Fun, anyone?

It all started two weeks ago. We had been meeting up with some friends for dinner, and later went to their house to play Guitar Hero 3 on their new Wii. I had played Guitar Hero 2 some months ago at BigGeek’s aunt’s house. I was no match for BigGeek’s teenaged cousin and I was boo-ed off the stage every time. For AC/DC numbers. Played at easy level. It was no different at our friend’s house but I managed to play one song entirely and not get kicked out. And it was such an adrenaline rush. I had not had so much fun since a really long time.

My first video game was, when I was, I think 11 or 12. It was one of those hand held ones. I forgot its name, but it was the type you shoot down airplanes and ships and even subs. It was most addictive. And not just to me. My brother and even my mom. We would fight all the time to play that game. Then came Pac man and Space invaders when we acquired a PC. Then when Windows came out, it was minesweeper all the way. I was so addicted to the game. We never had an Atari or Sega- my father would have thrown us out of the house had we asked for one. Then came Prince of Persia and we spent many hours in the computer labs in college playing that. Anybody remember Prince? In the end, somebody managed to get cheat codes and saved the princess and that was the end of that. I think that was probably the first game with nice looking graphics. Nice looking for the 90s anyway. And SimCity – I played that briefly, never did get addicted to it though. Then came Wolfenstein. 3-D graphics, but it was a first person shooter type game – never did enjoy those. Like Warcraft (which my brother loved) but I didn’t. I played it a couple of times, but never got addicted to it. I stuck to the likes of Atomica, freely available online.

I gave BigGeek an Xbox for his birthday a few years ago and a car racing game with it. I never did get into racing. Or MechAssult. Just not my type. I like my aliens only in movies, thankyouverymuch. The Xbox and the games lay abandoned for most part. The Xbox was eventually hacked by BigGeek and he converted it to be a media hub and it has been proving to be most useful as that. I stuck to Atomica and Hangman. I introduced my mother to Atomica and it gave her a welcome break from playing solitaire online. I think their old monitor died from excess game playing! I kept cribbing that no games ever come out for women – they are all so testosterone laced. Guns and bombs and Armageddon.

But that changed when I saw Guitar Hero. Now, there was a game I could totally enjoy and two weeks ago with Chip in bed, at our friends’ home, I finally got the hold of it. “I have to have one.” I told BigGeek. “Can I get a Wii and Guitar Hero for my birthday?” He was surprised. I thought he would be happy, I mean he was, but he just wasn’t thinking of buying Guitar Hero or a new gaming console. But this weekend we made the trip to Best Buy to buy a TV (BigGeek’s graduation gift – a 52” LCD) and he picked up the PlayStation 3 and RockBand. Not Guitar Hero, but the WHOLE Rock band. With a guitar and drums and a mike for sing along. BigGeek connected the system and the new TV and we sat down to, ostensibly test it – the family room was a mess with boxes and BigGeek’s suitcases lying around from his 2 week business trip from which he got back on Friday. Five minutes later, but we were glued. There we were crating avtars and playing songs – I finally got to be Nancy Wilson (I want to be her in my next life) atleast on play station. Chip was napping and we had such a BLAST playing R.EM. and Nirvana. Just like two teens. We took a break in the evening to run errands and came back home, made a quick dinner of sandwiches and played again. Chip played too. He got his own toy guitar and sat next to his Aie and Baba playing it – Jimi Hendrix style – strumming with his left hand and telling his Baba appreciatively “Changla vajavtois (you are playing really well)”. That lil guy likes his hard rock, let me tell you. I played the drums and realized for the first time that Nirvana, who I think is nursery rhymes for grown ups in terms of musical complexity - has umm… difficult time signatures and I had a hard time playing drums to it. That’s only more excuse to practice more, huh!

And so, the bottom line is this. I am addicted to it. On my drive to work this morning, I tuned to my usual rock station and saw all those tracks coming like they do in play station. And I haven’t been able to get them out of my head. And I can’t wait to go home and play. But we have to stow away boxes and suitcases, make dinner, feed Chip, play with him, and read to him and then maybe. No, I think, and then, definitely.