Married and Playing: 100 Days of Video Games and More: PS4

Showing posts with label PS4. Show all posts

Thursday, June 25, 2015

100 More Days (aka 200 days)

Day 179: Here we go again, Here we go again

I vote more Firefly? Browncoats FTW

The downside of playing for 100 consecutive days of gaming to save our marriage is that we played even when we were cranky, tired, annoyed, or uninterested. In this blog I have talked a lot about my range of emotions and even when I could barely stand I would play. I have to admit the last few weeks our enthusiasm for gaming together has been waning. The routine of playing daily quickly dissolved into fitting a game in a few times a week. The last few weeks we have had a lot of conversations about what comes next?

But let me back up and explain the awkwardness that jump-started the conversation.

Tired, Awkward and Missing Kiddos

Marriage Reboot without Children (Eeek)

The in-laws recently took the kiddos to the “happiest place on earth” for over a week. We live in So Cal but the in-laws in Florida so they did a fly by and picked up kiddos and took them to Disneyworld. The kids were having the time of their lives chasing Doofenshmirtz through the Epcot center me and the hubs were left really alone for the first time since our marriage reboot.

When Shit is Weird Pack Your PS4

Every parent will admit that a week reprieve from parenting is nothing to scoff at. But when you are redefining your relationship the kids leaving can make everything, well, really uncomfortable. The day after the kids left, I had a union meeting and the hubs tagged along. This was our first hotel stay without our kids. We knew it might be difficult so we packed the PS4.

We arrived late (around 10 pm) and prepared to immediately set up our system. But of course to add to our turmoil our four-star hotel assigned us a room and TV with no HDMI port. The hubs seemed uneasy so I called the front desk, concierge, and hotel engineering office. To add insult to injury each guy I talked to explained to me where the HDMI port would be on my TV (you know, since I have no penis of course this entire problem is obviously that I don’t know how to use a TV). When the last guy finally understood that I just needed a new TV we finally got the problem resolved around 1am. So before collapsing into bed we turned out Magicka and killed a few monsters to calm our nerves.

PS4 Hotel Vaca like a Boss

What Comes Next

My take-away is my PS4 is awesome and that I vocalized that I have been surprised by the genre of games that I have enjoyed playing on it. During this project we have played a lot of games but no video games entirely through. So we decided this will be our next conquest. We plan to choose one story-driven PS4 game and in 100 days play through it together.

We were very scientific about our game choice. We made pros and cons of various games (ex: Witcher, Tomb Raider, Wofienstien, Last of Us). We watched gameplay, read ESRB, and even got on the message boards to see what would be worth three months of our life. I know at this point you are frantically swiping ahead on your smart phone screen to see what we chose but you will just have to keep reading.

Learning from our last 100 days, we decided we don’t have to play every day but that we won’t play the chosen game solo. After 20 years of friendship, 12 years of marriage, and 200 days of blogging and games I am still finding new ways every day to love the hubs. Here is hoping the next 100 days has more good days than bad and I will find a new a different way to love games.

Proof We Need a New Game ASAP

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Unashamed Button Masher

Day 176: Gaming without Tantrums

Within many aspects of my life I am fairly accomplished person but I really do not like to fail. I will be the first to admit that I am feisty and I am not always proud of the way I react when I am not automatically successful at a task. Yoga has helped to calm my ego but when I am with the hubs there is less censorship and accountability because he is my person. Simply put, if I am going to be a brat when I suck at a game it is usually while I am playing with the hubs. I know it is terrible to admit in writing that with my partner I am my worst self but this is usually true. The implication of my limited range when it comes to game controls has been a major factor in our play and communication as a couple.

BUTTON MASHER EXPOSED

Twilight Magicka session in Hotel

For decades I have been able to get through gaming habits with hotkeys and button mashing. The hubs recently (yesterday) admitted that he has strategically chosen/encouraged co-op games based on the complexity of the controls because he knew I just wasn’t good enough for more advanced games.

After six months of co-op gaming we have been introducing new challenges to see if I can overcome my lifelong habit of mashing. I shamefully admit that using both analog sticks is still unnatural to me but I am getting there. The first game that has really started to push the boundaries of my skill has been Magicka.

KILLING MY HUSBAND

As I mentioned in a previous post we starting our 100 days with Diablo and moving on to games like Helldivers is tuff because all of a sudden there is friendly fire. The idea that not just your character can die but you can kill your party requires much more collaboration and focus sans button mashing. Magicka has both friendly fire, new spells every level (some that suck), and forces me to use both analog sticks simultaneously whether I like it or not. I cannot be successful in this game if I just mash buttons but the satisfaction of killing monsters together has increased ten-fold because things are just hard enough.

Healing Spell Kills Skeletons (Duh)

Dr. CCB & MrNinjaman in Magicka

Tip of the Day: When it comes to married gaming its okay to start out easy but always try to be better (as long as you are both having fun). Also, if your partner is not at your same level of gaming don’t berate them. Instead take a page from the hubs book and ease them into gaming with quality titles that are within their current range. Most of all—it takes time but things do get better.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

The Purge

Day 130: Spring Cleaning

For a multitude of reasons our family is moving into a smaller home and attempting to simplify our life. I have mentioned previously that I am not really a shopper so I don’t have an excess of clothes or accessories to donate. The ominous task that has recently faced the hubs and myself as a couple is narrowing our gaming collection.

Tiny Living

02' Dave & Hubs on couch/bed/game station

When we were first married and living in the San Fernando Valley (So. Cal) we had the tiniest studio apartment you can imagine. It was behind a house and was half of a converted garage that was actually constructed in the early 1970’s and had never been renovated. It was a total sh*t hole but was also crazy affordable and is the primary reason I have hardly any student debt. I describe this place because I remember the primary challenge when living there was where to store our video games and set up our gaming desktop. We were broke college students without any credit or sense of style. But we survived with the most basic of amenities, a place to play games, and each other.

As anyone with kids knows once you start breeding the amount of stuff you acquire is ridonkulas. The toys, the rockers, the changing stations, the strollers, and the onsies. Oh my goodness the lists provided by stores for first time parents contains so much stuff it will not even fit in a standard size family home. Even amidst the clutter created as we have reared two little ones we have always had a desk in our home with ample space for a gaming desktop and places to store our myriad of video games.

And once we both had jobs and a 3-bedroom house the Warmachine miniatures, board games, and multiple systems overwhelmed our personal “style.” For us basic design included organizing most rooms to accommodate each of our gaming habits. Now that we are undergoing a process of transformation both the hubs and me we realize we need to reevaluate what kind of home we want to live in.

The Bedroom

I used to believe that a TV or computer should not live in a bedroom. But once I removed media from my bedroom I just started searching the Internet on my phone and watching Netflix on my tablet (always in bed). Because we primarily use the PS4 for adult games we have decided that the PS4 and our awesome 40-inch HD television should live in our master bedroom. As a couple we want our room to be about us and we want to keep playing together feng shui be damned.

The Living Room

For at least the last 8 years our living room has been a place for morning cartoons and twilight solo gaming sessions. Unfortunately it has rarely been a place for coming together. When considering our move the room that has gotten the most attention has been our future living room. We decided we wanted a more industrial feel, lots of seating, tables the correct size for board games, and video games that are accessible to our to young kiddos. As we started to sort out what should stay and what should go we realized almost every single PS3 and 360 game was rated M. After much conversation we decided we needed more family friendly video games in our communal space.

I still own my treasured game cube and animal crossing from over a decade ago. But in all honesty it has been over a decade since I have purchased a game or system from Nintendo. After lots of research and conversations the hubs agreed eventually we would need to invest in a Nintendo Wii for our living room.

Sacrifice

A Wii is outside of our price range as we are currently downsizing everything in our life. But I could not have been more surprised that the day after this conversation that the hubs listed every single one of our 360 and PS3 games on eBay. We have some lingering older gen Xbox and PS1 games but almost all the mature games are gone from our home. For any of my readers that have been lifelong gamers you understand the gravity of this sacrifice. So many hours of the hubs life have gone into these plastic disks that I could not imagine him parting with them…but he did.

SOLD Xbox 360 Collection

SOLD PS3 Collection

No matter how small our previous dwellings I would have never have asked my partner to give up any of his games. Now I am realizing I should probably get rid of my GameCube and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds in solidarity but I will be honest it is so freaking hard. And if getting rid of 4 or 5 things for me seems impossible imagine how difficult it was for him to sell his entire gaming library (sans PS4).

Daily gaming has been on hiatus this week because of painting our house and sick kiddos. But everyday games remain a part of our recovery, a tool for our marriage, and a way to keep showing our love.

**We still have a well-behaved, other system friendly, current with its updates Xbox 360 and PS3 that need new homes.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

99 Days of Emotional Video Game Blogging

Day 99: The Audit

April 15^th is a day most grown ups dread and like other procrastinating adults we were derailed from gaming by the taxman. The only gaming that took place yesterday was a few moves of mobile Carcossone. But the government is not the only reason we were distracted we have also spent much of our downtime watching an episode of the new Netflix show DareDevil.

There are 24 hours left until “D-day.” I euphemistically referred to tomorrow, or the end of 100 days, as when I would make the choice between Diablo and divorce. And it is probably a good sign that over the last few weeks I have stopped labeling my blog posts with the word divorce but as every good researcher knows, current trends do not determine final outcomes. Today the plan is to get the hubs the moment he gets off work and get as much gaming in as possible.

I have been working on an audit about how this experiment has changed me emotionally, my relationship with the hubs, and if it provided any insight into what to do with our broken marriage. The thing that surprised me the most is that I wrote as much about my feelings as I did what games we played.

I have decided to map my blog. To create themes and sub-themes of the topics and emotions that have filled the last 100 days. I placed asterisks next to my favorite post in each category.