My oldest son has enjoyed my hobby over the last two years. In the last six months he was ordered by his eye doctor to play games for 30 minutes a day while wearing a patch. (How cool of a doctor is that? Prescribing games.) As he’s gotten older we have begun to play games together. Our Wii’s been dormant for a while and he’s been enjoying games on the PS3 and 360.
We usually have good discussions on games and I figured I’d try and share some of them. Of course, he clams up when I pull out the recorder. I’ve tried to transcribe his grammatical pauses and fluctuations for emphasis. It’s all over the place, but here was our first “interview”:
So, Jack, do you like to play video games?
Yes
Yeah? What video game systems do we have?
Umm…Xbox and Wii and umm…the DVD one.
Playstation?
Yeah
Which one is your favorite?
Umm…the one on Xbox. The racecars.
No. Which one is your favorite system?
Burnout?
No. Which is your favorite, the Xbox, the Wii, or the PlayStation?
All of them.
Ok. So what games do you play?
Batman–LEGO Batman, the one [game] where you race around the corner on the lap site, and Burnout.
That one where you race around. What’s that one called? Do you know?
The one you told me.
Is it called GRiD?
GRiD? Yeah. GRiD.
And which Burnout do you like?
The one where you go around and get right back to yellow.
Burnout Paradise?
No.
Burnout Revenge?
Uh, yeah.
So what’s your favorite one of all of them?
LEGO Batman.
And why do you like LEGO Batman?
Cause you get to fight people, and you get to fight bad guys.
What’s your favorite part about LEGO Batman?
When I press B and Batman aims up to punch.
[NOTE: Batman holds the crook up by one arm and twirls his other fist before landing a punch. Jack does this move over and over.]
What’s your least favorite part in LEGO Batman?
Um…driving the car.
You don’t like to drive the cars?
No. I don’t like the Joker one.
Have you beat LEGO Batman?
Um…[he looks to me for approval. I shake my head.] No.
Have you beat any games?
Indiana Jones.
Which Indiana Jones?
Indiana Jones…the game?
The LEGO Indiana Jones?
Yeah.
What did you like about that one?
The whip.
And what didn’t you like?
The giant ball.
Was that part hard?
Yeah.
What is your favorite part in the game?
Driving the cars and trucks.
Oh! So driving the cars and trucks?
[giggles] Yeah.
But you didn’t like driving the cars and trucks in LEGO Batman though?
I do like the Batmobile.
What about the boats?
Um, I like Robin’s boat, but I hadn’t do the one where you get to drive the jet yet.
So you like to play racing games too? You said you liked Burnout. What else do you like?
Burnout Paradise.
What do you like in Burnout Paradise?
The flying car?
The flying car? You know that car is out of a movie?
Nuh-uh.
So do you like it when the car’s flying or when it is on the ground?
Flying! Vroom!
Do you know how many cars you have?
Um. I have two motorcycles and the new fours cars. The one that has the horn. [He’s actually almost unlocked all of them]
The one that has the horn?
Yeah. Heh.
Do you remember what car that was?
Heh. It was the number one car.
And then there’s the ambulance too?
No, the police car. And there’s the one that does the horn and it goes fast. And there’s one that when you do the boost the things comes up.
Is there anything else you like about that game?
The ramps and trains. [His passion is trains so he drives in the train yards a lot.]
What do you like about them?
I like ramps and shortcuts and trains because they…sometimes I like them when they are long…when they’re…remember when I was a little kid and I did that one when the place?..that was the cool place where I had to drive around so much.
Uh, yeah. Do you remember that place? I don’t know what you are talking about.
At the bottom of the mountains.
What don’t you like about the game?
The bad guys.
The bad guys?
When you race.
Oh, ok. And what do they do?
They hurt your car by hitting it. I knock some of them off the road. Daddy, I need to go now.
Catchya later.
Bye.