By Bowling Pin
He doesn’t have a PC. The only computers in his house are a laptop his mom keeps in the garage to design and print decal art from and a tiny netbook in her bedroom. He has an Android which is what he uses to get on Facebook, which I think is the extent of his activity online outside of XBL/PSN. I’m conflicted though. I don’t want to want to come off as pushing a game on him, and he has his own tastes which has the right to pursue on his own terms. From what I gather, he’s probably as well-adjusted as one could hope from a young teenager, and I don’t think CoD or any other game has impacted his world views (which are apathetic but whatever). Yet, he thought I was playing a Rocket Propelled Grandia, and that I cannot abide. He also tries selling CoD on me pretty hard and its only fair I wholeheartedly recommend something else.
The other day he asked me, “so, why do you play RPGs? What RPGs do you like? What was your first RPG?” And I’m like, “whoa, those are three very different questions and three long answers!” So I answer him honestly, something about wanderlust and narrative and PS1 bright colors and anime openings and D20, free form character development and open worlds. He left soon after, so the next time he’s around I’ll try to ask him what that was all about.
He’s played Portal. He picked a random chamber and learned through shooting portals everywhere, but didn’t seem interested in solving the puzzles, nor do I think he actually realized there was a puzzle to solve. He was just frolicking and bending physics. He also likes Half-Life² Deathmatch more than Team Fortress 2, for some reason. He wanted to play Third Strike that one day, but his mom called him over because he wasn’t actually allowed to go outside because he was grounded for something at school. He sold me his blue Madden PSP once. I didn’t need one but I bought it anyway to give him some cash. It came with a few games I haven’t even played yet: Midnight Club LA Remix, NBA Live 08, Need for Speed Most Wanted… random games a random kid would play on his PSP. But there’s also World Series Poker, which is curious, and Monster Hunter Freedom 2, which he loved!
I should give him his PSP back, with a copy of Oath in Felghana.