Couch gaming
Image by THAM YUAN YUAN from Pixabay
I noted the other day that me and my wife had been getting along better than average, for a couple of weeks. That is something you seriously should pay attention to and figure out exactly why. Happy wife, happy life, as the saying goes. She had made the same observation, and after some soul-searching we came to the same conclusion: Couch gaming.
It is common in relationships that you “grow apart”, which might be another way of saying that you stopped doing the things together that you fell in love with at first. Personally, I consider it a choice. If you choose to never do anything together, well obviously you will grow apart. I don’t think people in general will keep exactly the same interests throughout their entire life. Personally, my interests and hobbies are usually very intense for a relatively short time and then I move on to something else. Thus, there is ample opportunity to “grow apart”, should I choose to.
One thing that me and my wife figured out many months ago, is that a daily coffee or tea together first thing in the morning is likely the most important activity in our lives. Period. The improvement in communication and understanding that comes from this simple and very enjoyable task cannot be overstated. It might from this little habit that we ended up installing a TV in the living room this Christmas. And of course, the primary purpose of a TV is gaming. We both used to be gamers, but neither of us has really played much in the past years. Couch gaming however, is a social activity. We game a lot nowadays. With the wife and with the kids, it’s amazing. So far, we have completed two great games together: Portal 2 and Unravel. Friday and Saturday nights, after the boys have gone to bed, is the perfect time. I realize that I have really missed gaming. And couch gaming is a new experience for me.
I have always considered myself a PC gamer and using a gamepad has been haram. Mouse and Keyboard are the correct tools to use for any serious gamer. Sure, from a purely precision viewpoint that is correct. But this is comparing apples and pears. The simplicity of console style gaming is the selling point. Flick a switch and you are good to go. And the key to any habit is simplicity. The unit that has got the most mileage since Christmas is the classic Nintendo Wii.
Another nice benefit is that I have been experimenting a lot with game streaming for professional purposes. The idea is to use advanced 3D programs on my powerful workstation and using it on my slow laptop while travelling. The usual remote desktop applications (RDP, VNC, TeamViewer etc.) work great, but they introduce an unacceptable amount of latency. That is a complete dealbreaker for me, when working with 3D applications. But game streaming on the other hand, can achieve extremely low latency. If it is good enough for racing games, it is good enough for Trimble Connect. So, with plenty of experience from cloud gaming for engineering purposes, I decided to try it out for the actual purpose too: Gaming. And oh yes, it works perfectly as a console substitute! Finally I can start to tick off my Steam backlog of games, one by one. If you can, try to run Steam Link or Parsec or Moonlight or something similar. Some games are simply made to be played with a controller in the sofa, on a big screen. With the additional bonus marriage benefits, it becomes a rather easy sale.