My Dad and Step Mum visited today, with us living in different parts of the country, they try and visit 3 or 4 times a year, although this years its been more often, probably something to do with my Dad turning 60 next year and worrying he doesn't see me often enough or something.

Anyhow, I got talking to my Step Mum about videogames, and her opinion on them has changed drastically from when I first brought my PlayStation home from my Mums house where I spent the weekends to put in my room (I had a Super NES prior to that that was hooked up in the lounge, but weren't often aloud to play on it, and she was a believer in no TV's in bedrooms, although my Dad talked her round from that somehow). Around this time I was in year 10 at school, so was starting my studies for my GCSE's (this would be 14 years of age then) and she was probably concerned I'd neglect my studies for my games, admittedly, I didn't study half as much as maybe I should have, but I also got the grades at school I felt were probably what I was capable of (nothing stellar, pretty average in fact).

It always caused a bit of friction between the pair of us. You see, I respected that after my Mum and Dad had been seperated for a good few years (around 6 or 7 I think it was before my Dad met my step mum) that my Dad had found someone who made him happy, and some personal things aside, I was happy for him. But she always came across as very pushy when it came to studies, where as both of my parents always tried to give me the feeling that they believed I'd always manage my best and know what the best course of action was for myself. I suppose she was like that because I was the eldest of the four kids that now occupied the house she and my Dad shared (I have two older siblings, and one younger, my elder siblings had long left home though, whilst her daughter was the same age as my little sister and her sone was the youngest in the house).

Anyhow, she pretty much saw my hobby as a big waste of time and money, despite the fact she had an old spectrum tucked away in a cupboard that eventually got chucked out after I discovered it would no longer work.

In hindsight, I can see her point, I was at an important time in my academic life and could of wasted it, but I never felt that I wasn't doing enough work in that sense. Besides, despite her experiments (probably) with the old Speccy (which I think may have been her ex-husbands or even her brothers) she didn't really understand, or know, for that matter how compelling some of the games I was playing were. They allowed me to explore worlds in visual details that could have been in some book I picked up in the library, bringing to life worlds that before I could only imagine. They allowed me to act out action scenes from my favourite action movies, or replay that weeks football matches during the World Cup or whatever other tournament was happening at the time, and besides, it wasn't as if it was all I did, I'd visit friends, play football in the local park, read, listen to music, all the things any healthy teenager does, well, aside from the vandalism side of things.

Anyhow, enough of the history lesson, and back to their visit today. I got talking to her about games, and started talking, rather in depth probably, about some of the worlds I'd visited most recently. The fascination with Rapture's demise, the awestruck feeling as I made my way through the abandoned streets and fields of Pripyat, Ukraine in Call of Duty 4 then holding down a position next to the famous fairground in that area. A real life location that I am absolutely fascinated with. It brought me back to something I told her about previously, something called Urbex, or Urban Exploring, and how videogames are providing so many amazing locations that are so strikingly similar to pictures I've seen taken by people who partake in the aforementioned past-time. It also brought back the old memories of me trying to explain to her my fascination with games, and how, with today's technology, those worlds are so much better realised, more solid and believable and in a way, probably stronger aestetichally than any location I could of imagined reading a book.

I think today, whilst talking to her about this, she finally understood my hobby.