Dominik Diamond spent three weeks living with his 22-year-old son in a two-bedroom flat they call the "brotel". They cooked curries, watched Lanterns, barbecued meat, analysed Tarantino movies, and played video games extensively.
Revisiting a childhood game
The first game they played together in co-op was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009, when his son was five. The son was not an accomplished sidekick, especially at placing a mobile gun turret under fire, but they had fun. That started their video game bond before his sister introduced him to Banjo-Kazooie and Rayman, and he stopped being a preschool warmonger.
Nearly two decades later, they tackled the same game again. They started with the two Special Ops missions they used to play, which they never completed because he was five and Diamond is left-handed, making him poor at joypad-controlled first-person shooters without auto targeting.
Guard dogs in the snow
The first mission is officially called Evasion, but they call it "the guard dogs in the snow" because the dogs got them every time. Their initial attempts highlighted differences in their gaming styles. Diamond is paranoid, creeping forwards, mostly crouching, frequently crawling on his belly, scouting with a sniper scope. His son Charlie runs through the level firing from the hip, alerting all the dogs, which smell Diamond from miles away.
"We fail. We fail again. But we are having so much fun."
Teamwork emerged through compromise. Charlie held back a bit, Diamond grew less timid. Diamond sniped from a distance, Charlie finished enemies up close. Most importantly, they took out the guard dogs first, realising that was where they went wrong two decades ago. They finally completed the mission after 17 years.
Completing the other level
They went straight into the other level they never conquered: Homeland Security, AKA "defend the garage from five waves of attack". It took several attempts, but their communication was so good it was never a chore. They leaped from their twin La-Z-Boy chairs in celebration when they won.
They gambolled through mission after mission. Suspension, AKA "bridge with helicopters", was a riot. Diamond used a bazooka from afar, Charlie sprinted in to mop up. In Snatch and Grab, they took a computer file and booted it from an aircraft graveyard, avoiding helmeted Juggernauts. Even when they failed again, it was pure gaming joy.
Reflections on gaming and life
While writing, an article pinged up about the online gaming cheat industry, now worth $8.5bn. Diamond questioned why people invest so much in cheating, saying it rips the soul out of something fun.
Diamond loved the last few weeks gaming with his son. He feels he has gone back to basics. After decades as an uptight stressed dad, he is finally carefree because he recently went back to working for himself. Sitting with pizza, beer and another bloke, playing games till the wee small hours, reminds him of gaming when he was his son's age.
He notes that you never top that period in your life as a gamer – when you get that first job, leave home, get your own place, buy whatever game you want and play it to your heart's content, before responsibilities like relationships, mortgages, parenthood and ambition arrive. When those things come, you are lucky to squeeze in an hour of play here and there, and you still feel guilty for not doing something more grownup.
Now, Diamond is back in gaming heaven. It won't last for ever: he and his son are due to move to different parts of the world in a few months. But after one session, his son said he will look back on this as some of the best times they ever had together. Diamond turned his head because he is still a Scottish dad and didn't want his son to see him cry, even though those tears were the most beautiful big, happy ones.
