The Future Gamer

By DBoy July 29, 2008 24 Comments

I started playing video games at the age of 9.  My father got us the Intellivision Entertainment System for Christmas way back in 1980.  I remember playing Baseball, Triple Action and Night Stalker the entire day, and for many days, months and years after that.  Next came Radio Shack's Color Computer 2, or CoCo 2 for short.  I remember playing this Arkanoid rip-off on the system.  Man was it bad.  I was 11 at the time.  These systems were my first forray into a lifelong hobby.

Which brings me to my nephew Tristan.  Tristan is 4 years old and already an avid gamer.  Contrary to myself, he started gaming at the age of 3 with Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga.  He then moved onto Lego Indiana Jones, in which he gleefully takes pride in pushing me over ledges and laughing his little ass off when we play together.  But don't be fooled by his mischevious ways, he is quite good Lego games.  He knows exactly what to do and when to do it.  He knows when to use certain objects and what these objects do to the environment.

But that is nothing compared to what I witnessed over the weekend.  After begging me to let him play some Battlefield Bad Company, even though his mother was completely against it, he did something unimaginable.  After his mother and I each took cracks at shooting down a helicopter from the sky with a rocket launched, failing miserably, Tristan grabbed the controller and said "Let me try!"  First try, he gets killed.  Second try too.  But on the third try, this 4-year old kid SHOOTS DOWN THE DAMN HELICOPTER!  "Mommy!  Uncle Denis!  I did it!" he exclaims, while my sister and I looked at each other dumbfounded.

Even though this isn't a sporting or academic accomplishment, it is still a huge deal for a young kid that age.  He didn't win anything that day, nor did he learn anything, but one thing's for certain: he took his first steps into a brave new world... and made his uncle very proud at the same time.

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