Giving time to "less exciting" games

My siblings are asking me to buy Uno, Cluedo and Monopoly on my Switch. My parents, who don’t know anything about video games, are asking about online compatibility between my console and my siblings’ ones in Australia. It’s a strange Greek hell; my whole family are suddenly and enthusiastically engaged in video games, but the ones they want to play make me want to tear my eyes out.

My first question is why do they only want to play ugly versions of existing board games. There are hordes of interesting, creative multiplayer games that we could play across the globe together. To me, their first experience is going to be dull and possibly buggy, with questionable graphics and lacklustre music. I am ready to throw a full tantrum until someone caves and they get Smash Bros, until I realise that though I am the ‘interested in video games’ one, I am purposefully (if unconsciously) stalling my family from playing together, and behaving like a rather unlikeable child. That realisation stopped me short.

Part of my issue is that, primarily, my gaming experience has been single player. I’ve played my share of Mario Kart and Mario Party, been in a room full of screaming first years as we played Slenderman, and spent a lot of time laughing hysterically with friends at things like QWOP. Asides from Splatoon though, there haven’t been any games with an online multiplayer that I’ve massively gotten into for an extended period of time. I struggle to engage with games that are specifically built for multiplayer because there have rarely been enough people that I know who want to play those games, so there’s been no drive to play them. From this point of view I have definitely developed a sort of single player snobbery; there’s been very little that I have been able to gain from multiplayer experiences, so I wrote them off as unneeded. Board game’s turned into video games, then, became the epitome of my distain.

But that is only my experience. My parents have never owned their own games console as far as I’m aware. There are no stories of going to arcades or gathering round a Commodore 64. Asides from one time when my dad (probably) ripped the original GTA onto our family computer, which my mum did not approve of at all, their only experience with games has been occasionally watching their children play them. To my parents, my suggestions of things to play probably sounded like a different language. I once got my dad to play Smash Bros on Christmas, and though he had a surprisingly good KO rate, he had no idea who he was and kept walking off the stage. To them, then, the idea of playing a familiar-in-concept game like Cluedo with their children on the other side of the world is exciting, though I was in charge of the controller. Familiar gaming experiences are accessible to those unfamiliar with video game culture, and it means that my parents are engaged with the genre for the first time because it’s something that they want to do. It was at this point where I felt quite guilty of my slightly gate-keeping behaviour, and swiftly bought the requested games.

…and it’s been fun, to my great and guilty surprise. As my parents are unwilling to use the controller themselves, probably because of how protective I am of them, so I have to engage and join in. Sometimes everyone is on Zoom, which is pretty hectic with seven people, but often we don’t have chat going at the same time. It changes the dynamic and with Cluedo, our current favourite, leads to accusations flying over Whatsapp as we work out the mystery. I’m starting to wake up to messages like “get up and get on Cluedo”, which is not something I ever expected to get from my brother. My brother and I play other things, arguably more exciting games, at other points in the day, but gradually the whole family gaming sessions are becoming a stable, and looked forward to, parts of the week.

For my family, an online game holds something that we can’t currently experience: playing together. It’s a kind of experience that we don’t get to have very often, and is less pressurised than family Skype when everyone is either tired or just waking up. As my mum kept telling me, it was amazing that we could do this together despite the distance. Though connectivity is at it’s highest that it’s been in human history, I personally am not great at regularly skyping my family. I find it difficult, and it reminds me of the distance rather than reminding me that they’re still present. Playing a game though removes that slightly gut wrenching ordeal of going over everything you've done in the past week, it diverts the conversation to what you’re doing together. It gives the conversation energy as people get competitive or excited, it’s more like Sunday evenings when I was a kid and we lived under the same roof. Though we have yet to foray into Monopoly, the biggest source of arguments in the world, less exciting games have brought genuine joy and quality time that I didn’t know I was missing.

Cluedo for the Nintendo Switch is published by Marmalade Game Studio ltd, and is available through the Nintendo eShop. It is also available on Android and Windows.