My Princess From Another Castle
/Before I get into the details about my gaming kids and me, I’m taking the opportunity to start by highlighting the amazing woman who brought my children into this world.
Picture Taken By Lisa Belkie
My wife’s name is Eden Stotesbury. She is the mother of all three of my kids and a gamer in her own right. Her favourite genres tend to be MMORPGs and platform-style games. World of Warcraft is one of the biggest games she’s played to date, and still does. She puts my achievements in Warcraft to shame.
The games we tend to play together, aside from MMOs, are usually platform-style games like Super Mario and Donkey Kong. Below is an short video of us playing three games together: Ibb and Obb, Super Mario 3D World, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.
Eden and Mike playing three different video games: Ibb and Obb, Super Mario 3D World, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
As you can see, my wife stands very much on her own in terms of game-play – she’s on even footing with me on both Ibb and Obb and in Donkey Kong… and about six years above me in Super Mario 3D World. (I’d like to claim it was just a bad day… but that sounds like an excuse to me.)
We’ve tried to play competitively but she always ends up feeling like I’m playing with her just to pick on her, and I don’t like that… so we stick to co-operative game-play. We’re always playing MMOs as a team, usually her as a support character while I play a front-line soldier character of some type.
Eden sat down with me to answer a couple of questions:
How do you feel about your husband’s gaming obsessions?
EDEN: "I like that he enjoys video games as much as I do, if not more than me. I joke that he loves his games more than me, but I know that it’s not true; it’s only a joke. It’s a common interest and I love that we use it as something that binds us."
How do you feel about your husband’s gaming as an influence on the children?
EDEN: "I don’t mind the kids being little gamers and it’s something they share in common with him. He also gives a lot of his time, both related and unrelated to video games, so it’s a balanced life. The kids appreciate his abilities in video games and love him for all he does in their lives."
LEFT: Lynaria, Pandaren Rogue (Mike)
RIGHT: Andreah, Night Elf Druid (Eden)
Michael Belkie
Michael Belkie is a student in the Professional Writing Program at Algonquin College and father of three children. Alongside co-host Jake Urquhart, he is also the creator of the Youtube series Digital Rapscallions, launched in 2014. Michael plays excessive amounts of video games and cosplaying Aiden Pearce for recreation.
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