Monday, August 3, 2009

Some Family Time

It was late at night, and my family and I were waiting for my grandparents to arrive from driving halfway across the country. My step brother was bored but didn't want to go to bed, and I was playing my hunter. He had a made an Undead Warrior with a broken jaw a year ago, and it was time to dust him off.

Yet, in the end, it was a half hour of learning to use the mouse. My little brother is not a big computer player. He likes console games and bike riding, and he gripped the mouse in what could only be called an awkward claw. I spent five minutes getting him to smooth out his grip time and time again so that he could move the mouse freely.

Most of the other time was teaching him to adjust the camera angle while running so he didn't keep running into objects and walls, and so he could see where he was going. In his over-excitement, I had to remind him to slow down, take his time, and readjust the camera angle until he could get used to the mouse buttons and what they did.

We had just gotten down "click right mouse button to interact with almost everything" and were going to start on keybinds when my grandparents finally arrived. His warrior immediately abandoned, I moved him to a safe spot to await the next time in the next year. It was a refreshing little break from split-second decisions and health bar watching, boss encounters and number crunching. It reduced the game to something infinitely more simple, and enjoyable in a different way.

Plus, it's fun to be able to play with one of my little brothers now and then without having to play a racing game.

5 comments:

Kayeri said...

I went through the same things with my niece and nephew while they were here... It is nice to scale back to the entry level and help someone new to the game like that... :)

1nerdgirl said...

I tried to teach my roommate once how to play. She wanted a Gnome with the pigtails and all. She caught on pretty quick, but couldnt really get the auto run turn and such. Was a lot of fun to play 1 through 4 levels with her though. Lots of Laughing. ^_^

Khi said...

I've done the same thing with my little sister over the years... She's gradually gotten more interested and better at controlling the game, but she still gets lost every now and then. Our latest project was to make DKs together and go through that chain, and it was great getting to see her so excited about each and every quest and engrossed in all the lore.

Pike said...

My little brother is... about ten million times better than me at every game conceivable. In WoW he is in some super endgame raiding guild and is seeing stuff I will never see.

Now that I think about it... he actually plays a resto druid on Dark Iron o_O Horde, though...

Bell said...

@Pike - he in Rush? :P