Death Stranding has arrived on PC and occupies an increasingly populous area on my personal gaming Venn diagram being both a primarily single-player narratively driven experience in a sprawling open world, as well as being a mile-wide 100+ hour marathon playthrough. This puts it neatly alongside a bunch of recent releases like RDR2 that I'd love to get to grips with but just can't in practice, primarily because of a small roommate of mine who tends to monopolize my time, energy, money, patience and exactly half of my chromosomes.
I don't regret this at all, becoming a father was the best and most transformative experience of my life, and my daughter brings me actual, real-life joy which just wasn't a major component of my life beforehand. It does however add to the challenge of finding time for myself and staying actively engaged in my lifelong hobby.
The themes of parenthood are creeping into more and more mainstream games, presumably as an effect of the maturation of the medium and its auteurs. Death Stranding is a great example concerned specifically with fatherhood but there are lots of recent examples; The Last Of Us and God of War on PS4 are prime examples but it's touched on by the Dishonored series and the first Red Dead Redemption too.
More and more people of all ages and genders are playing games, meaning more parents are facing the same challenges and bringing similar perspectives to gaming. Apart from having less time than before, I'm also a different person than I was the first time I had to decide how to handle the Little Sister population of Rapture. Having a little girl has made me way more critical of female representation and roles, physically and narratively. It's even become easier to make me cry, certain late game cut scenes of Death Stranding I've watched had me blubbing even without context so playing the whole thing will very likely wreck me.
So to the other mums and dads still trying to squeeze in Overwatch rounds between bottle feeds, how do you find it? What are your tips? Have your tastes changed? Have you let your MMO subscriptions lapse or am I showing my age with that question? For those with older kids, how have you gone about sharing the experience? Or maybe you were born into the master race and your parents helped you build your first PC?
I'd love to hear from you all, provided it's at a reasonable hour because I am so very, very tired.
I don't regret this at all, becoming a father was the best and most transformative experience of my life, and my daughter brings me actual, real-life joy which just wasn't a major component of my life beforehand. It does however add to the challenge of finding time for myself and staying actively engaged in my lifelong hobby.
The themes of parenthood are creeping into more and more mainstream games, presumably as an effect of the maturation of the medium and its auteurs. Death Stranding is a great example concerned specifically with fatherhood but there are lots of recent examples; The Last Of Us and God of War on PS4 are prime examples but it's touched on by the Dishonored series and the first Red Dead Redemption too.
More and more people of all ages and genders are playing games, meaning more parents are facing the same challenges and bringing similar perspectives to gaming. Apart from having less time than before, I'm also a different person than I was the first time I had to decide how to handle the Little Sister population of Rapture. Having a little girl has made me way more critical of female representation and roles, physically and narratively. It's even become easier to make me cry, certain late game cut scenes of Death Stranding I've watched had me blubbing even without context so playing the whole thing will very likely wreck me.
So to the other mums and dads still trying to squeeze in Overwatch rounds between bottle feeds, how do you find it? What are your tips? Have your tastes changed? Have you let your MMO subscriptions lapse or am I showing my age with that question? For those with older kids, how have you gone about sharing the experience? Or maybe you were born into the master race and your parents helped you build your first PC?
I'd love to hear from you all, provided it's at a reasonable hour because I am so very, very tired.
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