(A different kind of game review, about how a game affects a family)

Perhaps I’m a mean mom, but there was no way I was going to allow my 17 year old son to stay up til midnight on a weekday to buy Halo 3 and then skip school the next day to test ride it. Mean mom. Very mean mom. But despite how mean I am, I had already placed a copy of Halo 3 on reserve for him, and we went to the game store to pick it up right after school on launch day. He spent the ride home reading the manual that comes with the game and fending off his little brother who was trying to read over his shoulder.

Something came over him after he got home. He moved his Xbox from the bowels of his hideously messy bedroom and put it in our shared “game room” attached to the largest television in the house. He then proceeded to share his game (yes, you read that right), with both his ten year old brother and his stepfather. The three of them barely emerged from the room for three days except for sleeping and eating. This gave me extra time to play World of Warcraft and argue feminism on the web, so I was extraordinarily grateful.

I sat for a couple of hours on that Friday afternoon and watched the game as my sons played in dual mode. Frankly, I had (and have) no interest in playing it. It’s a first person shooter, which means that for the most part, you can’t see your character on screen, unless he (or she, there is a female voice available) is in a cut scene or special sequence. I prefer to interact with my characters as distinct alter-egos, not consider them as straight extensions of myself. The boys were having a good time, but I really didn’t understand the draw. The game appeared to me to be a repetitive mix of respawns and scenery that never changed much. The only significant interactions I saw with other players was to either kill them, or have them help you kill others. I’d be bored stiff in an hour or two if I tried playing it. Admittedly, I’d played Tetris for hours on end, day after day, trying to master increasing levels of difficulty turning and placing little colored falling blocks, but Halo 3 seemed to be simply a version of NES’ Duck Hunter with better graphics. (Okay, I liked Duck Hunter, too).

All through that first weekend the three males in my household played the game, individually or in pairs. Late Sunday afternoon, my oldest son moved the game back to his bedroom, and the three moved back to individual rather than collective pursuits. I asked my son to tell me how he liked the game, as I had heard reviews ranging from “just another first person shooter” to “the best game ever”. He assured me that he really enjoyed the game, and that the hype was justified. “A great game”, he said unequivocally, “Thanks, Mom”.

I logged onto my main character in World of Warcraft and asked others about Halo 3, both before and after the launch. One of my guild members, an English teacher at an exclusive boarding school on the eastern seaboard who took his character name from the Greek god of the phallus, planned a test on Halo 3 launch day. He informed his students that not only would it be a challenging test, but that if they missed the test for any reason, the makeup exam would be twice as difficult. He reported later that he did not have a single absence from class that day. Another guildie was feeling torn between wallowing in his new game and questing in WoW with his girlfriend. He vanished for much of the week from the game, so I think I know which impulse won.

So that’s it. My world wasn’t turned upside down, but I got to watch the three men I love most spend time with each other working on mutual goals as well as competing against each other. My home got a quiet interlude where peace reigned. An English teacher of my acquaintance got 100% attendance for a test, and a young man of my acquaintance took a break from a game he’d played for over two years to enjoy a new game for a few days. My oldest son has been playing Halo 3 every day since the launch, upgrading from his regular habit of playing Halo 2. His grades have not suffered unduly, and he actually seems to be attempting to finish his responsibilities before playing (mostly). All in all, Halo 3 has had a slightly positive effect on my home and family. Thumbs up.

odanu posted this entry on Sunday, October 7th, 2007 at 10:49 am and filed it under Games, Gaming News, General, Microsoft (XBox), Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.