Could one video game destroy more than five years of marriage?
My wife and I have been married a little more than five and a half years. In those years, we've read many marriage books together that have helped us in different areas of our marriage.Some of the books we've read are Cinderella Meets the Caveman
, Two Becoming One
, and we've started Sacred Marriage, but haven't finished it yet.On Sunday, January 10, 2010, I rented New Super Mario Bros. Wii
with the hopes that it would be a game that my wife and I would play together, and enjoy. In five and a half years of marriage, I don't believe there has ever been a week of our marriage, where we have called each other so many names with yelling/screaming involved, as we did during the last week while playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii!
Playing through the game, our conversations started off like, "Oh, that's pretty cool!" and "Good job!", then quickly dissolved into, "I can't believe you did that!" or even, yes, the dreaded, "I hate you!"
While we were playing the game, I wondered what marriage counselors would think if they watched us play.
Now, I will say our "name calling/yelling" were game involved, and we never went to sleep angry at each other, or had a day where we were holding grudges at each other.
We would be frustrated with the game and each other, but we stuck with it.
With teamwork, we were able to complete the main portion of the game just yesterday, Sunday, January 11, and we have already started going back to collect all the star coins in the game, to unlock the other levels.
While we were playing some during the week, I decided I would test out my new video capturing device.
My wife knew I was capturing our game play, what she didn't know was that I used my cell phone recorder to record our conversations, while we were playing the game.
The video below is of my wife and I playing through World 6, Level 3.
I was playing as Mario and she was playing as Luigi.
Question:
Did anybody else experience this with either a wife/girlfriend, husband/boyfriend, or even just friends in general while playing through New Super Mario Bros. Wii? How do you think a marriage counselor would react if they watched a married couple playing this game?
I would love to hear others' stories from their experience with the game!
I broke with my Swiss girlfriend and part of it was thanks to the new Super Mario. Still love it to death. Girlfriends there will be many, Nintendo just one. Nintendo rules!
ReplyDelete@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! Are you from Switzerland?
I have had a few of those encounters. I remember me and my brother would get aggravated at each other while playing Batman Forever. More recently me and my wife had similar encounters while playing Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian.
ReplyDeleteI've been saving this up hoping to rope my wife into playing. So far I've dabbled about up to world 2.
ReplyDeleteI've heard other people say what you've accounted here and I don't get it. Is it causing a serious divide, or is it just during the game.
I mean, haven't you guys ever played Mario Kart or Smash Bros? There's yelling, and hitting and cursing abound in those games. Its just part of the fun.
My first born was conceived after a fit of Mario Kart passion.
OK, thats not true, but I doubt this game is worse than those. I'll have to wait and see.
@Ptolemy:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! When you asked, "I've heard other people say what you've accounted here and I don't get it. Is it causing a serious divide, or is it just during the game."
It's just during the game and it's all because of events happening during the levels.
If somebody holds grudges over video games though, I guess this could be a game they could hold grudges over because of the way things may unfold while playing with others.
My wife and I are having a lot of fun playing the game, that includes the "name-calling" during the game as well.
My wife was playing Super Mario Brothers 1, 2, and 3 last week on the SNES (Super Mario All Stars). It was only 1-player, but I have to admit that I was about to pull out my toe nails from watching. She remembered secret levels, cheats, and other tricks of the game very well. However, the fact that I wasn't controlling the fate of poor Mario -- or even Princess in Mario 2 -- was killing me! One of the main causes of disappointments with people is them not meeting our expectations. If it starts becoming an issue, you have to stop being a serious gamer and just have fun. Or find a Virtual Boy on eBay and play by yourself. That's 32 bits of fun that you can probably buy pretty cheap now.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I have a pot of Eight O'Clock brewed and nobody to drink it. Cheers to me!
Me and my wife never hold a grudge especially over a game. Neither have my brother and I.
ReplyDeletei'm not spending money on another "remix" game, seriously I have had enough of them. I know I will break down at some point but not today. Dam nintendo! NOT TODAY!!
ReplyDelete@Cansecoholic:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I hope you enjoyed your Eight O'Clock. I agree also, you have to remember it's a video game, and it's supposed to be fun...even if it's frustratingly fun!
@NintendoGamer:
Yea, we didn't hold grudges over the game. We're still playing it, collection all the star coins to unlock the other levels. So far, we've gotten four unlocked! Four more to go!
@Owen:
I didn't buy the game either, I've just rented it. I will say though, the game is extremely fun if you have somebody to play with.
I just googled "New Super Mario Bros Wii + marriage" and your blog post was the first one that came back!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I experience EXACTLY what you are describing here. It is only during the game, caused specifically by stealing the a mushroom or 1up, or Mario (my husband) picking Luigi (me) up and throwing me across the screen into a pit of lava.
We've had several "episodes" where we had to quit playing for the night. We were afraid we'd wake the kids with the swearing and name calling!
While I'm not so sure the other commenters have actually PLAYED this game with their spouse, rest assured that we have several sets of married friends who have experienced exactly what we have. The yelling, the name calling, the stealing of Yoshi.
It is a bizarre phenomenon, it doesn't seem to happen to us playing other games. It is completely different than playing against each other in Mario Kart or Smash Bros.
Thanks for posting this!
@Susan:
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your story here as well! I understand the concern about waking a child. My wife and I have a 9 month old, and we'd be playing and yelling at each other, or at the game in general, and one of us would say something like,
"Do you think he's awake staring at ceiling? Wondering why mom and dad are screaming?"
hanks again for the comment! Best wishes for completing and beating the game if you haven't!
wowwwwwwwwwww
ReplyDeleteI have never heard this before, what a weird problem to have seems petty but obviously I am wrong...
ReplyDeletevery well written in this games side i am one of your regular readers...
ReplyDelete