Post by Luco El Loco on Jul 22, 2005 3:40:14 GMT
She curses at the TV when "Prince of Persia" gets tough. She's broken her video game controllers. And she's conquered "Resident Evil 4" enough times to earn a rocket launcher with unlimited ammo. Barbara St. Hilaire is a typical hardcore gamer, but with one key difference: she's a grandmother.
When people talk about the PlayStation generation, they're not referring to people who collect Social Security. But a couple of older gamers, Barbara St. Hilaire, 69, and Doris Self, 79, are making their mark in the gaming world and aren't letting old age stand in their way.
"I don't see what the big fuss is," St. Hilaire said from her home in Cleveland. "This is just me."
Check these gaming credentials: From the comfort of her recliner, St. Hilaire reads Game Informer and Electronic Gaming Monthly. Her Internet bookmarks — all two of them — include gamefaqs.com. She loves "Final Fantasy VII" and "VIII" and thought "Parasite Eve" was "fabulous" but felt "Silent Hill 4" was redundant ("I couldn't get into it"). She's owned a pile of systems, from Atari 2600 and Genesis to PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube.
She's even dabbled in "Grand Theft Auto." "I tried some and I find it's relaxing," she said. "I can take out my frustrations on the TV."
St. Hilaire may not think any of that is out of the ordinary, but her grandson Timothy, 22, does. He's grown up with a gaming grandma, playing Luigi to her Mario on the classic Nintendo console, and he's regularly seen the shock of friends who discover just who is the supreme gamer in his house. Last month, on the suggestion of his friends, he started to blog about it. Grandma's now a budding Internet celebrity.
See mtv for more.
This was an interesting read for me, I'll say.
