Those Were the Days is a weekly article in which Gamervision employees share video game-related memories. If you’ve got a story of your own to share, please do so! We love hearing from the community.

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I’m not reaching back too far for Those Were the Days this week, but I am going to keep it topical with a Thanksgiving story from two years ago. As you may or may not remember, the Wii launched on November 19, 2006, shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday. Though I was skeptical about the system for the entire year leading up to its launch, I decided at the last minute that I actually wanted one, partially because The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, a game I had been anticipating for what felt like centuries, was launching along with the console. Unfortunately, I made this choice too late to pre-order one, so I was out of luck—or so I thought.

I was still working at GameStop at the time, and after being in the store for an extremely long launch day, I came home to find that I did, indeed, have a Wii, as an early (and completely surprising) Christmas present from my so-called better half. I fell in love with it right away, and naturally, I had to bring it with me when I spent a few days at my parents’ house for Thanksgiving.

Even though my brothers and I have been playing video games our entire lives, my parents have never been huge fans of the industry. My dad used to ask when we were going to “grow out of that waste of time”, to which we always responded, “Never!” Of course, now that I play video games for a living, the joke is on him, and since I started working for Gamervision they have had a more open mind about gaming in general. However, back then you would never catch my dad playing a console game—other than an occasional round of Guitar Hero II.

The Wii was different, though. I brought it home, hooked it up, and my brothers and I spent the next few days playing Wii Sports, Twilight Princess, and Trauma Center, while my dad’s interest level grew higher and higher. He watched as we made Miis that oddly resembled ourselves and used the motion-sensitive controls to mimic baseball and bowling. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised that the Wii would appeal to my non-gamer parents so much, but remember, the system was only a week old at the time. No one knew how insanely popular it would be, nor that it would be the console of choice for children, the elderly, and casual gamers alike.

My biggest surprise came the morning of Thanksgiving itself, when I woke up, came downstairs, and heard the familiar sounds of Wii Sports coming from the TV room. My first thought was that my brothers were playing, but since it was so rare to see them awake before noon, I was a little surprised. I crept into the TV room to find that it was actually my father playing baseball, and looking like he was having a great time. He had made his own Mii and everything, and was swinging away with the Wii remote.

Ever since that Thanksgiving, not a holiday has passed when I didn’t bring home some video game for us to play as a family. That year, it was Wii Sports, last year it was all about Rock Band, and this year I’m bringing home my PS3 to show off LittleBigPlanet, along with Rock Band 2, of course. Like I said, my parents have warmed up to gaming a bit since then, and my dad eventually bought a Wii for the house. He even wants his own 360 so he can play Rock Band whenever he feels like it without having to borrow my brothers’ systems. The Wii may not be so beloved by more dedicated gamers anymore, but I still love the system, and one of the reasons why is because of the way it helped turn my father on to games two Thanksgivings ago.

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