Officially Unofficial Weekly Discussion #50: Multigenerational Gaming in CoH

[SeraphimKensai]

Welcome back. As we near the 20th anniversary of the game this next spring, I figure moving the conversation over to discuss Multigenerational Gaming within CoH might be an interesting topic.

 

How many of you either have introduced the game to your kids, nephews, nieces, or even grandkids? Otherwise if you're part of the younger crowd, was there someone in your family that introduced the game to you? For the older crowd, what's that like getting to share a game we've played for years with your younger family members? For the younger folk, have you assumed the torch, that is is the person that introduced the game to you no

longer plays?

 

I'm pretty curious if we have any groups that might be three generations deep on this game. I know when the game was brand new I ran with a group for awhile that had a 74 year old grandma playing as a tanker with two of her grandkids who were my age at the time in their early 20's. I always thought that was super cool, because as a kid I spent a lot of time visiting and hanging out with my grandmas, although neither of them ever used a computer.

 

as always thanks folks, and as a reminder I got 2 more of these left before I hang up the hat.

[Spaghetti Betty]

I guess you could lump me in with the younger crowd. I've told this story before but I started playing CoH with my parents back when the Beta first opened. My entire family played up until shutdown.

 

I'm pushing 30 now. My dad, sister, and her husband still play from time to time but it's mostly me that's still crazy about the game.

 

My usual team consists of people my age, some older, and at least 2 "I'm older than you think, kid"s.

 

I think it's great that the game is accessible enough to be played at all different age ranges!

[Snarky]

I have tried to get younger Vampire interested in the game.  There is much resisting, some hurtful comments, and I inevitably chain them up outside to let the sun purify their minds

[Frostbiter]

I tried to get my boy to play but he fell to the true dark-side of gaming: FPSers. I've at least gotten him into flight simulators and racing games recently.

[lemming]

Used to play on live,  a friend's son told us about the Score server, though we didn't get back involved until Homecoming.

[KC4800]

I've showed my oldest grand-daughter the game. Focusing on the costume creator. (She is only 6 1/2, so I wouldn't have her in game yet) She really didn't seem too interested. I think if she understood all the options more, she might enjoy making costumes, but, alas, I need to give her more time. 

 

My son, who is 36 now, played the game briefly on live, but has no interest in continuing. He is more fond, I believe, in FPS or survival games. He also likes to be a DM at game nights at his house.

Edited October 20, 2023 by KC4800

[SeraphimKensai]

45 minutes ago, KC4800 said:

I've showed my oldest grand-daughter the game. Focusing on the costume creator. (She is only 6 1/2, so I wouldn't have her in game yet) She really didn't seem too interested.

That's similar to me showing my niece the game when she was 8 at the time. I had her roll a character, make a costume, and play through the tutorial. She made a Mind/Rad controller. She doesn't have a big background on comics so I had to explain the basics of the AT and what each powersets did. She spent like an hour on costume design, where she was trying to make the character "funny looking". It ended up like one of the costumes you get when you hit random albeit with a fiery aura.

 

She got through the Galaxy City tutorial, but then once she got to Atlas, she said she wanted to make pancakes for everyone, so we quit the game so I could help her make homemade pancakes and bacon so she could wake up her parents and my wife with pancakes.

 

She's 11 now, and I still have her lvl 2 controller on one of my accounts.

[DougGraves]

My daughter is now 19.  She loved the costume creator and played a bit, but now she just plays Sims 4.

[cranebump]

I keep hoping thatI can get members of my table top group. So far nothing more than dabbling. I honestly think in a way that the game is too much for them. There are a lot of buttons and slots and everything else. I would like to say that all of this is user-unfriendly, but there is no way I can know since I’ve been doing this long enough to where everything is second nature, and I’ve completely forgotten what it was like when I first played. Except for three slotting sprint on a low level character, which is a level of mendacity that one never forgets:-)

Edited October 20, 2023 by cranebump

[furniturepolish]

My dad and his partner were into the game from week 1 and got me and my many siblings into it. My mom caught wind of the game (separate household) and got into it herself. Two computer households became a thing and we were all playing across 3 accounts for a long while. We all kind of stopped around 3 years in and the only ones back now are my mom, older brother, and myself. 

As for torch assuming, a little. I didn't recreate any of my old toons but I made homages to ones my family members played. My emp/psy defender isn't even fun to play but I nearly 50'd it out of sheer nostalgia for the sound effects since that was my dad's main for his entire time playing. 

[blackhand]

My kiddo is 9 and we played a lot from 7 to 8. Enough he pretty well did a good percentage of the content, had most ATs to 50 IOd and incarnated, etc. He will still join for events, but mostly is on to some other games. He generally prefers fps/tps or building games. 

[Drakwatch]

My dad got me CoH for my birthday about a month after release, May 2004. Eventually we got another account, and him, my brother and I all played together up until closure. Now on Homecoming, I'm 30 and we still play here and there. CoH has always been a game we play together, for 19 years now.

[High_Beam]

Back on Live my step-son was 18-19 and played on and off until it was shut down but never to a dedicated level; he was Eve Online.  My Nephew was little and would watch me play and toward the end was old enough to play somewhat okay and we would do duo runs.  But when shutdown occurred he moved on.  When I discovered Homecoming I told both of them and my step son was like "have fun I am invested in <insert whatever flavor of the month there is>." (but he has a great job and probably a fiancé soon so how can I complain).  My nephew is like "sorry, I got weed to smoke and manga to read" (but at least he is doing good in college).

 

Oh and my spouse, well if they had their way the game would be erased; they felt that way when it was live and feel that way now.

[Shenanigunner]

My kids (b. 2000) were regular players on Live, and we often teamed 2-up or 3-up. My now-ex, almost a complete non-gamer, also played regularly.

 

One kid still dabbles. Other has moved on, a consequence of the class load at a Tech university. The ex refuses to admit she ever played. 🙂

[PeregrineFalcon]

My boys were 7 & 8 when the retail servers shut down. They didn't really play, but they would sometimes take control of one of my characters and fly around.

 

When Homecoming launched there were 15 & 16 and, like me, played a lot during that first year or so. We still play together now and then.

[Seed22]

We went from me and my brother watching our dad play CoH back in i6 as kids to adults playing it together as adults with HC after the shutdown. We play together from time to time, but we've all kinda gotten a bit burnt out so we're all collectively taking a mini break with the occasional TF run.