This special edition of The Lens (where my poor daughter’s gaming life is recorded on this blog for any fool to read) deals specifically with a slight marketing angle for gaming. I knew this would happen and I should have gone with my gut in the first place but as much as you try to protect them from the evils of the world, sometimes it turns out the problems are right in front of you. I recently decided to show some studio and franchise spirit and wear more Tomb Raider related t-shirts from time-to-time. I’m proud that my studio works with Tomb Raider and consider it an important part of my gaming life, so it made sense to me to fly the company colors openly. Jen, of course, was not too happy but hey, it is my work so it seemed justified.
Once I started wearing them though, something struck me. Each and every shirt (except one) has Lara holding a gun usually in a very prominent way. I remember thinking to myself that maybe it wasn’t a good idea to wear them around Lia because of this. Then I talked myself out of it and figured she may never notice and really probably doesn’t care what is on my silly shirts. Well, turns out I should have listened to my gut (you can see where this is going).
As I was brushing her hair after a bath the other day she looked at my shirt and asked me some questions.
Lia: “Daddy, what is that lady holding?”
Daddy: “Who, this lady?” (Pointing to my shirt hoping she was talking about something else. Oh crap.)
Lia: “Is she holding a wand?” (Magic and Fairies and Mermaids is her life right now, thank the gods.)
Daddy: “No it isn’t a wand.” (Shit, let’s hope she doesn’t…)
Lia: “Is that a gun?” (I have no idea how she knew that really.)
Daddy: “Yes, that is a gun.” (Already knowing this is quickly going south.)
Lia: “What is she doing with the gun? Does she want to shoot people?” (At this point I’m not even sure how she knows that guns do that in the first place. The most violent game she has played so far is Zelda – report incoming, she likes the sword apparently.)
Daddy: “Well, she does sometimes, yes. To protect herself.” (Here I’m trying to soften the blow, of course.)
Lia: “Why does she want to shoot them? Does she want to kill them with the gun?”
Daddy: “Well, this lady goes on adventures and sometimes she need to use her guns to protect herself.”
Lia: “You mean she goes on adventures like princesses do?”
Daddy: “Well sort of. You could say she is a type of princess.” (Jen and I try to go pretty princess-lite but Disney is too powerful for us it seems.)
Lia: “Would she shoot me with the gun?” (Right about now I’m feeling like the hole I dug is pretty damn deep.)
Daddy: “Oh no, she would never use the gun on you. She is a sort of hero, like…ur…Peter Pan.”
Lia: “Can she fly?” (In the image Lara is jumping through the air.)
Daddy: “Oh no, she can just jump really high.”
Lia: “Is she bad?”
Daddy: “Well, not really, but she can be really mad sometimes.” (Thanks Toby!)
Lia: “She should be careful with her guns.” (And truer words have never been spoken…)
Daddy: “Ok, open your mouth for teeth brushing!”
I guess I’m not wearing those shirts after all. Back to Wilderness themes with trees and animals. Maybe they will make good cleaning rags.
So, I wanted to let people know about GameSetWatch to try to return the favor a tiny bit. I wanted to also thank GameSetWatch and 
