Older relatives and gaming

[Knight Falchion]

My mom used to ignore the screen when I played video games, but then she saw the Bounding Demons in Dark Souls.

"What are those?"

I didn't actually know their names, so I described them as best I could:

"Dinosaur butts."

Cue lotsa laughing. Now she quotes "dinosaur butts" at me left and right, especially as an interjection when I'm talkin' video games with my friends.

Edited April 8, 2015 by The Legendary Falchion

[Kirie]

My parents never showed much interest in gaming when I was a kid growing up. They were actually rather anti-gaming when I was young, to the point where an aunt of mine sneakily bought me a GBC and Pokémon Yellow. Eventually my parents eased up a bit on the gaming thing, but they never watched or played with my sister and I and mostly just left us to our own devices so long as we didn't spend all day in front of the TV.

Nowadays, both my parents play Facebook games, so go figure. I'm not sure they really consider those video games, though.

My uncle (mom's younger brother), on the other hand, has always been an avid gamer. He bought an NES back in the mid-/late-80s that was my first foray into the world of gaming and he would even give me pointers and stuff. Later he accidentally introduced me to what became one of my favourite game series when we went over to his house for a family party and he left his PS2 on with Fatal Frame open in his gaming room. Our tastes have since diverged a lot, but I owe a lot to him.

[Dual Dragons]

My parents aren't gamers--but they probably have memories from when they played in the arcades. They remember things from when my brother and I played and got into our obsessions. They bought the consoles and handhelds despite I not remembering that I asked for them at first, so yeah they're the reason I'm a gamer.

My mom, being the "don't honk at people even if they are bad drivers" person she is, trying to be non-violent despite watching violent stuff all the time, got a little offended when I said that even if we talked about things (we have difficulties carrying out a five-minute conversation keep in mind), they are things she is not into and things I'm not into (example: she is shopping and I'm games). "I know some games--just not modern games! I'm not up-to-date." she says to me. Fast-forward and she's flipping the channels to the first Mortal Kombat movie.

That's not the surprising bit. She likes action movies. I've seen her watch it before.

The surprising bit is that she was saying the names of characters. They're were a lot of characters in that movie and I don't even think they all said their names--and if they did, probably not enough times to remember them. She watches movies while she's working so she tends to watch movies multiple times so there's that as well. "There's Kano. There's that... Mi... Mileena person. She's a bad person. And that green thing I think is Chameleon--no, Reptile." Those she didn't catch I said and she says, "Oh yeah!"

So my follow-up: "I'm kind of surprised you know those people. Mortal Kombat wouldn't be your type of game."

"Well, I've seen the movie and I did play Mortal Kombat II in the arcade."

I stared.

"See, I know some things!"

Well played, Mom.

[RJWalker]

My father plays Sim City 4 and hogs the PC. :\

[MoonlitSonata]

My mom doesn't really game aside from casual games like Bejeweled and the like, however she has been my personal cheerleader in multiple situations.

One time I was leading a raid for my guild in an MMO and had a group that could not for the life of them stay out of AoE attacks and the like and we were continually getting wiped. My mom, being the wonderful person she was, would bring me water and grapes (my favorite snack when I was raiding) as the raid continued. When we finally started clicking, I unplugged my headset, letting everything from the raid come through the speakers. The final run where we won she stood behind me, offering words of encouragement to both me and my team. It's one of the more special moments I've had.

She's also sat there and been the voice of reason when I start getting frustrated on bosses, keeping me from getting too hotheaded when I start failing. I've been impressed when she's pointed out where I fell apart in various runs of bosses, or even when she notices a boss mechanic before I do.

I've also tried getting her into some of the games I play via emulation, although not Fire Emblem yet. Mostly it's just teaching her the ropes of Pokemon on VBA, which she seems to enjoy decently. She always teases me about how when I was a kid I had Pokemon Crystal and I came running to her asking for help on the ice cave.

I'll really miss gaming with her around now that I've moved out, but hopefully I have a good game or two when I go back for visits that we can relive the old days.

[Captain Wesker]

Whenever I get some new Mario game, while my sister and I are palying, my mom will come down and ask to play with us.

Nothing much really happens, but I happen to be the cause of about 300+ deaths on 3D World because I push my mom of the edge.

Oops.

[Irony]

Oh yeah, I remember one Super Mario Bros incident.

In the Mario vs Luigi levels on the DS version of the game, there is a level made out of breakable bricks.

I once got a Mega Mushroom on this level...

And I broke the entire level...

And neither of us could reach the star that would reset the level to normal...

Oopsies?

[Ike-Mike]

My dad used to play Contra and Super Mario with me when I was 4, but over the years it was increasingly more noticeable that he's really averse to modern technology.
Eventually he even admitted that he outright hated playing video games with me!
My entire life has been a lie!

Nowadays he's technologically to a point where his only real electronics are his car, TV and a decade-old Nokia mobile.
Maybe my interest in electronics is a counterreaction towards this?

My mum's side of the family is overall more interested in electronics. The brick Game Boy was hotly competed over between me, my mum and my only and older sister with games like Tetris, Super Mario Land, Kirby's Dreamland and Kwirk.
My mum even got another Game Boy along with some of those games off eBay a few years back and when I 'inherited' her old smartphone I saw a Game Boy emulator on it, so there seems to be a bit of personal attachment towards it.
Nowadays she plays mostly Facebook games, but at least her "stop playing video games, they're all horrible and life-ruiners" changed to "I play games too, but not as much as you." Same message, but the delivery is all the better.
Also, her now-husband is a 'computer guy' and plays World of Tanks in his spare time.

Both mum and sister basically phased out from video games when they jumped to 3D. Sister still had a N64 and both Playstations, but they were more of her then-husbands play toys. He, however, showed me the greatness that is Starfox 64 and I owe him that.
It's slighty off-topic, but my nephew became engrossed in video games because of the consoles they had and because of my passion for them. He's more into Call of Duty than anything else, but he shows some respect towards the old classics because of me.

The Pokémon craze was also reserved towards my generation, at least in real life. Thankfully, I was discovering the internet at around that time...