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Old Grandma Hardcore Rules
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posted by: Shawn Rider
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date posted: 10:31 AM Wed Oct 19th, 2005


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Click to read.Created and maintained by Timothy St. Hilaire, Old Grandma Hardcore is a Blogspot blog that details the gaming life of Tim\'s grandmother. At first, it might seem like a gimmick, but after reading some of the posts and watching the videos Tim and Grandma post on the site, it becomes completely clear that Grandma is hard freaking core. Whether it\'s God of War or Growlanser, Grandma got game.

Tim and his grandma have played loads of games, and we really have to recommend reading back through this great blog. The video downloads are completely golden, and emblematic of that highly finished indy production quality that we love to see online: It\'s raw and unscripted, but edited up into some great two-minute clips with a keen sense of humor.

And for the skeptics and concerned citizens: This is in no way a \"making fun of\" blog. Grandma, Tim writes, has been playing videogames since they started showing up in bowling alleys and shopping centers, and as arcades grew up in the 1970s. Grandma often has some very apt critical comments about games, and she\'s sure got a way with words. I haven\'t heard this much old lady filthmouth since my own beloved grandmother passed away (she loved Star Trek).

OGHC is definitely making it into my bookmarks, and I recommend you check it out.

There is so much on OGHC to dig into that I thought I\'d just list a few of the recent standout articles that caught my eye:

Zork Thompson
There are so many things wrong with Jack Thompson\'s \"modest\" proposal. The main issue is that after Tim made a Flash-based game based on Thompson\'s challenge to gamers, Thompson refuses to pay up. He claims that his proposal was satire, like Swift, which is so wrong (mainly because Swift never offered people money to take him up on his offer). The write-up of Tim\'s phone conversations with Jack Thompson, and the game itself, are both great examples of the prowess of indy weblog makers. Thompson also claims that Tim\'s game doesn\'t count because it isn\'t a first-person shooter. But wait: GTA isn\'t a first person shooter either. Neither is Manhunt. In fact, Take Two doesn\'t make all that many FPS games. And what\'s up with such blatant support of mainstream videogame industry ideals, Jackie-boy? You going soft on us?

Grandma: My Gaming Link to the Past
This post is a very warm history of Grandma\'s gaming past. Not only does it give her needed OG clout, it also exposes the relationship her and Tim have shared and how that has been centered around gaming. Here\'s a paragraph that I think sums up nicely both qualities of the post:

\"Understand the mentality of someone seeing an arcade game for the first time. It was a pinball machine with a television. Then came home arcade games. The Atari console, Sears even made one. Remember Socrates? Mom and Grandma picked one up for me (it came with full keyboard and two badly designed controllers) for \"educational purposes.\" Then Grandma bought an NES (quite pricey back in the day, there Nintendo...) then she received a Genesis as a gift. The whole time I was allowed to play her games sometimes if I behaved. The first mature game both of us got into was Mortal Kombat, followed by Street Fighter (backwards, I know...) While I remember her playing River City Ransom and some Friday the 13th knockoff, renting the occasionally dust cover protected titles, I didn\'t get to play those until later.\"

Grandma Caught in Horrific Moral Dilemma
Grandma gets stuck playing Eternal Darkness and struggles with the decision to use or not to use GameFAQs (generally, she\'s opposed to such assistance). We\'ve all been there. But she\'s probably funnier than you were. There\'s something very connective about seeing a person so ostensibly different from myself (a 30 year-old man) encountering such similar situations and issues. What\'s more, her reaction to the situation is not so different from myself or many of my friends.

These are just a few that caught our eyes on a first read-through. Check out the OGHC site here: http://oghc.blogspot.com

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