she is generally a clutz, since you could assume that her looking out of her own eyeballs is probably just as confusing. 

She hates war/fighting games and scary games because they give her nightmares. 

She can't stand flying games or space games. (If she can't handle 2 axis movement, she certainly sucks at the 3rd axis)

She hates fighting "bosses". (really?)

What games could you recommend to her?

(available platforms: PC, Wii, PS3)

 

---

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I have to be a very lucky man to have a wife who loves to even game with him in the first place. But we need to expand her horizons - help me, oh reader, guide me to a fun game we can try.