Old School
By kariyanine 5 Comments
Last night I did something I haven't done in quite some time, I played split screen multiplayer. At one point in time this was a regular occurrence for me but as my friends and I have gotten older it happens less and less frequently. There is something that is special about having your friends in a room as you pass around controllers from one to the other, something that you just don't get when you play with your friends online.
Its funny how we have progressed as gamers though in the past 10-15 years. When my friends would get together to play games like Goldeneye or Mario Kart 64 we did so on a 13 inch television situated atop the dresser in my bedroom at my parents' house. Last night we sat down to play Halo: Reach in my living room on my 60 inch television. The split screen portion for each player last night was bigger than my television at my parents' house.
Its also funny how much has stayed the same. Those that were good at the games back in the day are still good at the games today, the trash talking is just as bad as ever, people are still looking up porn as we play (although it used to be on my PC but is now on their cell phones), and we still had to tone it down a bit as the night went on although now it was for fear of waking my kids instead of my Mom.
A lot of people grow apart from their childhood friends as they get older and I count myself lucky to have a core group of friends that has been with me for nearly two decades now. They are the best dudes in the world and I wouldn't exchange them for anyone. I hope that I can still say this in ten, twenty, thirty years because while it doesn't get to happen as often as I'd like, I enjoy it just as much now as I did in high school.
Special shout out to whoever was the kid who randomly friend requested my friend Reid last night and then endured 40 minutes of me and Andy screaming insanely into the mics ultimately culminating in my telling him to go to bed. My wife swears our collective IQ drops to just above retardation when we get together to play games like Halo and I think our conversation with you certainly proved that but you were a good sport and for that one has to be grateful.
Anyway go play some games with your friends kids and keep doing it. It keeps me sane and I'm sure it will do the same for you.
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