Growing up, Christmas was always the best time of year. Not because of the school holidays, or seeing family that lived far, far away, but because it was pretty much the only time I’d get new video games.
The joy of unwrapping a brand new Game Boy, Mega Drive, or PlayStation game was undoubtedly shared by my mother, especially when the game she had chosen (or told my dad to buy) was received positively. I imagine this was a source of great stress for her at the time, not knowing video games, and not wanting to just ask me what I wanted for fear of spoiling the surprise.
Free-To-Play Titles Have Changed The Christmas Dynamic
The thing is, I was never disappointed by any of them. I absolutely loved Kirby’s Dream Land, despite it not really being the first game I’d have picked if given the choice. I was overjoyed at receiving Actua Soccer, at that point a year-and-a-half old, despite the much cooler FIFA: Road to World Cup ‘98 being the football game all my friends were obsessing over. I was rarely up-to-date with new releases unless I saved up and bought them myself, but I was happy with whatever I got. Nowadays, it feels much different.
Kids are increasingly online, and there’s much more information available on what the hot games are. Streamers and content creators exert a huge amount of influence over impressionable minds, and between this and the usual playground gossip, there seems to be a lot more pressure on kids to be up-to-date with cool games. The price barrier that parents could once use to justify not purchasing every title their kids asked for has been completely removed due to the most popular games often being free-to-play.
Even Working In Video Games Counts For Nothing
My nephew looks up to me as the ‘cool gamer uncle’ and never shuts up with questions whenever I’m around. The problem is, those questions are almost always about these same few games. I’d love for him to discover some indie gems, but he’s just not interested. It’s all about Roblox, Minecraft, Rocket League, or Fortnite – the latter of which he’s not allowed to play because he gets a bit toxic. He’s ten.
And so, every year, I agonise over what to get him for Christmas. I’d love to teach him how to play the marvel that is Balatro, show him the sheer beauty of Neva, or give him a taste of the games I used to play with Castlevania Dominus Collection or Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition. However, it’d be futile to buy him any of those. I know what he wants – it starts with “Ro” and ends with “bux”. Not on my watch, kid.
He did ask my sister for a different game recently, one he could play on his dad’s Xbox rather than his own Switch. Problem is, that game was
A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead
, a survival horror game with a Mature 17+ ESRB rating. In her own words, “honestly I was laughing as I told him to do one.”
So, I’ll do what I’ve done for the last few Christmases, and default to buying a Nintendo eShop gift card that my sister can supervise. It’s frustrating, but I know that one day he’ll take more interest in the wider world of video games and go on his own voyage of discovery. And I’ll be there to listen when he raves about an indie hit he’s enjoyed.
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