The other day, I hooked up with an old friend for lunch.  Normally these random meetings allow me to catch up with what has happened in their secret lives. It’s also an opportunity for me to share some of my recent adventures.

Honestly, it gives me the chance of getting out of the office for an hour, breathe some fresh air and get something nice to eat.

The latter can be difficult at times, when you work in an area that’s primarily office buildings, but if you drive a bit then you can find some wonderful places … anyways, this is not a food blog 🙂

So, we were chatting quietly about our wives, kids, work, cars, movies, sports – the usual man stuff.  Well, I have no fecking clue about cars, other than what I’ve seen on Top Gear and Fast & Furious.

The topic suddenly changed to games.  Not board games, but console games.

I’m the proud owner of a Wii console, which has been a brilliant investment for the family.  These days, an XBox or Playstation is too selfish.  You get more advanced games for these consoles, but they are often for older kids and some games are very violent.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to kill the bad guys in Call of Duty MW3, score some goals in FIFA ’12, kick some arse in fighting games and slash some zombies in Black Ops.

BUT, somehow I don’t think the South American flower will let me build a man-dungeon, for all the guy stuff; soccer, NFL, blood, gore mini-bar, 50″ TV and surround sound.

OK, back to the story.  My mate picked up a game for his kids and then he suddenly stated that he loves martial art games.  I can see how they can be attractive, especially after a long day at work and you need to let off some steam.  My strategy is simple when playing martial art games. I hit all the controller buttons as quickly and random as possible, hoping to knock out the opponent.

What freaked me out a little was my mate’s response.  He explained that he gets into the game by utilizing his knowledge of martial arts and how to move to beat the opponent!

So, it’s a bit like Karate Kid … wax on, wax off!  He observes the ‘enemy’ and strikes like a dragon.  Once the attack starts, he normally releases a powerful combination of punches and kicks, stunning the other player.  Something tells me it’s a random sequence of frantic punching the buttons on the controller – similar to my approach.

I must admit.  I had no idea how to respond to his in depth explanation of how he develops the fighting mentality and strategy to kick his kids’ arses in Mortal Kombat.  All I could say was ‘cool’!

Imagine if his kids bring home their friends.  They see this older guy in the corner, dressed in his gi, suddenly jumping up challenging the newcomers to a battle for life or death.  He will not rest until he has beaten them and probably humiliated them verbally too.  The coldest and most competitive parent in the hood.

After that brief insight into his gamer mentality, I decided to head back to the office, somewhat shell-shocked.  Not too sure I’ll fancy meeting him for lunch, alone that is, for some time.  Next time I might just change the subject to something less violent, such as curling or cricket.

But, I did enjoy the food immensely 🙂