On this episode – Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start – Zack takes on a journey of a father and son bonding for the first time over something completely unexpected: video games. Our discussion spirals into a conversation on powerful experiences through games, do games provide superior storytelling, and much more on this edition of the SMIRK podcast.
Welcome to Smirk. A podcast that covers society and culture through a storytelling lens. Part creative writing, part discussion, and always interesting. Each week our hosts brings a story to the show, a story they wrote themselves, which is immediately followed by discussion on the author’s moral or theme. These stories can cover any topic the host wants to discuss, it can be lighthearted or more serious. No one but the author knows if these tales are truth or fiction, and part of the fun is guessing while you’re listening before the reality is made clear.
We want to hear from you! If you want to share YOUR story, join the conversation by writing in to mystory@smirkpodcast.com, and include your moral, or you can let us guess at it. This is the podcast that looks at truth, fiction, and reality. With a Smirk. Don’t forget to subscribe to Smirk and share the show with your friends!
Want to read Zack’s story “Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start” in full? Think you can identify the moral or theme for this episode? Read it below, and then take a listen to the podcast.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
James had met his Father many years ago at this point, but their relationship was fraught and challenging. Meeting a parent later in life always came with its very severe set of stumbling blocks. James had always heard a confusing set of myriad tales about his Father’s exit from his life, and the shared details between them were few at most. It was hard to piece together the truth, and that made an already angry child struggle with even more anger. In truth, James and his Dad were probably too much alike, and that’s what caused the tension. But these sorts of details exclusively reveal themselves in hindsight.
Now James loved video games. Who couldn’t, they are of course objectively the most powerfully medium for storytelling, after all. “Ed. Note: This is Empirical and undebatable fact.” And this most recent Christmas procured him the funds necessary for the latest Xbox. Now unfortunately the wi-fi didn’t properly work from James’ room, and after shakily asking his Father, he was allowed to set it up, temporarily, in the living room. This came as quite a shock to James, as his Father was overly protective of his big ol’ TV and was typically watching movies on it. “Ed. Note: Movies are an older-school form of storytelling, quite shy of the heights of narrative that video games achieve. This is another fact from science itself.”
But downloading the demos began! Dismayed at the length of the downloads, James decided to press his luck and ask to play on the big TV while things downloaded. Truly Christmas spirit must have been in abundance, because his Father said yes. James booted up the classic Xbox shooter he had purchased, and started up the campaign. He was utterly entranced in the smooth gameplay and slick narrative. More surprisingly, as was his Father. In fact, it didn’t take long before his Father asked if multiple people could play at the same time.
James walked his Father through the controls, with perhaps too little impatience from both parties, but eventually they had a good rhythm going. Before they knew it, it was the wee hours of the morning. James and his Dad had pulled their very first all-nighter together. Unbelievably, the next night, James’ Father wanted to play more. They kept playing, and eventually they ran out of campaign. Unbelievably, the two went online together to play versus multiplayer.
It went on for weeks, that Xbox in the living room. They met friends online together, even pretended they weren’t related online so they could be treated as equals by random people. It was surreal. Sometimes James’ Father was asking James to stay up late on a school night so they could play more. A few times James’ Father even used the Xbox on his own. Hell, it didn’t take much longer before the household had two Xbox consoles.
They kept playing that game for months and months, finally having something long-term to bond over.