Toomanywires wrote a great piece on Christmas and the art of trying to get your loved ones into games that you enjoy (with varying results):
My parents were always very supportive of their children’s interests, but that would stop well short of actually playing video games. The closest I got to winning them over was Wii Joysound Karaoke and Wii Sports, which was good for one New Year’s Eve entertainment session in the early 2010s. My mum is positively allergic to games, possibly because it fell on her to try to source the obscure titles that I’d write on my Christmas list. To this day, she still refers to game stores as “pissy-pants shops” on account of them smelling like piss. Which, to be fair, was accurate.
I toyed with buying my parents a Wii one Christmas, but I eventually came to my senses. In more recent years, I thought a Switch might be a fine present idea for my mum, as it would give her an opportunity to play online with her granddaughter and make the 6000 miles that separates them feel a little less immense. But then I remembered how much difficulty she has opening Zoom on her laptop, replying to emails on her phone, restarting her router etc. and thought better of it.
Probably best to stick with scented candles and books.
My parents struggle with technology at the best of times so there’s no way I’d ever get mine interested in the games I love. Luckily, my son is more of a gamer than I am so he’s taken on some of my faves via osmosis (mainly Pokémon). My sister doesn’t really play games but she’s played pivotal roles in my gaming experience, from the time I played Paperboy on her old computer in the 90s, to the days when I played GTA at her house many years ago. Good times.
