Gaming Had a Great Year, and Your Family Doesn't Want to Hear About It.

It’s holiday time again. The only time of year when you’re obligated to jump through hoops like trained seals, pretending to tolerate your loved ones instead of sitting at home plowing through the insurmountable pile of amazing titles that dropped into our backlogs this year. But the games are never far from our minds. As you collectively dissociate over auntie’s cavity-inducing desserts and your uncle’s spiked eggnog-induced blackout, someone inevitably asks: “So what have you been up to lately?”

Do not fall for this trap. They are asking your opinions of the drama-filled Season 34 of Dancing with the Stars, not what you’ve played this year. But it’s too late. You’ve fumbled the ball. You opened your big mouth and uttered the title “Clair Obscur.”

And you just kept going… You said it was a video game, and now you’re the family’s patron saint of gaming. All hail the new Doritos Pope. Do you know about the Master Chief show? Do you have opinions on Sonic 3? What about Jim Carrey’s Robotnik dance — funny or cringe? And how exactly do we get little Dustin off Fortnite when they sell those V-Bucks cards at Target?

Wow, you sure are dumb. But don’t fret, because so am I and I have made this mistake and that’s why I’m here to provide a way to help your silly ass navigate through some of those misguided gaming related inquiries from your relatives.

So your family watched the Fallout show and started saying “okey dokey” unironically, huh? The in-laws binge The Last of Us and ugly cried over Joel and Ellie like they weren’t watching a show about mushroom zombies eating people’s faces? Gaming is mainstream now, and that means sometimes people won’t care about the actual games. First step: understand this excitement is water cooler talk.

With Fallout Season 2 out and you uttering the words “video games,” this will obviously dominate your holiday gathering conversation. So when your relative says, “Oh I love the Fallout show! So do you play as Walter Goggins in the game too?” DO NOT RAMBLE! Don’t explain that Fallout has been around since 1997, or that The Ghoul isn’t in the mainline games, or that the timeline is… Stop. Just say: “No, but you can make your own character like him, the whole cowboy hat and nose thing, and embark on your own nuclear wasteland road trip without waiting a year between seasons. Plus, the games have been out for decades, so you could start right now.”

Meet them where they are, and engage in a conversation about how The Last of Us show and game are SIMILAR, not DIFFERENT. Make the bridge instead of lamenting that it doesn’t exist. If that inevitably fails, because they’re never actually going to suffer through whatever the hell is happening with the Fallout: New Vegas PC port? Smile, nod, and pivot to literally anything else. Example: “Well, it’s almost the end of the year, huh?”

The cold, hard truth is gaming is everywhere now, and your family sees how massive it’s become and wants in on the conversation. The problem? They’re realizing they’re painfully late to the party and don’t know where to start. It’s like someone just finding out about movies in 2025 and asking if the train pulling into the station scared you too?

Translation: they don’t want to admit they got old without realizing it. This leads to strange questions and dismissive superiority. For example: earlier this week while shopping for Christmas dinner, my mother looked at me and asked, “What’s that game you be playin’, Balonko?” I stared at her with the expression of a man who knew this would probably be the funniest thing she’d say all year and calmly replied: “Yeah, Balatro. Why?” Somehow she’d heard about this silly card game and needed to know why it was so popular. Unfortunately, the last game my mother heard about that struck popularity was Fortnite, so naturally the question became: “So is that like Fortnite?”

This is the question that separates the rookies from the pros. DO NOT fall into the trap of explaining how what you’re playing is different from Fortnite. They’ve already thrown you into confusion and you’re just going to hurt yourself in the process. Instead, try this: Give them a one-sentence summary of what Fortnite is, then tell them what you’re playing in the simplest possible terms. No mechanics. No genres. Just vibes.

Example: “Fortnite is a shooter game with Sabrina Carpenter and Bart Simpson, and Balatro is a silly poker game.” That’s it. Don’t explain roguelikes, don’t mention deck-building, don’t start talking about joker synergies all that is too much context for mashed potatoes conversation. They nod, nobody loses, and everybody eats dessert. If they want to know more, they’ll ask.

By now you’re so close to the end of this “interesting” social interaction, but OH NO! you’ve garnered a captive audience. They’re hanging on your every word, they’ve placed their faith in your guidance, and now they’ve mustered up enough courage to ask the big question: “How Do I Even Play It?” Believe it or not, this isn’t a trap — it’s vulnerability. You now hold all the power to do the funniest thing ever: recommend their first game be Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Jokes aside, you’ve piqued their interest. The mind is willing, but the thumbs are weak. They want to try, but they’ll tell you, “Games are too complicated.” Here’s the thing: I’ve watched Peanut Butter the Shiba play Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball on Super Nintendo. If a dog can figure out a controller, your in-laws can absolutely handle one. Complexity isn’t the barrier, it’s fear. But these are the same people who own those big-ass generic universal remotes with more buttons than a fight stick, so they’ll be fine, they just need permission to start simple.

Reassure them: modern games aren’t an inside joke of button combinations. They’re designed to teach you while you play. So recommend games with minimal buttons, save points, and short fun experiences. Whatever you recommend, make it something you actually like. Your enthusiasm matters more than the ‘perfect’ beginner game. Just don’t hand them something like DOTA or Tarkov. Those ain’t games, they’re abusive relationships with worse matchmaking, and a quick way to find yourself uninvited to every future family function… Unless that’s what your plan is, then yeah, let ‘em play Silksong.

No matter what bots online say, the holidays are for getting together with people you don’t see often and trying to find some middle ground if possible. Gaming has always been a medium I’ve tried to help new and old generations alike find a middle ground with, mainly because it combines humanity’s desire for both play and art, and what’s more human than sharing something you love with somebody you love.

I started writing about games this year because I wanted to share my love of this medium with my wife, who had never played games until recently. She went from not understanding how a controller worked to now owning a Steam Deck and a GOTY list. It’s all about having patience on both sides: willingness to share and willingness to learn.

HAPPY HOLI-GAMES EVERYONE! Now go watch all these lame WiiU Holiday Ads I found to put you in the spirit of either sharing your favorite games, or keeping your big mouth shut. Love all yall. Stay Silly. - BPM+ (Yes, That’s two pluses)