Gaming Session with Pops
Last Thursday, I managed to get my dad to do some couch gaming with me. As much as I would have liked to do that more when I was younger, it just never happened. I can tell my dad would struggle playing the same 3D adventure games that I like to play. One game that he did like from the early 90s was Star Fox for the SNES. As far as in the present day, he's definitely not going to pick up gaming as a hobby, but it's a nice way for us to spend time together.
For this session, I wanted to see how he would feel sitting back and watching me go through a more cinematic game: The Last of Us. Initially, I just wanted to go through the introduction with him, but he got pretty invested in it, especially after the car crash. I can remember him calling out “Is this a game?”, and being awestruck with how far gaming has come, visually and thematically. There was a hint of sad frustration in his voice when we finished the tutorial, “With everything going on in the world right now, why would someone make this game?” He was surprised when I told him the game was nearly 10 years old at this point, with a sequel that was released just a few months ago.
We ended up stopping at the point where Joel meets Ellie for the first time. I'm not sure when we'll get another chance to play through some more, but it was a nice two hour experience that the two of us can remember for a while.