A Culdcept Miracle Come True

I get out of the shower this morning and Kristin says just matter-of-factly, "So I was talking with this woman at school yesterday about Culdcept SAGA and videogames and I thought she might really be interested in Pikmin. What console is Pikmin on?"

Understandably, I was in mild shock. Sure, Kristin and Ihave played some Culdcept and she was even pretty into the demo of Culdcept SAGA the other night, but the jump from her playing the occasional battle with me to actually talking about the game at biz school with one of her middle-aged female classmates is quite grand. We're talking Snake Canyon gorge (RIP Evil Knievel). After all, Kristin has seldom played any videogame not named Tetris.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up. You were talking with a woman at school about Culdcept? How is this possible?" I was stunned as you can probably imagine. Culdcept is a game so undeniably niche that I would bet 90% of gamerdom hasn't even heard of it. I expect to sell the copy I have for the PS2 for a tidy sum one day -- at least enough for a few extra days in Morocco or some other far-flung locale.

So Kristin explained to me that they there were talking about games and that the woman has some kids who are into games and she's pretty active in monitoring what kinds of games they play and that, from time to time, she enjoys playing with them. They talked about Pikmin and Animal Crossing and Kristin told her all about Culdcept SAGA's blend of luck and strategy and that it was a fun multiplayer game that had the ease of Monopoly with the strategy and collecting-aspect of Magic: The Gathering. I can envision the words rolling off Kristin's tongue even though her only encounter with Magic the Gathering was the one night she and I fumbled around with a starter kit a decade ago.

We continued talking about games with mostly me asking questions about the consoles the woman and her kids have and making recommendations. Later she had me double-check an email she was sending the woman relaying what I presume will be seen as my "expert opinion" even though, frankly, I was just pretty psyched to hear about two adult women talking about videogames not as frightened parents, but as two people genuinely interested in them as a totally normal form of entertainment. Imagine that. Two women taking a break between class at business school talking not about "American Idol" but about Culdcept SAGA.

And Tycho thought he was the only one who cared...

And speaking of women playing games, Kristin's mother really seemed to get into the Big Brain Academy game on my Nintendo DS while she was here visiting last week. Every time she or her husband put it down, the other would quickly grab it and try to better their score. It was pretty coincidental that the day after the left, I log onto Penny-Arcade and see this comic.