"Childish" things

> "Beth Fulton" <beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au> wrote:

> I've always felt that it's important to involve family in my gaming

[Snip]

> As a mother, there's few more touching moments then when your kids

Or as a father, be it their first army or their first fleet. What's been
fascinating for me to watch is how the boys have moved from using minis as
toys to platforms for their imaginations and, eventually, as game pieces.

This is particularly the case with Kendall, my younger son, who's now 12. When
he first saw my various fleets, he was fascinated and pored
over the then-current GZG catalogue, eventually deciding that he was
going to get a fleet based on the ESU. Not that it was going to be an ESU
fleet (or any of the other Tuffleyverse nations), oh, no; being
very fond of our cats, and of felines in general, he decided that _his_
fleet belonged to a race of felinoids, and thus was the Felis Empire born.

Over the years (it all started when he was about five), he created an
amazingly detailed history for the Empire and took them through years
of space and ground battles, both on and off the game table/floor. I
will always remember the look on one of his primary school teachers when she
"explained" that, because she didn't play computer games, she couldn't
understand much of what he was writing about in the "what I did on the
weekend" things that teachers get kids to do (in his case, quite detailed
AARs), and I told her that this was all his own creation... <g>

He more-or-less dragged his older brother into creating a foe/ally
nation, the Canid Confederation, and with two lively minds collaborating, the
future history got more and more complex. It also led to a minor "arms race"
with each of them trying to come up with
bigger and better ships, both design-wise and as minis. One of
Lachlan's proudest achievements of that time is the Cerberus, a
heavily-modified three-engined Valley Forge conversion -- a seriously
mean-looking piece of metal!

As the years have gone by, the Empire and Confederation have faded into the
background, but not Fleets, although the minis may do double duty as someone
else's ships at times. Their spirits live on, though; the "good guys" in
Lachlan's delightful story "Plasma Cannons of Gor" may
be human, but I think there's a certain streak of Canid in them -- and
the CA that features in the opening scene is definitely a Vandenburg!

Both boys have developed skills in painting and modelling that can only stand
them in good stead in the future. Kendall in particular is becoming a very
handy figure painter; it's just a shame that so much of his effort goes into
GW stuff; some of his friends are very into the Evil Empire and are involving
him, too. Ah, well, I think he can cope; GZG, and other companies that he's
looked at after getting into the hobby, have shown him that there is more to
gaming than Gumby Workshop.

Phil, rather proud of the two of them. Now, if only _I_ had more time
to game...