Greatest. Day. Ever.
When it comes to gaming, there are certain events that trigger burst of happiness and excitement that are hard to duplicate. Getting a new game is always something the be happy about, though its the most common of occurrences and therefore has become something more akin to a dose needed to keep my addiction in check. The highest levels of euphoria have always come from that magical moment when I receive a new console and open the box, catching the first signiture smell of plastic and electronics. It's decidedly technological and always
fantastic. But yesterday I got to experience a new sort of rush, something I haven't felt for the many years I've spent with video games, and it was wonderful - helping my wife create an Xbox Live profile. You must first understand that outside of Tetris, Animal Crossing, and the Paper Mario games, my wife isn't exactly a fan of video games. She's accepting if not entirely thrilled that it's my hobby of choice but she'll rarely watch me play anything and even more rarely actually sits down to play something herself. The Wii allowed her to indulge slightly, but once she reached the end of
Super Paper Mario, she bring herself to defeat the final boss because then "the game would be over" - that was two years ago. Technically, the game has indeed never ended for her. Adorable. But yesterday she decided she wanted to join me in a game of
1 vs 100, and to do that we had to craft her a profile and an avatar, and being able to help her do that and then sit beside her and enjoy some good old fashioned trivia was not just fun, but something that made me very happy. Being able to share video games with my wife and make the time together count towards a good time is not an everyday event. I loved it.
As I mentioned a couple posts ago, we've got all kinds of hassle coming our way, but this new window into my wife's perhaps possible interest in gaming is great, and she's even curious about games like
Viva Pinata that share her natural love of things like Animal Crossing. She's also interested in those more "traditional" puzzle games available for download on Xbox Live Arcade. Hell, she even brought up that she was even "curious" about
World of Warcraft. I mean, I'm not even into the idea of WoW, but if she is, that's a whole other story! If I do not help her explore these new areas of interest, then I am a failure both as a husband and as a life-long gamer. All of this gaming talk did lead to a discussion of bringing the Xbox 360 up from the basement den and putting it in the living room, which made me laugh for a few minutes, but it also brought up the idea of somehow getting our hands on a
second 360 that would be all for her - mostly because my HDD is nearly full and also because it'll allow us to maybe play some other online games together that do not offer split screen play. Secretly, I'm hoping to get her into
Left 4 Dead. How awesome would that be!? I have other friends/couples that employ the one-console-per-spouse idea so that both have their own access to HDD space, their own profiles free from the other meddling with, so it's not exactly unheard of. Doing research, a refurbished Xbox 360 from GameStop is fairly affordable. Toss in an equally affordable refurbished HDD and we've got a plan that STILL is cheaper than a PS3. It is, of course, extremly irresponsible to do that at this time, given the looming situation with money and employment I brought up a few posts ago - but we're always so damn careful about
everything that I figure we rightly deserve to make one poor financial decision before the locks are firmly in place. Honestly, it probably won't come to pass because we always break down and make the "responsible" choice (for the record, being responsible has done very little in terms of rewards or doing us much good, but that's how we are), but I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to get her one - complete with the pink controller she wanted and a pink faceplate I found on eBay... That new wave of joy rushes over me again just by reading that sentence. Awesome.
2 comments:
You're officially tripping the light fantastic right now. My wife will play the occasional puzzle game or dabble in some Wii Sports; but never to the extent that you've just described.
I finally get a man-cave just like you, and now you've one-upped me with getting your wife into gaming. Curse you Bannen, and your meddling dog too!
I actually got her to play some Left 4 Dead, which was fun. She has no clue how to handle moving and looking, so she wants to work on that. But it's a start!
I have to stay one step ahead at all times... Congrats on the house though.
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