Last night I actually defeated my 14 year-old son in a game of Halo II! This is after getting absolutely slaughtered at it for quite a while. When I play the game there are only two pieces of information I always seem to lack. They are:

1) Where I am
2) Where my son is

Normally my method for finding my son is to search for him until he shoots me from behind. My "attacks" usually consist of the following--I wander around looking for my son and can't find him, he stalks me, he shoots me, and as I'm falling down dying I fire wildly in his general direction, occasionally hitting him a little bit.

Of course, my victory only occurred when my son set his handicap at "severe," so it was roughly four times as easy as normal to kill him. My victory is only impressive in relation to how bad I was before. Still, I think that game companies need to readjust their handicapping. Currently they have four handicap levels--"normal play", "mild", "moderate" and "severe." I recommend a fifth level--"playing my dad".

In a sense it's a surprise that I can play with him at all, since I've always been opposed to video games. But sometimes you have to meet your kids where they are, and that isn't always where you'd like them to be. As for playing video games with my teenage son, all I can do is quote Bob Dylan--"I did so many things I never did intend to do..."

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 at 9:01 pm and is filed under My Kids, My Family, Parenting. You can trackback from your own site.