It’s a special Mother’s Day edition of the PSN Community Spotlight! The Spotlight, as usual, is powered by your stories on the PlayStation Community Forums, and is your chance to get your PlayStation story featured on the PlayStation.Blog. Remember, if your post is selected, you’ll be getting a $50 PlayStation Store voucher code.
Remember to read the posting best practices for more info.
My Mother, PlayStation, and Her First Journey
Last weekend, my mother had her first video game experience. My mother, aged 57, never really understood gaming. She saw gaming just as the mainstream media wanted her to. To her, and my father for that matter, games were only about brutally killing and stealing cars. With her slamming gaming for the majority of my life, I decided to finally counter back, and I began my research.I tried to think of what game could show her that my passion wasn’t all about brutality and space marines. I wanted to let her play Portal 2, but the concepts were probably too complex for a first time gamer. After many thoughts and failed ideas, I finally realized the perfect game: thatgamecompany’s Journey.
Starting at 9:00AM on a beautiful Sunday morning, I pulled my mother aside and handed her a controller. I told her that I would not be helping her, and that she was free to do whatever she wanted in the game. The results were astounding. Even for a first time player, Journey’s narrative pulled her along, and she knew exactly what her goal was from the get-go. Though let it be known that the process of jumping was hard for her.
After the game finished and the credits rolled, she saw the list of players she met along the way. She didn’t realize that the other characters in the world of Journey were real people online, and she was stunned. She couldn’t believe that another player would help her through a world, come back for her when she fell, and hold her hand through some of the toughest areas. I snapped a picture of their names on my phone, so that I could send them a thank you message later.
Hours later, after my Mom had left, I typed a message to them on my Vita, which I then posted to the website Reddit. You can see the post here.
At the end of the day, it had 250,000 views, 3000 upvotes, and even a retweet from Jenova Chen and the official Twitter account of thatgamecompany!
My Mom’s first game experience not only was awesome for her, but also inspired many to buy Journey and play it for themselves. What an awesome Sunday.
So what are your thoughts on HarrisFoster’s story? Is your Mom cool with gaming, or is it something that she may never get into? Congrats to HarrisFoster, who is now the recipient of a $50 voucher redeemable in the PlayStation Store! Send in your stories here, and feel free to read HarrisFoster’s original post here, and lest we forget, Happy Mother’s Day!
Great story man. Journey is an amazing game. The ending especially!
congs to this weeks winner.. hope it gets all good for you. i figured i would rage here since its a more recent post. its about sony not doing much to make us want to replace our old ps3 phat system with a new one. I personally have been waiting for a good sony ps3 bundle or something Sony first party customized, but no its just the same plain black ps3 with lame COD bundles. i think most people will agree with me when i say COD gets more love with 360 than on ps3 . they get customized controllers, different face plates almost in the same launch window of the game. What do we get? A thirty party old game that has been slipped into a ps3 box right before its shipped off to a store. Come on SONY North America show us some love… i think i twisted metal customized bundle or starhawk customized ps3 bundle would be nice ( even though its the controller that is different but its only available with that bundle). Thats my two cents:
NOTE: Harris Foster I dint intend to spoil ur 15 min of fame. dont take it personal… CONGS on the $50 voucher
wasn’t sure if pictures were aloud. i’ll most likely put pictures in mine.
Hey Foster I’m gonna do what you did with my mother. But I might have to make a deal with. “MOM if if you play Journey , I promised to date anyone you recommend.” :D
If you guys would put this much effort in Vita and PS3 features than these stupid things or that stupid tester show that is a waste of money and time then we would be #1 across the board in gaming.
Put every single minute and hour of free time and MONEY into Vita games and features and the PS3 as well. Heck just fix the stupid download list on psn. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out to put a SEARCH and sort feature in our psn download list on psn. I mean it takes me hours to sort through over a thousand items to find one single thing I’m looking for to redownload. Come on man!
Hey HarrisFoster,
It’s JillyDad from Long Live Play last month. Great story! It’s great to see gamers trying to dispell the misconceptions many people have about gaming. Now your mother understands that video games are a ligitimate form of entertainment like movies, that can dazzle you with explosions, but they also have the ability to make you feel emotionally connected to characters, and be moved by the stories they tell.
Tell your mom happy mothers day for me, JillyDad.
P.S. Get out of here trolls! Shoo! Go put your annoying nerd rage somewhere else! (Your spoiling HarrisFosters’ spotlight.)
Awesome story and maybe she will like Mw3 with out a headset lol
Haha! Cool! I was one of the ppl who saw Jenova’s tweet and followed to the video. :D Sony, PlayStation and everything TGC has given the world in games, tech and entertainment have always been mind blowing and unique. Thanks! 4 everything! ^_^
It’s amazing what this game has accomplished among people.
I love this story! <3 =^_^=
Nice… I’ll be trying to get my mom and wife into the video game world…. Maybe will try Journey too…. Online gaming is the best….
Great story. Definitely going to buy Journey now.
I thank GOD for my mother for everything she has done. And for buy me a new ps3 320gb uncharted bundle for my bday after my old one died.didnt have to,but wanted to knowing how much i like games made me happy that day and till now and forever more.much love and happy mothers day to all!
edit:buying me,i meant to say.
Great post! This also shows how inviting the games are by thatgamecompany. While not indicative of most games, it’s definitely a great start. Next up: have her try Rock of Ages. My wife looked up from her tablet only to say, “that game’s weird.” I happily agreed and went on to bowl over my next historical victim.
Also, did comment #2 say, “congs” in place of congratulations? New to me. I thought “grats” was bad!