My little brother is ten years younger than I am, most of the time it doesn’t feel like that big of a difference, but then there are some days that it feels like there is a millennium between us. Sitting down at the dinner table one day, he tells me a story of how he got on in his IT class. He tells me that he was using “this thing that’s like a stick but you can control the stuff on the screen; I think people used them in the old days”. The piece of apparatus in question was a joystick and the old days, well they were my childhood.
So then we start talking about the kinds of computer games that I played in my childhood. I didn’t have a Nintendo, so Mario was out. I did however have shared ownership of a Sega. So I told my brother that I played “Sega” but saying it in the jingle tone that used to come up when you put a game into the console. He looked at me like I had finally lost my marbles. Then he asked probably the most devastating question of all. “What’s a Sega?” I thought I was going to cry. I managed to compose myself and then explained what a Sega was. I even opened up Google images to show him a Mega Drive and a Master System along with picture of the games. He actually laughed at them. He thought they were the funniest things that he had ever seen in his life. I wanted to punch him.
My brother is the proud owner of a Nintendo Wii, Xbox, a Playstation 2 and a PSP, so he’s pretty well up on certain types of games. He likes his sport ones and a few shoot the baddie ones. He even has his own games room for all his junk, a room that I try and steer clear of, but sometimes its good to bond with siblings, plus his stuff is shiny! Now the PSP I like, purely because of the lack of wires and the fact that there are very few buttons on it. Any time I have played it, I have usually played football games like FIFA or Pro-Evolution.
But playing PSP is a bit like reading a book, fun for a while, but then your eyes get sore, and sometimes a creak in the neck from looking down. The Wii on the other hand requires a bit more effort. Wii Sports is probably my favourite game that my brother owns. It’s just really fun; especially for someone like me that is not much of a gamer. While I do like the idea of getting out in the fresh air and playing actual sports, Wii sports are an excellent substitute, especially for those days when you really don’t feel like getting out of your pyjamas! It’s designed for playing with friends and family, and I can honestly say that there is not one occasion where I haven’t laughed with my brother while playing. Plus I have created my own little avatar that looks fairly similar to me.
Gaming, as well as the technology used in it, has come a long way since the olden days of my childhood. Some of it for the better, like lack of wires, better graphics, faster loading times and all of that. The interactive nature of the Wii is a massive plus for me as well. But even with all these cool new features, there is still something to be said about the way things were when they were a whole lot simpler. We all love a good nostalgia trip from time to time. People that are even older than me had a bit of a nostalgia trip over the summer when Google celebrated the anniversary of Pac Man. There are even some websites out there that are re-selling old Sega consoles and games. However I think this is one instance where I can embrace new technology, instead of being afraid of it!
Ignoring the ever growing generation gap, our Technophobe will turn her attention to the music industry next as she trades her cassette tapes for a .WMA file!?
A special request for our Technophobe, from an anonymous little brother…
