Every gamer has heard the phrase “Get off that game you’ve been playing all day”. This Phrase is said by parents around the world. But what if the parent is the one who got you into gaming in the first place.
The story begins in the crisp year of 2003. My Dad just bought the first Xbox. The first couple of games he got were Madden, Top spin, and some first person shooter that I can’t remember the name of. My brother once told me a story about waking up in the middle of the night and seeing my dad playing Xbox, this was when my brother was just a kid. Nowadays my Dad would be lucky to even stay up till midnight.
During my Dads gaming days I was only a kid and wasn’t really allowed to play anything, just watch. The game I watched my dad play was the Godfather game, his favorite. He would play this game for hours on end without a break. Funny enough he was the only one who was able to beat it in the house, the ending was very difficult.
For my birthday a year later he took my brother and I to our local EB games, the Canadian equivalent to GameStop. He let me pick a game for the Xbox, I chose Simpsons Hit and Run. This started my console gaming journey. After this I started to buy all sorts of game for the Xbox. From Halo to Tony Hawk, even Need for Speed. My Dad, on the other hand, drifted away from gaming entirely. That is until my Brother got his Wii.
Remember the Guitar Hero and Rock Band craze? For Christmas one year my Brother and I got the Rock Band set. The set came with everything; guitar, drums, mic. My dad took a huge interest in this. We started to play Rock band together every weekend after this. I was on drums, Brother on guitar, and my Dad rotated between us. We had so much fun doing this as a family. But history repeats itself and he slowly drifted from it. We haven’t had a gaming sesh with him in awhile. He did, however, take interest in Read Dead 2 and watched me play for awhile, but didn’t want to play himself.
So whenever my Dad tells me that I’ve been playing too much games I always hit him with “You started this obsession by buying that Xbox”. He always denies it, but come on the evidence is there. Anyways Happy Fathers day everyone, even if I am a day late.
Thoughts On Video Games & More 
This was a nice idea! My dad got me into gaming as well – when I was younger, I used to watch him play Myst and an old Wolfenstein game I think? (which scared the crap out of me) on his old PC. When we got an Xbox I made him play Halo with me all the time and he hated it (it was too stressful he said) but I loved every second. He doesn’t play much anymore either, but same as you said, he actually enjoyed watching me play RDR2 and God of War last year. Hope you and your family enjoyed your father’s day!
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Thank you for the kind words😁 I hope your father’s day went well too!
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Thank you for sharing that very personal post. Your dad sounds like an awesome guy. 🙂
While I’ve always had a good relationship with my father, gaming was never a hobby we really shared. He’d play the odd few games, but he has always enjoyed games a lot more casually than I have. It’s interesting to read about how your dad and brother made gaming a family activity for you, rather than an isolated one.
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Thank you! Now that you mention it gaming is an isolated activity, I never really thought of it that way. He does on occasion come to my room to watch for a couple minutes, so his interest is still clearly there.
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