I appreciate the feedback from everyone, and several of you have the same questions.
My ex was not pushing for me to stop much, but if she called she would always ask if i were playing the game and I could tell she didn't like it too much. However, it was never a real problem.
The real killer is that you can't exactly tell someone you may be interested in that its one of your hobbies. Not at this stage in life, anyway. The stigma that it is a "kid's thing" is still prevelant in this day and age and I don't really see it going anywhere.
It would be cool to have a girl who like games, but I haven't been so lucky.
Benny_Blakk
Have you tried getting her to play a game with you??? My wife and I (I'm 33 and she's 34 and we have two young daughters) still can go deadly silent with the fierceness of competition if we square off in a sports title or Scene It? or Buzz or something like that. Crazy competitive.
She was the original gamer out of the two of us though. I'd go over to her house when we were dating back in HS (dated from 1991-2000) and that was basically date night...me watching her tear her way through Super Mario Bros. or Sonic...after a couple hours of that she would put the hurt on me in Blades of Steel. She got me interested in gaming. There's a few days where I get stuck in a rut (or on a level) and she tells me to grow up and re-join the family but it is always in good fun and the kids and her always come first. She loves that I make a conscious effort to buy games from time to time that we can enjoy together and as a family.
We love art, photography and film and it his her philosophy that video games should be seen in this same light by modern society. To think that they construct these interactive masterpieces out of freaking numbers and letters is mind blowing! We also really believe that gaming should be part of our household culture for our kid's sake as it eventually helps them connect with others socially...the very opposite of what many critics argue. I'm a teacher (Grade eight) and I have a few kids that aren't allowed to game or are very restricted in what they can play and they have a tough time sometimes getting into conversations during less structured parts of the school day.
It's been fun as a Dad to sit beside my 5 year old on the couch and play through the first couple of easier levels of Little Big Planet together and see her and hear her react. She doesn't even want to marry her dad anymore as she crushes pretty hard on Sackboy these days. It's been fun to see her put aside some of her early DS games like Crayola or Build A Bear to pilfer my Mario Kart/Super Mario and Metroid Pinball cartridges. It's been fun to hear her ask to stop watching "Princess movies on the PSP and try out Ratchet. There could be worse things you could be doing than gaming...she needs to realize that. Try getting her involved...she might surprise herself and you. ;) Even tonight my wife, despite a head shake and roll of the eyes when I told her I was going out at midnight to pick up MW2 responded with "you're such a nerd." It wasn't criticism though...it was genuine affection. In her comments, I heard my own voice of 20 years ago when I told her the same thing on "any given Friday night" as she beat Super Mario 3 without barely losing a life!
Get her involved in your hobby because you're never too old to have a good time and it sounds like gaming is just that for you.
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