Users Online Now: 2985  |  April 26, 2024
dbeth's Blog
It's Been a While... 
Posted on August 8, 2011 at 12:44 AM.
Am I just getting old, or has that thing called "Parenthood" finally caught up with me?

Just a little background. I just celebrated my 34th birthday about a month ago now and I've owned at least one console since Christmas 1987 when I got my first NES. Since then, I've owned a:

NES
SNES
PS1
Dreamcast
PS2
Gameboy Advance SP
XBox
DS Lite (2 of them)
Xbox 360
Wii
3DS

I've enjoyed many games over the past 24 years, and I really found my niche in sports gaming around the end of high school in 1995. College was definitely my peak as far as sports gaming is concerned, but it has stayed strong with me until about the past year. All of a sudden, I found myself trying to like FPS like Call of Duty and Rainbow 6, and those held my interest...for a while.

Then my little guy was born in the summer of 2008. He's been more than awesome, but I'm finding the only time I can game is naptime or after he goes to bed (and I'm wiped). That's fine, but combined with how stagnant Madden and NCAA have become, and how long it takes to play through just one complete game of a sports season, my interest has waned. My gametime span has hit about 30 minutes, and if I get more (or can stand more), then it's a bonus.

Now my 3-year old has gotten into it a bit...and because of that, I'm much MUCH more into the Wii than any other system...AND THAT'S FINE. Sadly, looking at my gaming library, I have about 28 Wii games (homebrewed system with a USB launcher...so I kind of have a nice jukebox of games to pick), and I think 5 360 games (APF 2k8, CH 2k8, NCAA 11, Rainbow 6: Vegas 2, NBA 2k11). My Wii selections are more diverse...maybe. Tiger Woods 10, 11, & 12, Various Guitar Hero games, Rock Band 3, Madden 09, NBA 2k10, CoD: WAW, CoD 4: Reflex, Black Ops (yes, I like FPS on the Wii), GoldenEye, **** Mickey, Lego Star Wars: Complete Saga, Lego Star Wars: Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. Those Wii games relax me and let me just be a kid again...with my kid.

I am looking forward to playing the 3DS more and getting its bigger titles down the road. For me, it's like a portable Wii graphics-wise, and I enjoy that. I only really plan on getting NBA 2k12 now, and maybe MW3 (for the Wii) this year. But, I think my prime gaming years have passed....but I will enjoy watching my child grow and game in a responsible way. And then I may have to show off the old gaming chops when he gets older to show him his dad knew something back in the day

So back to the original question...maybe gaming will be more of a hobby for me, and that's okay. I think I'll still get enjoyment out of gaming, just now through a new form: watching the enjoyment it brings my son.
Comments
# 1 bmj2k7 @ Aug 8
I'm 23 and in college, and yes i do have more time to play now then in years past, also i finally have a up to date system, haven't had one of those since my dad bought me a n64, and he was about your age when he bought it, and even he played it with me and my bro and sis. So its ok if you mainly game and show off to your son, bc i enjoyed watching my dad play when i was a kid, so theres nothing wrong with that, actually glad ppl still do that nowdays. Ive played since gameboy, regualr nintendo, dreamcast genesis, sega saturn ps1 etc and i dont think todays games are as memorable as back then, so your not missiing that much, i still remember what i played when i was a kid, and some of these games today i forgot what there about halfway through, which is sad when back then there were no such things as a memory card to save, u had to get as far as u could when i started playing games, which is why im better than most players now, bc of those days, and those games. One day if i ever have a son, i still hope im atleast somewhat into games so i could show him, hey your dad was a beast back in the day, ive been in the top 50 of leaderboards, and could have went for no 1 if i polayed more. but i hope i could show him a thing or two, bc even now games just dont last more than a few months, so i hope im still into games when im in my 30s, bc playing with your dad is actually very fun and memorable to a kid, and shows hes not serious all teh time, and that you can have fun too.
 
dbeth
21
dbeth's Blog Categories
dbeth's Xbox 360 Gamercard
More dbeth's Friends
Recent Visitors
The last 10 visitor(s) to this Arena were:

dbeth's Arena has had 30,922 visits