Yet another thread from Kikki, darn it. They never stop!
This is ridiculous, but I just realised that it is the first day of a new year. I had already written it down on my journal, but it didn't sink in. New year! All fresh like this brand new journal, in fact, with nothing written in it, yet. It made me want to play Dragon Quest Builders 2 (AGAIN) lol. 'A fresh beginning' always seems to make me want DQB2. Another chance to build a new world from scratch.
Without needing to think only of New Year's...do you guys tend to not play games at all on holidays because you're busy with family and events, or do your habits change in some other way? Does everyone get together and play Mario Kart over Xmas holidays? Do you want to play horror, spooky or candy-filled games at Halloween? Farming games in spring? (I grew up in a family that doesn't observe any holidays with a religious or patriotic origin...aka: all of them...so I actually don't know what people do.)
Do the holidays affect your gaming? Lemme know!
Holiday games
- Panda Parfait
- Ultimate Farming Fanatic
- Posts: 1237
- Joined: Sep 10, 2008 12:14 pm
I tend to play games more during holidays because I am a curmudgeon who doesn't like going to parties. I still do, but usually just the obligatory family gatherings on the biggest holidays. It's very nostalgic and comfy for me, because I have a lot of fond memories of getting new games and playing them with my family around on Christmas morning.
The only time of year that I'm drawn to a specific type of game is Halloween. It's my favorite holiday and I love surrounding myself with spooky stuff during October.
The only time of year that I'm drawn to a specific type of game is Halloween. It's my favorite holiday and I love surrounding myself with spooky stuff during October.
I would say as a kid I might have played more video games together with siblings or cousins during holidays, but that it was probably more due to having extra free time from school or whatever than because of the actual holiday. As an adult and a parent now, most holidays are pretty busy with non-gaming stuff, especially cooking. I LOVE cooking for a crowd! (Weird, I know) It is sort of rare now, especially with all the Covid junk, for even all of us siblings to just get together in one place for a given occasion, so there's usually more talking than anything. (There are six of us siblings, plus a few spouses and children now if that creates a picture for you, lol.) Sometime I do think it would be fun to maybe invite my siblings over for a game night or something though as I kind of miss multiplayer games at times, as my husband and I typically play solo, and my kids are hit and miss on their desires to play with me rather than just watch, lol.
For a long time playing games (more on Chistmas/New Years) was a tradition for my family. If parties were small enough we'd ALWAYS break into a game of Monopoly. As far as video games go it usually involved playing new games, but, Mario Kart is about the only game we could all play together. (With the adults, the kids would always escape to the basement for Smash or Mario Party.) Even as everybody moved away we would still play online for a while. Now it's sort of just my tradition. Or maybe it's just a habit, at this point.
The expectation was DEFINITELY that I would have had kids by now to pass on that tradition to. I guess for a lot of adults 'playing' is something you only do with kids or for kids, so now that all the kids are grown and nobody's brought babies home I guess the want for play is mostly gone. I think I'm the only person left in my family who plays anything other than mobile or idle games. I can get them to play RARELY, but it's usually not worth the struggle.
I've always been one that by the time Christmas hits, I'm tired and I just want to sleep. I've got a bad habit of being everybody's little helper, packaging up gifts, helping with cooking, etc etc. So I don't play all day like I used to, but it feels odd to have a holiday without playing something.
I do miss the social aspect of gaming some, though. It doesn't replace playing alone, but it's still special, and both online and off it's been a big part of my life.
The expectation was DEFINITELY that I would have had kids by now to pass on that tradition to. I guess for a lot of adults 'playing' is something you only do with kids or for kids, so now that all the kids are grown and nobody's brought babies home I guess the want for play is mostly gone. I think I'm the only person left in my family who plays anything other than mobile or idle games. I can get them to play RARELY, but it's usually not worth the struggle.
I've always been one that by the time Christmas hits, I'm tired and I just want to sleep. I've got a bad habit of being everybody's little helper, packaging up gifts, helping with cooking, etc etc. So I don't play all day like I used to, but it feels odd to have a holiday without playing something.
I do miss the social aspect of gaming some, though. It doesn't replace playing alone, but it's still special, and both online and off it's been a big part of my life.
I usually end up spending the week leading up to Christmas staying with a cousin of mine. We pick two or three games that we try to get through while I'm there.
Last Christmas it was the two DS Zelda games (played on the Wii U virtual console). This year... well, this year I caught COVID, but we still streamed games on Discord! We played through Coffee Talk (which I hadn't seen) and Wandersong (which he hadn't seen).
Of course, there's usually a few days before I visit him/after Christmas where I'm just sitting at home, getting antsy, so I also have a habit of impulse-buying a random game around Christmas time.
Last Christmas it was the two DS Zelda games (played on the Wii U virtual console). This year... well, this year I caught COVID, but we still streamed games on Discord! We played through Coffee Talk (which I hadn't seen) and Wandersong (which he hadn't seen).
Of course, there's usually a few days before I visit him/after Christmas where I'm just sitting at home, getting antsy, so I also have a habit of impulse-buying a random game around Christmas time.
Aw, that's nice that you guys play with your families Or used to! My family has no holiday traditions, obviously, but our only gaming option as kids was PC (a Tandy 1000, to begin with in 1986.) We had no choice but to share, so when one of us got onto the PC first, the others would pull up the chair to watch the lucky one play King's Quest (or possibly Commander Keen or Duke Nuke'Em). We'd eventually relinquish control to one another, though not always very willingly, lol. I don't remember how much we cooperated as we played, though. For some reason my memory has never been that great. I just remember vaguely that we'd shout "It's Rumpelstiltskin backwards!" and other puzzle solutions whenever we thought we'd gotten one. ("You have to stand to the left of the boulder before you push it or you'll get crushed!")
Once in a while I have a desire to play with my sisters again, though I can't think I'd enjoy the way we used to do things...it just feels like irritating backseating, now. But maybe we'll get together for BotW 2's release? BotW has been the only game I feel is nearly as much fun to watch someone else play as it is to play it yourself. Though I feel like it's more fun to revel in a new game by yourself, tbh. Maybe I should get little cousin (who adores BotW) to replay BotW with me.
I've never actually played a multiplayer game with my family, except snipperclips, very briefly. I wouldn't mind trying that again, though, actually. We weren't very good at it, which made it funnier than if we had been, imo. You have to find different ways to enjoy things when you grow up, it seems. Trying to replicate childhood circumstances never seems to work out.
Once in a while I have a desire to play with my sisters again, though I can't think I'd enjoy the way we used to do things...it just feels like irritating backseating, now. But maybe we'll get together for BotW 2's release? BotW has been the only game I feel is nearly as much fun to watch someone else play as it is to play it yourself. Though I feel like it's more fun to revel in a new game by yourself, tbh. Maybe I should get little cousin (who adores BotW) to replay BotW with me.
I've never actually played a multiplayer game with my family, except snipperclips, very briefly. I wouldn't mind trying that again, though, actually. We weren't very good at it, which made it funnier than if we had been, imo. You have to find different ways to enjoy things when you grow up, it seems. Trying to replicate childhood circumstances never seems to work out.