I admit it...I am horrible at video games. Not any specific video game, but ALL games.
It started as a child. Our family had gotten the original Nintendo, and even though the only buttons to push were Up/Down/Left/Right and A and B, I could not do it. I could never go to different worlds or be able to do fancy tricks. I had this secret through high school and college, never needing to play video games...until now.
When Greg and I started dating, he was an XBox player. I understood nothing. No gaming lingo, no games, no button pushing...and had no desire to know. This was ok with Greg, because he did try to teach me, but soon he found out how horrible I really was. The birth of video games were of my generation, how can I be bad? I just don't think I can push more than one button at once. I am also one of those spastic players that you see. If I want my person to jump, I make my controller jump two feet in the air. When I'm supposed to be pressing a button continuously, my whole remote control along with my whole body is shaking. It's sort of scary to watch, seeming as though I might hurt someone swinging the controller all around, even though it does no good.
After getting rid of the XBox, we got the Wii system, thinking (fingers crossed) that it really couldn't be that hard for me. It was the orginal A and B and directions. I CAN play the Wii fit games, only because there is no button pushing involved, just swinginng of the remote control. Then, my confidence rose thinking we could actually play using the buttons. We went out and bought Super Mario and have been practicing. Our friends have beat all 10 worlds, I have not beaten the first level.
It's as though I'm trying to re-learn some important function that I learned as a child. But the problem is I never learned to play video games as a child, just sat watched other people play. You can't learn how to play unless actually doing it, not just watching. My sister, Carrie brought back the original Nintendo from my parents house to her house and we blew in the cartridge (like we're supposed to, right?) and played. I died again, and again and again. A hopeless cause.
So, in all this practicing Nolan has wanted to start playing. We told him to press "2" to jump and push the "right arrow" to walk forward. Then, Nolan figured out that you could just press the letter "A" and be put in a protective bubble and not have to actually do anything, just follow Greg's Mario around. Yes! The answer I've needed! Sadly, Nolan has beat more levels than me, every time his bubble gets popped we started yelling,"get back in your bubble!" he just hits the "A" again and he is safe from all koopa troopa.
I am shamed that my almost 4 year old can get further in Super Mario than his 27 year old mother. I AM better than Nolan at MarioKart, but I do have the leg-up of practicing real-life driving for 11 years and he has no idea about steering wheels and driving.
I do love it that Nolan tries to participate with us. It's great to see us as a family doing something fun. Every time he asks me to play I am sad to say that he has to wait until dad gets home.
Maybe it's not so bad that I'm horrible at video games, not the end of the world. I will continue to play, maybe one day be good enough to beat the first level. But for the moment I classify myself as a non-gamer and proud of it :)
It started as a child. Our family had gotten the original Nintendo, and even though the only buttons to push were Up/Down/Left/Right and A and B, I could not do it. I could never go to different worlds or be able to do fancy tricks. I had this secret through high school and college, never needing to play video games...until now.
When Greg and I started dating, he was an XBox player. I understood nothing. No gaming lingo, no games, no button pushing...and had no desire to know. This was ok with Greg, because he did try to teach me, but soon he found out how horrible I really was. The birth of video games were of my generation, how can I be bad? I just don't think I can push more than one button at once. I am also one of those spastic players that you see. If I want my person to jump, I make my controller jump two feet in the air. When I'm supposed to be pressing a button continuously, my whole remote control along with my whole body is shaking. It's sort of scary to watch, seeming as though I might hurt someone swinging the controller all around, even though it does no good.
After getting rid of the XBox, we got the Wii system, thinking (fingers crossed) that it really couldn't be that hard for me. It was the orginal A and B and directions. I CAN play the Wii fit games, only because there is no button pushing involved, just swinginng of the remote control. Then, my confidence rose thinking we could actually play using the buttons. We went out and bought Super Mario and have been practicing. Our friends have beat all 10 worlds, I have not beaten the first level.
It's as though I'm trying to re-learn some important function that I learned as a child. But the problem is I never learned to play video games as a child, just sat watched other people play. You can't learn how to play unless actually doing it, not just watching. My sister, Carrie brought back the original Nintendo from my parents house to her house and we blew in the cartridge (like we're supposed to, right?) and played. I died again, and again and again. A hopeless cause.
So, in all this practicing Nolan has wanted to start playing. We told him to press "2" to jump and push the "right arrow" to walk forward. Then, Nolan figured out that you could just press the letter "A" and be put in a protective bubble and not have to actually do anything, just follow Greg's Mario around. Yes! The answer I've needed! Sadly, Nolan has beat more levels than me, every time his bubble gets popped we started yelling,"get back in your bubble!" he just hits the "A" again and he is safe from all koopa troopa.
I am shamed that my almost 4 year old can get further in Super Mario than his 27 year old mother. I AM better than Nolan at MarioKart, but I do have the leg-up of practicing real-life driving for 11 years and he has no idea about steering wheels and driving.
I do love it that Nolan tries to participate with us. It's great to see us as a family doing something fun. Every time he asks me to play I am sad to say that he has to wait until dad gets home.
Maybe it's not so bad that I'm horrible at video games, not the end of the world. I will continue to play, maybe one day be good enough to beat the first level. But for the moment I classify myself as a non-gamer and proud of it :)
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