Less about Knitting-More about Gaming

In today’s ramble, your favorite space cadet is going to take a detour and talk about video games.  I am sure you all noticed that my gamerscore increased a bit since I last posted.  This is due in part to Batman: Arkham Asylum, and in part to a slight epiphany.  The epiphany is what I will share with you today.

In my past life, I would approach a game with a certain objective: play the game, beat the game and boast my gaming skillz.  As I got older, had children and responsibility came at me from every direction, gaming took a back seat.  As time went on, my boys grew and before I knew it, they were toting around their very own taste of heaven in the Gameboy Color.  I rediscovered my love for video games by doing what any devoted mother would do: I trained their PoKeMon at night so they could face bigger and badder gym leaders by day!  Their GBCs soon evolved into GBA, PSone, PS2, Xbox 360, DS lite, DSi…get where I’m going with this?  Now we can add our smart phones to the list.  None the less, I still found it difficult to find the time play; to sink my teeth into a game let alone beat it.  There, staring back at me was my puny Gamerscore.  

About a week ago, on a day filled with caring for children, home and parents, I spotted Batman: Arkham Asylum sitting on a bench.  I had maybe an hour of ‘free time’ this day; and enough laundry to fill a small warehouse.  What to do with this hour…I made a bold move and popped the game into the Xbox360.  Typically, this short amount of time would only allow me to watch the opening cut scenes, and barely familiarize myself with the game play, so when given the option to play on Easy, Challenge or Hard mode, I elected for :gasp: Easy.  Enter: Epiphany!  I played, made progress, unlocked characters (so what if they are non-playable!) and earned achievements!  I felt my inner gamer come alive again.  Now, I see my day in a different light.  There is no longer compromise in choosing Easy.  I am not a hard-core gamer.  I will never be a hard-core gamer.  I am playing and progressing and it feels GREAT!  The advent of auto-save takes the frustration out of playing only to find myself exactly where I was when I logged on.  Just as my life evolves, so must my perception of time and priorities.  I don’t have to sacrifice things that make me happy because my free time comes in fits and starts, I just have to find a purse big enough to hold an Xbox360!