By Trey Fisher
Arthur Murphy IV is a 20-year-old FSU student whose family is a little different than most.
Arthur, who goes by Artie, is lucky enough to play with multiple members of his family, including his brother, father and grandfather. Three generations of the Murphy family have grown closer by playing various kinds of video games over the decades. From watching the very first digital game get released to new virtual reality, the Murphy family has seen and played all kinds of different games.
Artie said that the very first video game he remembers his family playing together was “Diablo III” when he was only 9. Even though they were young, it was a great bonding experience that continued a family habit that lasts to this day.
“You know I definitely didn’t see it out of the normal to play video games with my dad but then once I started going to other kid’s households, I realized it definitely wasn’t a normality,” said Artie. “Once I got older, I thought it was pretty sick to be playing video games with my dad and grandpa.”
Artie’s 74-year-old grandfather, Arthur II, was the first in the family to get into digital games. He said that in 1973, two years after he returned from Korea, the game “Pong” was released, leading to the games we know and play today.
“I looked it over and I told the fella, ‘Yeah, I’m not gonna get that. I’m gonna wait till they get more sophisticated, you know, like with people and stuff,’” said Arthur.
That time came in 1977 when the Atari 2600 came out, and Arthur was able to learn more about consoles and portable computers. He was also able to teach himself basic programming, which gave him a real reason to get into gaming when he had his first son, Arthur III, who is Artie’s father.
Arthur III is known as Art. He has played video games his whole life. Since he started playing so young, his experience was vastly different than his father’s.
“Early on it was awesome because it’s what we connected on, right,” said Art. “My first gaming system he brought home was an Atari and that was it, off to the races.”
Now, the three Arthurs can play together on fifth generation consoles like the Xbox series X and lightning-fast PC’s, keeping their familial relationship stronger than ever.
“Usually, kids just go play video games by themselves,” said Artie. “The more time you spend with your family the closer you get.”
Tallahassee Community College student Trey Fisher is from Tampa, Fla. He is a second- year TCC student who plans to transfer to Florida State University to study political science.
