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My dad enjoys looking, fishing and fighting fires. I enjoy reading, philosophy and not exerting myself too much. But whereas we won't have a ton in common, we do play lots of games collectively. Army shooters, principally, as he gets simply bored by many of the slower moving, story heavy games I tend to play alone. I was never going to comply with in his footsteps on the fireplace department, and he was by no means going to read Kant with me. So as an alternative, we have bonded on virtual battlefields.That is not one thing unique to my household. Like my very own father, Steven struggles to seek out things in common with his youngsters. One of his daughters is a dancer. The opposite is in band. However as the women have gotten older, playing video games has brought the household nearer collectively."I've been an avid gamer since I was in college, and my daughters simply began picking it up," he instructed me. "About six or seven years in the past I acquired my oldest daughter a computer, and she and i began taking part in video games with each other and towards each other, and it just type of progressed from there."I met Steven at QuakeCon in Dallas, TX, the place he and his daughters Nicole and Maya have been getting ready to hop into a sport of Torchlight 2. "We used to have one room [at home] that all of the computers have been in," Steven instructed me once i asked in the event that they played plenty of games as a family. "We'd just sit there and simply play for hours and hours."They play a variety of games together, including Borderlands and The key World, though Steven told me that he and Maya, who's 11, at the moment have an affinity for Minecraft. Proving the idea that Minecraft is like a modern day Lego set, the 2 of them craft and create as a staff. "I actually bought her addicted to that. We'll log into a server and construct issues together and stuff."It is not simply about the video games. Theirs is also a house of expertise. minecraft servers One Christmas, Nicole's relations all coordinated to each get her an element for a new pc, which she and her father constructed collectively. Best minecraft servers They have discovered how to install hardware the same way different kids study to vary a flat tire on a automobile. "I strive to teach them, 'This is what it's important to do when building a computer,' in order that approach they know how to do things themselves," Steven said. "I've tried to make them as self-dependent as potential."Of course, having stuff you love to do together at house would not always guarantee quality family time. Typically life gets in the best way and you want a trip with a purpose to spend time together. But the place do you go when exploring magic kingdoms (albeit nearly) is already part of your regular family bonding?For Steven's household, the answer was QuakeCon, which takes place in their house state. Marketed because the world's largest free LAN get together, the Bethesda-hosted convention tends to draw thousands of individuals to Dallas. "It makes us deal with doing this collectively," Steven said. "And it's just form of enjoyable to get away and get out and look and see what other persons are taking part in and see what new issues are popping out ... It is just something all three of us enjoy doing, and that i simply figured it's here locally, and it is not that expensive to go, so why not?"They don't make the trek alone. Just as some households go camping with buddies, QuakeCon tends to be a gaggle activity. Steven and his daughters went with individuals they knew, together with Nicole's pal Sean and his family. "His dad and I've turn out to be good mates," Steven said. "I might invite him and Sean over to our house to have mini LAN events on the home, and I'd invite over three or four associates and my daughters would join in, and we might have a enjoyable time on the house." For the previous couple of years, QuakeCon has been another factor to do collectively."I do not know that it was the household sitting down at dinner saying, 'We must always go!'" Sean, who's 17, told me. He was still up enjoying video games in the Carry Your own Pc (BYOC) area of QuakeCon while his father, mom and little brother, 7-yr-old Reid, were elsewhere. "It was more my dad and that i saying, 'That is kick A, we need to go do this,' and the opposite two form of obtained dragged alongside. Especially with [Steven's family] coming, we're shut with them and all of us sport together anyway, so they mentioned, 'You guys ought to come,' and it simply form of occurred."For these folks, booking a resort room for a video game-filled weekend looks like some of the natural issues on this planet. And why should not it be? Anyone below the age of 18 in the present day was born right into a world the place video games are already an everyday activity for hundreds of thousands of people. It has been a long time since games were a thing that most mother and father did not perceive at all. As an alternative, they're one thing adults get pleasure from with their youngsters.Steven's oldest daughter will be going to varsity near dwelling, but he hopes that QuakeCon, no less than, will be an annual excuse for the family to get collectively and play video games for the weekend, whilst the girls develop up and move out. "I've obtained at the least six or seven more years with my youngest," he mentioned. "But yeah, we'll strive to keep it going as long as potential."What matters for now's they're having fun with the time collectively now. "The main factor we're right here for is sort of a vacation. Just to sit down and play video video games and sort of cling out. Daddy daughter time." Britton Peele is a contract author based out of Texas. His work has been featured on GameSpot, GamesRadar and The Dallas Morning Information. You possibly can observe him on Twitter at @BrittonPeele.