February 26, 2009

Domestic City, Part Four

The worst thing about married life, Anthony discovered, was his keepsake photo of Dom and Maria from the Gears of War 2 limited edition and having to explain to his new wife why he wanted to tape it to the bathroom mirror. Nina had not been impressed then, or when Anthony had told the movers that the Rock Band smoke machine goes in the bedroom. Some of Nina's facial expressions made Anthony reevaluate his lifestyle choices.

She teased him one day about all the games he played being a neverending series of big macho men shooting each other and exchanging high-fives. When Anthony tried to explain the subtle thematic variations between Gears, Killzone and Army of Two, he could not do so in a way that made him feel very good about his hobby.

Eventually, Anthony reasoned with himself that being a responsible husband and a professional businessman probably meant saying goodbye to the more bro-ish aspects of his frat days -- things like violent online shooters and urinating on freshmen.

Sitting at the kitchen table with the household laptop on, Anthony tried to build swimming pools and carpet floors in The Sims, in between attempts at solving a crossword puzzle. He wondered what he would look like with a haircut.

2 comments:

qrter said...

This made me laugh. A lot.

Well done.

Anonymous said...

well said, i must admit, the story was good enough to read the book, can't say that a game has done that to me before :)