Tuesdays with Media: FPS Games

On Saturday, I visited with my good friends, the Simciks.  It had simply been a while since we'd had a chance to hang-out, so I contacted them and we made arrangements.  We all had a lovely time and shared many laughs and even some food together.  Near the end of my visit, the youngest in the family, Johnny, asked his dad and I to play a video game with him.  I honestly wasn't in the mood, but I acquiesced.  I can't remember the title of the game we played, but I do remember that it was a first-person shooter, or FPS, game.

I'm absolutely terrible at FPS games.  I'm not great with modern controllers anyway -- there are two joysticks and way too many buttons -- but I can do okay when I can see the character in front of me.  I actually played the first Assassin's Creed game all the way through during my last six months in Oklahoma (I'm sure the stress of being newly separated had something to do with it), so clearly I can manage given the right game.

The problem with FPS games is that I never know where I'm looking: one joystick controls my feet, while the other controls where I'm pointing the gun and I get them confused.  I'm sure if I took a few Saturdays to play through the single-player game a little bit, I'd develop some muscle memory and get a better handle on the controls, but since before Saturday I hadn't played an FPS game on my own since around the turn of century, I'm really clumsy and slow.

As you might expect, I played terribly.  Johnny even went easy on us and had Mark and I on one team against him and he limited himself to only using a tomahawk-style hatchet while I had a shotgun and Mark had an assault rifle.  Even with our advantages and his handicaps, Johnny still easily won.  Again, he was well-prepared since he's not only played the single-player game a lot, he's also played the multiplayer game with his friends as well as online.  This was literally the first time either Mark or I had played this particular game before, so our loss surprised no one.

Fortunately, I don't need to win to have fun, so I was still able to enjoy myself.  Yes; despite not being in the mood to play a video game, I was able to get into it.  Johnny was really disappointed when I had to leave for the evening and asked that I come and visit again soon so we could play video games again.  I made no promises, but it's nice that he enjoyed my company enough that he wanted to engage in activity that he thinks of as fun.  Though if there is a next time, I'll try to see if he has something more my speed, like Mario Kart.