EyeToy shunned at dinner party! :(

[RJ]

I guess it had to happen...
My wife & I had our usual group of friends (3 couples, one w/ a 2 yr old) over for dinner Friday. After a delayed but successful meal, for something to do I thought we'd try EyeToy: Groove & an AntiGrav demo. Everyone seemed interested at first during my demonstration, but here are some comments made:

"That's gay."
"That's for kids."
"Shouldnt the songs be Japanese?"
"I cant believe you'd actually DO something like this!"

This is a 30something group who can barely operate/hold a controller. They seemed to enjoy my "video game-show" party last year, possibly since I awarded gift cards to the top 3 winners. One guy has a PlayStation & SNES but seldom plays them. His wife bought a PS2 game by mistake (she didnt know the difference!) & they just keep it on a shelf collecting dust. He told me I couldnt have it, but I never said I wanted it.

Anyhoo, I thought EyeToy might help "bridge the gaming gap"- or just be something to do, rather than stare at each other & discuss our jobs. Only one guy volunteered to Groove & I think it was only to appease me- everyone else flat-out refused. When I put in AntiGrav, suddenly it was time to try to get the kid to sleep. They brought a DVD movie along to help, & half the group went downstairs to watch it (on the other PS2).

I was more than a bit POed but didnt say so. I bounced it off my wife afterward & drew the conclusions: I have to be "less controlling" w/ party activities (but I didnt "force" anyone- it was something to do besides sit around all night!), & parties/people arent the same as they used to be.

So, I was kinda fuming about it all weekend & had to get it off my chest. Thoughts?

[Crazycarl]

lol ahh fudge 'em... isnt the main part of the eye toy to look like an idoit and have fun. and isnt the main reason at parties is to look like an idiot and have fun. i say get a new set a friends...hehehe. invite us over and we'll rock the house...set up multi eyetoys...theirs ur fun. ohwell ur experement folded on you...but it happens.

[youruglyclone]

different strokes for different folks...honestly I gave up on introducing gaming to people, it's like if they don't care for it I'm not going to force it upon them. yes it's a pretty pessimistic point of view but at the same time it's a bit selfish to make all your friends like the same stuff you do....but then that's just me

[Vroomfunkel]

It's hard to judge these things sometimes - a different day, or a different month or different weather, and maybe everyone would have really got into it. It sounds like everyone fed off eachothers' reluctance .. and it probably didn't help that you were the only person there with any previous experience of it (by the sounds). What you need to kick something like that off is two or three people who have played it before, and enjoy it .. this creates an atmosphere of shared fun and enjoyment.

Then, most importantly, you need someone amongst the 'never tried before-s' who is really willing to give the thing a proper try, and have a laugh, to bridge the gap between the two groups.

Or, the simpler and quicker way (although this may not have been possible in your gathering) - get everyone slightly boozed up before you get the game out. Job done!

Vroomfunkel

[Flack]

... but here are some comments made:

"That's gay."
"That's for kids."
"Shouldnt the songs be Japanese?"
"I cant believe you'd actually DO something like this!"

This is a 30something group who can barely operate/hold a controller. They seemed to enjoy my "video game-show" party last year, possibly since I awarded gift cards to the top 3 winners. One guy has a PlayStation & SNES but seldom plays them. His wife bought a PS2 game by mistake (she didnt know the difference!) & they just keep it on a shelf collecting dust. He told me I couldnt have it, but I never said I wanted it.

That part of your post leads me to believe that you may have the wrong crowd for this.

[Kroogah]

A 30-something crowd that calls video games gay. I love humanity sometimes.

I'd have to agree with Vroomfunkel, alcohol definitely makes people want to try the Eyetoy.

[RJ]

get everyone slightly boozed up before you get the game out. Job done!

Oh, believe me, I bought beer for the (4) guys & everyone but me had at least 2 glasses of wine w/ dinner, & we always have the hard stuff in the cupboard above the fridge.

[maxlords]

See, I wouldn't have played it either. But then, if it was Kenshin Dragon Quest...that'd be a different story.

[hydr0x]

well, EyeToy is not for every gamer to begin with so it's definetly not for every non-gamer, i think you might have been more succesfull with SingStar

[Griking]

If you really wanted to horrify them you shuld have broken out with a dance mat and game.

[AFGiant]

If you really wanted to horrify them you shuld have broken out with a dance mat and game.

Haha, I had a party-type thing myself last night and I broke out my RedOctane Ignition 2.0 mats and had at it. I've been called King of the Non-MallRats before, so I'm halfway decent :P (did Rhythm and Police, as well as Masuri Japan as my warm up). Plus, there were a couple of other people there that DDRed on light mode. It was a good time.

[Red Hedgehog]

When I was living with a roommate (and so was in a bigger place with a decent-sized living room), I would frequently break out the EyeToy when we had parties. Just about everyone got into it, even the girls (probably especially the girls). For some reason, the window-washing game was very popular, but regardless it generally worked as a great party activity as even those who didn't want to play enjoy watching others make fools of themselves.

For reference, our ages were low to mid 20s.

[crazyjackcsa]

It's always hard to bridge the gaming gap, something you think should work doesn't and things that you wouldn't think would, do.

[suppafly]

I´d be embarassed to play eyetoy in frnot of ANYONE :embarrassed:

[Arcturius]

Had simular things said by the now ex-housemates here about the fact I own 2 DC fishing rods I got all the "fishing games are gay" thing (this coming from Counter-Strike players - talk about the kettle calling the pot black) lucky my friends on the other hands all seem to enjoy the quirky side of gaming and it's still the funniest thing ever playing Soul Calibur in two player with the Fishing Controllers. }XD

[Kilik Kurosawa]

you want to bridge the gaming gap you gotta start slower that EyeToy. Bust out that 2600 or even some NES action. I don't know a single person in my age group that wasn't at one time hooked on SMB/DH.
Side Note: My girlfriend always tries to play down the fact that I love gaming to our Couples Night friends, but when I start playing the older stuff everyone joins right in.

[drwily008]

See, I wouldn't have played it either. But then, if it was Kenshin Dragon Quest...that'd be a different story.

I keep hearing about this, what is it? Does anyone have a good link?

[Acid7800]

Eyetoy isnt for everyone. Some people love it, some hate it, and some just dont give a 5hi7. Either way those people are idiots. Lol.

[norkusa]

I never played with an Eye Toy before, but maybe you just had the wrong game set-up. I brought my Takio Drum Master to a friends party over the weekend...mostly people in their late 20's/early 30's who never play games (except the host who was a casual gamer. it was his PS2 we were using).

The Taiko was a complete hit. Everyone that was hanging out in the other rooms came out to the living room to see what all the commotion was about. Everyone loved it and thought it was the wildest thing they've ever seen. Their only complaint was that there wasn't another Taiko drum for 2 player action. Even the girls that have never touched a video game in their lives were begging for a chance to play.

Next time you have a party, set up Taiko or Donkey Konga. I guarantee it'll be a hit.

[NeoSNightmarE]

i just have to agree that a little drinking would help the cause. but the eyetoy isnt that bad for me for some reason. i mean, when it first came out and they had it on display near the entrance of Best Buy i was there boxing with someone that was on the screen. and then i got tackled by some kid i knew and loss. but i would have to also agree that it isnt for everyone. im 19 and my friend whos 17 is like...get that shit away from me. and im like aight. but youll see how its done when i see it on display somewhere. lol

[felix]

I guess it had to happen...
My wife & I had our usual group of friends (3 couples, one w/ a 2 yr old) over for dinner Friday. After a delayed but successful meal, for something to do I thought we'd try EyeToy: Groove & an AntiGrav demo. Everyone seemed interested at first during my demonstration, but here are some comments made:

"That's gay."
"That's for kids."
"Shouldnt the songs be Japanese?"
"I cant believe you'd actually DO something like this!"

This is a 30something group who can barely operate/hold a controller. They seemed to enjoy my "video game-show" party last year, possibly since I awarded gift cards to the top 3 winners. One guy has a PlayStation & SNES but seldom plays them. His wife bought a PS2 game by mistake (she didnt know the difference!) & they just keep it on a shelf collecting dust. He told me I couldnt have it, but I never said I wanted it.

Anyhoo, I thought EyeToy might help "bridge the gaming gap"- or just be something to do, rather than stare at each other & discuss our jobs. Only one guy volunteered to Groove & I think it was only to appease me- everyone else flat-out refused. When I put in AntiGrav, suddenly it was time to try to get the kid to sleep. They brought a DVD movie along to help, & half the group went downstairs to watch it (on the other PS2).

I was more than a bit POed but didnt say so. I bounced it off my wife afterward & drew the conclusions: I have to be "less controlling" w/ party activities (but I didnt "force" anyone- it was something to do besides sit around all night!), & parties/people arent the same as they used to be.

So, I was kinda fuming about it all weekend & had to get it off my chest. Thoughts?


dont listen to them... they are still in the closet about their ddr and eyetoy addictions.... give them time and support and they will be be jamming out with their clams out in no time..

[felix]

I guess it had to happen...
My wife & I had our usual group of friends (3 couples, one w/ a 2 yr old) over for dinner Friday. After a delayed but successful meal, for something to do I thought we'd try EyeToy: Groove & an AntiGrav demo. Everyone seemed interested at first during my demonstration, but here are some comments made:

"That's gay."
"That's for kids."
"Shouldnt the songs be Japanese?"
"I cant believe you'd actually DO something like this!"

This is a 30something group who can barely operate/hold a controller. They seemed to enjoy my "video game-show" party last year, possibly since I awarded gift cards to the top 3 winners. One guy has a PlayStation & SNES but seldom plays them. His wife bought a PS2 game by mistake (she didnt know the difference!) & they just keep it on a shelf collecting dust. He told me I couldnt have it, but I never said I wanted it.

Anyhoo, I thought EyeToy might help "bridge the gaming gap"- or just be something to do, rather than stare at each other & discuss our jobs. Only one guy volunteered to Groove & I think it was only to appease me- everyone else flat-out refused. When I put in AntiGrav, suddenly it was time to try to get the kid to sleep. They brought a DVD movie along to help, & half the group went downstairs to watch it (on the other PS2).

I was more than a bit POed but didnt say so. I bounced it off my wife afterward & drew the conclusions: I have to be "less controlling" w/ party activities (but I didnt "force" anyone- it was something to do besides sit around all night!), & parties/people arent the same as they used to be.

So, I was kinda fuming about it all weekend & had to get it off my chest. Thoughts?


dont listen to them... they are still in the closet about their ddr and eyetoy addictions.... give them time and support and they will be be jamming out with their clams out in no time..

[Funk Buddy]

Next time you have a party, set up Taiko or Donkey Konga. I guarantee it'll be a hit.

I'll have to agree with you, those types of games are not really embarassing.

I'd say bust out Samba de Amigo w/ maracas if you got them. Nothing like people looking silly for a good time, but look out for folks swinging them around!

[Push Upstairs]

I'm still taken back by the whole "That's gay" comment.

No offense, but that doesn't say a whole lot about that particular person.

[Daria]

See, I wouldn't have played it either. But then, if it was Kenshin Dragon Quest...that'd be a different story.

I keep hearing about this, what is it? Does anyone have a good link?

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=259&products_id=3557&

That link pretty much speaks for it's self.

Although I should mention the game plays more like House of the Dead with a sword then it does Dragon Quest. I wish I had instructions, because I love mine, I just can't cast magic.

[Dobie]

The last "young couples" type of party I went to, we ended up playing Pictionary and cards all night. I would have killed for somebody to bust out an Eyetoy.

Sounds like you were just with people who aren't into it for whatever reason. I wouldn't let it get to you too much. At least you tried to do something to liven thngs up a bit, even if it didn't turn out well.

[The_EniGma]

Dammit that sucks

Well, my moms 2 friends 27 & 35 both loved it, me and my friend started playing it and then they semed interested. My mom actually beatm e at a game for once!!!

[SuperNES]

yea, something like that happened to me a while ago when I went over to my friend's house for a Halo 2 party. we played some halo 2 and then me and another kid wanted to play my friend's sisters karaoke revolution game. needless to say, we made complete fools of ourselves, but it was fun, even though the other two kids just wanted to play halo and got annoyed with us.

[DaBargainHunta]

To the original poster, find new friends. Seriously. The people you hang out with sound like extremely rude dickheads. If someone invited me over to their house and provided food, drinks, and entertainment, I would not call their itinerary "gay."

[Vroomfunkel]

Man! You had alcohol, and STILL people didn't play? There is no hope! Ditch your friends, I say!

Well .. perhaps not. There's always Samba De Amigo and Donkey Konga to try - if they sneer at those too, there truly is no hope at all.

Oh, and I also concur with Arcturius that playing Soul Calibur with two fishing rod controllers is some of the most fun you can have on a console!

Vroomfunkel

[Daft Punk]

pshhhhhhhhh. fudge um eyetoy is the best thing sence a toilet inside the house.


I love obscure and wierd stuff like that. I break out the ddr almost everytime when Im having a party and everyone just ooooo's and ahhh's .Same goes for the eye toy.



NOTE

To have more fun with the eyetoy ninja game take the end off your broom and pretend its a staff and kick some ninja ass.

[Tachikoma]

I...here are some comments made:

"That's gay."
"That's for kids."
"Shouldnt the songs be Japanese?"
"I cant believe you'd actually DO something like this!"

This is a 30something group who can barely operate/hold a controller.

Wow.. 30 year olds spouting crap you'd expect to hear from high school brats? Well I hope they at least thanked you for inviting them over. :hmm:

[I Am Humanoid]

I would have quickly adapted to the situation

and created my own *adult-themed* EyeToy game

for everyone to enjoy!

"OK, I want everybody to lay down naked in a circle..."

[Nez]

pshhhhhhhhh. fudge um eyetoy is the best thing sence a toilet inside the house.


I love obscure and wierd stuff like that. I break out the ddr almost everytime when Im having a party and everyone just ooooo's and ahhh's .Same goes for the eye toy.



NOTE

To have more fun with the eyetoy ninja game take the end off your broom and pretend its a staff and kick some ninja ass.

HA I did the same thing with a gift wraper tube.

I find that strange that they didn't enjoy the eyetoy. At a family get together my Aunts and Uncles were having fun with it and they never grew up with video games. These are people into there 50-60s. Granted it might of helped that my cousins were having fun with it first. Ages 8-33

EDIT why do I have Negative meseta again!

[slip81]

It doesn't sound like you forced it on them or were too controlling. It just sounds like you were dealing with a group of people who have a very close minded negative view on gaming.

[RJ]

It doesn't sound like you forced it on them or were too controlling. It just sounds like you were dealing with a group of people who have a very close minded negative view on gaming.

Thats right- I didnt force it, but this same group (plus others) loved playing game-show videogames last year.


The last "young couples" type of party I went to, we ended up playing Pictionary and cards all night. I would have killed for somebody to bust out an Eyetoy.

Yeah- the people who stayed upstairs ended up playing Cranium, ANOTHER game they pissed on when my wife & I tried to introduce it to them when it came out (4-5 yrs ago?)


Next time you have a party, set up Taiko

That was on the same demo disc as AntiGrav, which pretty much killed any remaining inkling of interest. That was to be my NEXT plan of action. The people are quite musical, too- one guy's even a percussionist.


you want to bridge the gaming gap you gotta start slower that EyeToy. Bust out that 2600 or even some NES action.

Well, I 've known this group a LONG time- I went to grade school w/ a couple of them, & they're all quite aware of my video game hobby. This is the 3rd (& probably final) time I've tried to integrate video games into our gatherings. I guess they just dont know what they're missing...

[yok-dfa]

I love obscure and wierd stuff like that.

I'm actually not sure if this got an American release, but if you want weird stuff, check out Dark Wind. It's a first person fighter game. (literally, you stand in front of the TV and try to knock down your opponent by force or magic). Instead of a camera it uses some special gloves attached to a base-station to get the position of your fists. I recently picked up a second-hand copy on ebay (it needed some fixing, but that was a 5 minute job) and i love it. Ofcourse the game gets a 2x weirdness multiplier bonus because of the strange control method :) The strange thing is that i haven't seen this game for sale anywhere. My local gameshops also never heard of it. The only copies (3 in total) i've seen have been on Ebay so this might be hard to track down...

See http://www.in2games.uk.com/testsite/index.php for more info...

[Daft Punk]

I love obscure and wierd stuff like that.

I'm actually not sure if this got an American release, but if you want weird stuff, check out Dark Wind. It's a first person fighter game. (literally, you stand in front of the TV and try to knock down your opponent by force or magic). Instead of a camera it uses some special gloves attached to a base-station to get the position of your fists. I recently picked up a second-hand copy on ebay (it needed some fixing, but that was a 5 minute job) and i love it. Ofcourse the game gets a 2x weirdness multiplier bonus because of the strange control method :) The strange thing is that i haven't seen this game for sale anywhere. My local gameshops also never heard of it. The only copies (3 in total) i've seen have been on Ebay so this might be hard to track down...

See http://www.in2games.uk.com/testsite/index.php for more info...

That sounds like a power glove type deal . It was not released here .

[hydr0x]

Dark Wind, yeah, there are more games announced for the system but don't expect them to show up, the game didn't sell at all as far as i can tell, we still have a stack of them at our store for something like 90€ @_@

[yok-dfa]

The game didn't sell at all as far as i can tell, we still have a stack of them at our store for something like 90€ @_@

A future rarity is born :D

[JB Lars]

"That's gay"? There are adults that still use "gay" as an all-encompassing derisive adjective? I refuse to believe it. He probably said "gh3y". ;)

[calthaer]

I've never really given Groove or Play a whirl, and they looked a little fruity to me...

...but AntiGrav is nothing short of coolness. It's like the 80s child within me that always wanted to fly on those hoverboards that Marty McFly used in 2015 awoke and said "YES!"

Sure, it's a little hokey with that male yuppie announcer saying "Awesome, rock star! You go! You got the hang of it!" all the time, but once you get past his coaching you can zoom along like a madman riding the neon rails of l33tness while squimbleeshing (that's the sound they make) the multi-colored icons with your hands.

Doing a backflip in the air with your arms is also cool. What's not to like about this game? I've tried it to several friends and they've all at least given it a try. It's nowhere near as intimidating as DDR, IMO. Maybe your friends were just having an off-night? If you demo it for them and pull some rad tricks, maybe they won't think it's so bogus.

[FurinkanianFrood]

I have zero interest in the eyetoy games, but I wouldn't mind playing them in a private setting, even though I never drink anymore. LOL They all seem rather weak to me, but hey....

Party games in general take a certain kind of personality. Some people just have defective personalities.

Most of my preferred party games might elicit similarly negative responses (Why do you want to play that decade old import? What the hell is that system your putting that disc into?)

I sympathize.



There are adults that still use "gay" as an all-encompassing derisive adjective?


It depends on what you mean by "adults". If you mean over the age of say, 21, then yes loads of "adults" use the word in that way.

If you ask me, there have never been more than a relative handful of adults alive at any given time.

[rbudrick]

Wow, stiff friends, man. LOL

Bring out the VCS...maybe they can "handle" games of that caliber. ;)

Bummer, dude...Maybe play Yahtzee next time, heh heh.

-Rob