Over the last few years I have had a blast with my nephew, who has been at that wonderful age of 8-11. He’s a really smart kid and whenever he or I visit, we break out some games and have a great time. It’s also a situation where I feel like I have been racing against the clock because the last time I saw him, he had to add an asterisk to his fun and laughter at the end of the game night that while that was fun he still “doesn’t like ‘RPGs’”. Nevermind that we were playing Infiltration, a light board game with a sci-fi theme and certainly not an RPG, but the message was clear. The spectre of pre-adolescent peer judgement about gaming was starting to loom. Still, I wasn’t really prepared when I got his birthday suggestions from his mom this year: Nike Elite socks.
“Socks???” I texted her? “Yes, really. All the boys are wearing them.”
So it’s come to this. Instead of asking for Heroica Lego sets, I’m going to be buying my nephew the booby prize of all presents at his behest.
I know what he’s going though. I went through it too. While plenty of kids happily game straight through their teens and never think twice of it, plenty more–myself included–opt out at the onset of adolescence because sometimes the circles we run in at that age put quite a social price on owning Magic cards. I chose girls, and to be clear, that was the choice. It sounds like my nephew is in a similar situation. I understand where he’s at in life, but I still feel rather sad that the fun gaming dynamic we’ve had the last few years is probably coming to a close. It’s how prodigal gamers are born, and hopefully he’ll get through the social embarrassment of enjoying games more quickly than I did. I just hope when he’s older and realizes he once asked for socks for his birthday that he will realize how funny that is!