Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Heart warming story

This story is heart warming.

A blogger and Gamestop employee Kristen Wolfe posted this on her Tumblr site:

You thought I didn’t really notice. But I did. I wanted to high-five you.

Yesterday I had a pair of brothers in my store. One was maybe between 15-17. He was a wrestler at the local high school. Kind of tall, stocky and handsome. He had a younger brother, who was maybe about 10-12 years old. The only way to describe him was scrawny, neat, and very clean for a boy his age. They were talking about finding a game for the younger one, and he was absolutely insisting it be one with a female character. I don’t know how many of y’all play games, but that isn’t exactly easy. Eventually, I helped the brothers pick a game called Mirror’s Edge. The youngest was pretty excited about the game, and then he specifically asked me.. “Do you have any girl color controllers?” I directed him to the only colored controllers we have which includes pink and purple ones. He grabbed the purple one, and informed me purple was his FAVORITE.

The boys had been taking awhile, so their father eventually comes in. He see’s the game, and the controller, and starts in on the youngest about how he needs to pick something different. Something more manly. Something with guns and fighting, and certainly not a purple controller. He tries to convince him to get the new Zombie game “Dead Island.” and the little boy just stands there repeating “Dad, this is what I want, ok?” Eventually it turns into a full blown argument complete with Dad threatening to whoop his son if he doesn’t choose different items.

That’s when big brother stepped in. He said to his Dad “It’s my money, it’s my gift to him, if it’s what he wants I’m getting it for him, and if your going to hit anyone for it, it’s going to be me.” Dad just gives his oldest son a strong stern stare down, and then leaves the store. Little brother is crying quietly, I walk over and ruffle his hair (yes this happened all in front of me.) I say “I’m a girl, and I like the color blue, and I like shooting games. There’s nothing wrong with what you like. Even if it’s different than what people think you should.” I smile, he smiles back (my heart melts!) Big brother then leans down, kisses little brother on the head, and says “Don’t worry dude.” They check out and leave, and all I can think is how awesome big brother is, how sweet little brother is, and how Dad ought to be ashamed for trying to make his son any other way.

I love that he wanted a game with a female character (he knows we're cooler and smarter!) and the big brother rocks. But this story also makes me want to kick this dad's ass.

I guess people have been questioning whether this story is real? So Kristen follows up here.


6 comments:

  1. @Klep: I know nothing about this game so I looked it up where I look up anything I want to know more about: Wikipedia.

    Couple interesting things that stood out to me:

    "...this is an action adventure. We're not positioning this as a shooter - the focus isn't on the gun, it's on the person."

    "Gameplay in Mirror's Edge focuses on finding the best route through the game's environments while combat takes a secondary role. Completing the game without shooting a single enemy unlocks an achievement for the player."

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  2. If you ask me the description of the game sounds like it requires a lot more strategy and thought and actual skill than just shooting a bunch of zombies!

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  3. I've enjoyed it so far. One common situation is to 'break out' into an open area, with police scattered, and trying to figure out a path that gets past them, without getting riddled full of bullets. Momentum is key, so you have to think quickly. It's not a non-violent game, but a pacifist in a violent world.

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  4. Thank you for sharing this! I don't have any clue what those games are, but I totally sniffed a little at the end of the story thar!

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  5. I also had no idea about the games either, but the story was really nice.

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