Bowser gaming with his kid, bonding with his child as a parent gamer.

GrownGaming.com – What’s The Point?

Aren’t there enough gaming sites already?

IGN, Gamespot, Kotaku, PC Gamer, Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, N4G…it’s safe to say there are a fair few video game websites at the top end of the spectrum, flanked by thousands of gaming blogs on WordPress, Blogspot and so on. Does the world really need another video game website?

In a word: yes.

99% of my time online is spent reading video game websites, and as I’ve got older, I’ve noticed that I am no longer their intended audience.

These are writers who are paid to play video games all day, writing articles for 14-20 year-olds who have a chunk of time to spend playing video games every day.

I was 20 once. I was also 14 once, I think. I remember getting home from school and work and deciding whether I’d just spend the whole night playing video games (it was usually a yes).  I have no regrets about those hours frittered away with a controller in my hand and, honestly, I miss them a little sometimes.

Here’s the thing, though; I’m 30 years old now. I work long hours and come home to a wife and daughter who actually want to spend time with me. My game time and funds are extremely limited. I haven’t been able to say “I’m going to play video games all night!” for five years or so now. That wouldn’t fly in my house.

I read reviews for games like Skyrim, boasting a potential playtime of 100 hours, which is being praised by the reviewer as being value for money and all I can think is “jeez, that is going to use up my game time for the next 25+ weeks…that’s HALF A YEAR!”

I love gaming, but yo…I don’t want to play one video game every day for half a year. I want to experience as many video games as I possibly can, even if that means just concentrating on the main story of multiple titles. Games that are too long just intimidate me.

And, no, I’ve never played Skyrim. It’s true. It’s in my Pile of Shame and taunts me occasionally.

So, here I am, reading obscene amounts of news and content aimed at people who just might feasibly have the time to actually play the games they’re reading about, and I got to thinking…shouldn’t there be a website aimed at us older folk? With real-world adult responsibilities? A website that respects the limited time and budget of their readers?

So, I created GrownGaming.

GrownGaming isn’t an ego-stroker. I don’t care about online fame or anything like that – having a bunch of followers on Twitter doesn’t make me sleep any easier. I have created GrownGaming as a vehicle to grow a community of folk who might only be able to jump into a few rounds of COD before leaving for the school run.

Growing up is a fact of life, giving up gaming is not.  GrownGaming is for those of you who refuse to accept that Adulthood = Game Over.

Welcome to the family.