He spends a few minutes explaining the concept, which controls to use, until—to my surprise—I’m eager to play. So I jump in and, after a few false starts, I pick it up with ease.
And actually, it’s really fun. I’d always assumed video games were sort of mindless, shoot-em-up type games, but this is quite sophisticated. It’s set in outer space, and there are all these different planets you can visit and spaceships you can purchase. There are missions and rewards, and all kinds of different things your avatar can do. The graphics are amazing. Once I figure out all the controls, I’m hooked. It’s got all the things I love about a good book—total immersion, the feeling of being outside yourself and living a different life for a while—with the strategy and participation required for playing a board game, but on another level.
Luke offers tips at the beginning, then sits back to watch me play. After a while I almost forget he’s there, I get so involved in the game.
And, God, it’s nice to be out of my own head for a bit. I haven’t picked up a book in ages and I miss the escapism. I’m used to reading for hours a day and I only now realize I haven’t been doing that at all lately.
“Should we order some dinner or something?” Luke says, interrupting my game.
I hit the pause button and glance away from the screen, shocked to find the afternoon light has given way to the darkness of early evening. “How long have I been playing?”
He chuckles. “An hour and a half.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. Do you like it?”
I pull off the headset. “Iloveit. It’s so much fun. I can’t believe I’ve never played video games before. And—okay, I don’t have anything to compareyourgame to—but it’s awesome. I would totally buy it.”
Luke beams. “Thanks, that means a lot. Because Dena—” he stops himself, his grin fading as he looks down at his lap. “Never mind.”
“Dena what?”
He releases a hard breath, eying me cautiously, apparently deciding whether or not to continue. “She hated it,” he says at last.
“Shehatedit? How? What did she hate?”
He shrugs, picking at a piece of lint on his jeans, avoiding my gaze. I’ve never noticed before how much he shrinks when he talks about her. “She hated video games in general. She was so pissed when I left my job to pursue creating this.”
“Wow. That’s…” I shake my head, truly dumbfounded, and empathy rushes through me. “Well, I think it’s really cool.”
His posture straightens, almost as if pride is lifting him up, and for some reason that makes my chest ache. When he looks down at his hands, trying to hide his smile, I have to fight the urge to pull him into my arms.
I shake the feeling off, setting the controller aside. “Dinner,” I mumble. “Let’s eat.”
We order pizza and settle onto the sofa, and I ask him more about his game—how he came up with the concept, what the different spaceships can do and how many planets you can visit, what the plans are to develop it going forward. Every time there’s a gap in the conversation I wedge another question in, so we can’t stray into other territory. As long as he’s talking about his game, I’m safe. Well, it kills me to see him so animated and inspired because it’s sexy as hell, but I also love seeing him like that. I get the sense he could use someone to cheer him on more.
“So if I wanted to get into video games,” I ask, swallowing my last bite of pizza, “what console should I buy?”
He laughs. “It’s not that simple. It depends what kind of games you want to play.”
“Well, I like this.” I gesture to the screen. “It’s really detailed. I always thought video games were about guns and shooting bad guys.”
“There are loads of those too, and they can be just as fun.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Really? How?”
Luke wipes his hands on a napkin with a wry smile. “Sometimes you just want to blow shit up. It can be a good way to relieve stress. I guess it depends on what you want out of a game. Like, sometimes I play the game to escape and explore, and other times I want to compete and fight. My game has a battle mode to do that.”
“Battle mode?”
“Yeah. It turns it into a multi-player game and you battle other players for control of a ship or a planet. That can be fun too.”
“Can you show me that?” I ask, wiping my hands.
His mouth ticks up in a lop-sided smile and he stands, reaching into the cabinet under the TV to retrieve another controller. “Want to play together?” He holds out the controller, and for some ridiculous reason, the idea of playing with him makes my heart bounce against my ribs.
“Sure.” I take the controller and turn to the screen, listening as Luke walks me through how to play in battle mode.
