40 Bit Gaming

Be-Leaguered

I’ve been thinking about LAN parties lately.

You all should be old enough to remember these. You bring a bunch of computers over to someone’s house. Connect them all together and play videogames with/against your friends.

Alcohol was typically involved.

Anyway. I’ve been thinking a lot about LAN Parties because I miss that friendly competition (I also miss hanging out with people in person, but that’s a whole other thing).

When my friends and I form a squad online play Gambit in Destiny 2 or some other PvP game now, it’s like a bunch of lambs with knee and back pains being led to the slaughter at the hands of rando 13 year olds.

It’s not fun. I mean, it’s fun hanging out with my friends, but it’s less fun being annihilated over and over like Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow.

So why do I bring this up? Because I need your help, 40 Bitters. I have a nutty idea that I want to run past you, and I can’t do it alone:

I want to create a softball/beer league, but for videogamers like you and me.

Synth Stab

Look. I’m gonna level with you. The whole reason for this section of the newsletter is so I can type out loud:

MORTAL KOMBAT!

And then have imaginary synths jump in as we all think about (and dance to(?)) the theme song to the very not-great 90s feature film Mortal Kombat, which, I actually saw in theaters. You know, the Mortal Kombat where French guy Christopher Lambert plays a character based on a Japanese thunder god. (It was a different time, the 90s)

Enjoy the Violence?

It’s a bit unnerving to hear my ten year old describe in detail how he headshotted someone with a sniper rifle in Fortnite.

Or how he spawns “Evokers” in Minecraft for the sole purpose of dropping them into a campfire.

Or when he asks me what my favorite shotgun is, mostly just so he can explain the particulars of his favorite shotgun.

Point is, my son talks about/creates/relishes a lot of videogame violence. It’s something I’ve been a bit more lax about during the pandemic since, as I’ve said previously, online games are the main way he can connect with friends.