Grandma Makes Fark.com!
We did it. We finally made the prime time; The Great One; the divinity of the internet; home of The Cliché; the website to end all wars; Oceania; Shangri-La; God's own prototype; the heavy-weight champion of squirrel balls and flashing news tags:FARK.
There are a handful of websites Grandma frequents, Fark is one of them. I even had a TotalFark account once before $5.00 a month became too much for this ramen-noodle college dweller. Of all the links we've tracked in the past few days since the AP article surfaced on Christmas, this one is by far the most exciting.
It's not so much about the traffic, we recieved far more taffic from Der Spiegel and Business Week then we are from Fark, it's about the TYPE of folks that read Fark that read about Grandma. They understand. Grandma isn't unique as an elderly gamer, we've said this in the past- at least 19% of gamers are over the age of 50 according to the ESRB. Grandma, however, represents the watershed to the electronic entertainment industry that we've all come to learn was inevitable. The readers of Fark seem to get this immediately; and that's a warm and fuzzy feeling. (The Fark community is also fucking cool as hell; by the way. For the most part they're a groovy bunch of people.)
Thanks, Fark. Grandma loves you too.
Game on!
posted by CtrlAltDelete @ 7:22 PM
16 Comments:
At 7:52 PM,
Anonymous said…
:-D
At 9:33 PM,
Anonymous said…
I'm a 44-year-old guy who lives to play PC MMOs. There's nothing I love more than meeting someone ingame who is my age. I once had a clanny who was a 67 YO lady. I sure miss her. Maybe I'll run in to Grandma someday and she can teach me some of her secrets :)
At 10:26 PM,
Anonymous said…
LOVE YOU GRANDMA!
I miss my grandma's and it makes me happy to see a grandma out there that I can kind of 'adopt'. Heres to many many years of gaming to come!
At 8:09 AM,
Anonymous said…
Why all the profanity on your site? Is it needed to get a point across? Doesnt Grandma deserve better? Many elderly people have been inspired by "Grandma" but when they visit this site they are instantly turned off by the profanity. Freedom of speech is great but there is something to be said for decency. Constant use of profanity displays a lack of good communication skills. Its a shame... We were looking for something more uplifting... instead you have managed to feed every stereotype of the video game genre.
At 9:08 AM,
Brinstar said…
Who fucking cares? It's how Grandma expresses herself. Tim's a good writer, and contrary to your opinion, he manages to communicate Grandma's gaming experiences very well. I'm sure if he wanted to, he could remove the profanity, but it would also be removing a little bit of the 'everyday' of Grandma's experiences. When gamers become frustrated, many of them will swear. Get over it.
At 10:44 AM,
CtrlAltDelete said…
Anon- "Freedom of speech is great but there is something to be said for decency."
Well, 'decency' is somewhat a vague term interpreted differently by different people. For me and Grandma, vernacular language is not at all indecent. Do you not find it interesting the power some words possess on certain people? Some words; simple combinations of letters with culturally established meanings; actually make you uncomfortable. For instance, ask someone from the UK about the word "bent" or "bloody" and some may get offended, where here in the States those words are fairly innocuous.
If you think that I would make a website portraying Grandma differently than she really is so that I may inspire a certain, small group of people to game even though they would actually be disgusted and offended if they met the woman in person only because of her use of vulgarity, then I think you have the wrong site.
At 11:18 AM,
Anonymous said…
Momma, greetings from Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico, my baby have 3 years old, he plays xbox since 2, and is a hardcore player like you.
tuzito
At 11:31 AM,
Collin said…
Good answer Tim. Grandma is Grandma, language and all, and I feel that you do an excellent job presenting her and her opinions to the world.
I get annoyed at people who feel they need to leave a comment like that, but then don't have the nerve to at least sign their name at the bottom.
At 12:52 PM,
Anonymous said…
I just read the article about grandma on CNN and now I cant stop browsing over your site. You and your grandma both rule.
Game on!!
At 1:38 PM,
Anonymous said…
I've been reading this blog since the first week it went up. I've moved 1800 miles and still tried to keep up with it as it's the only blog I've ever stuck with! The language issue (?) has come up a number of times. My favorite phrase always comes to mind when I read those comments "Get Over It !"
I deal with things in my life that often leaving feeling frustrated and angry. I learned, yes LEARNED, to vent my anger, frustration and such in a way that works GREAT for me, swearing like there's no tomorrow! I relate to Grandma's pain from the health issues quite well and gaming and swearing, especially after leaving one of the damn Dr.s offices, works wonders for the mental and physical well being of this gamer. I don't normally spew "swear words" these days (I'm 48 and guess I grew out of it or something) but that only makes it much more HEALTHY when I DO let loose! :-)
I'm loving all the publicity Grandma is getting. And I hope it keeps on keeping on. I love your writing Tim, you're gifted. I'm deeply immersed in a pc MMO right now but that 360 is tickling me all the time now...and not just for the gaming aspect of it. And to top it off, here I went and moved not that far down the state you folks are in and didn't realize it until after I got back to my birth state! Maybe we'll pass each other by when I'm up "north" (I'm down where I77 and I70 meet) visiting cousins and game stores.
Game on Grandma! Love ya! And the rest of ya who have a problem, GET the fuck OVER IT !
Ruthie
At 5:09 PM,
Anonymous said…
This site is great! Your grandma is as lucky to have such a wonderful grandson as you are to have such a great grandma. :D
At 7:03 PM,
Anonymous said…
FARK YEAH!!!!!
GAME ON GRANDMA!!!!
At 7:21 PM,
Anonymous said…
Yay! Finally, props from Farkistan. Its about freaking time. :)
- Mama Lombax
At 9:48 PM,
Anonymous said…
The language does conflict a bit with the idea of "Grandma," but it's not some big deal. There are plenty of examples of cussin' grannies out there. (I can verify at least one other besides this one. Heh heh.) I think what's odd here is that Tim just seems to be "forcing" it a bit. Saying that people on Fark are "fucking cool as hell," for example, just seemed to come out of nowhere in his last post. I don't know. If a writer uses profanity as a part of his style (e.g., Salinger), then it's hardly noticable. But it shouldn't be forced. Tim just doesn't seem like he cusses a lot. I'm probably wrong about that. If so, then curse it up with a little more aplomb. Really get in there and say some bad words. Or just don't use them at all.
My two cents.
This blog is awesome. Bookmarked it right away.
At 11:17 PM,
Anonymous said…
go gramma...
i live right up the road in shalersville; couldn't believe it when i read the location on CNN.
huh...
At 3:20 PM,
Anonymous said…
I just HAD to look at see if there were more comments RE: the cussin' goining on at Grandma & Tim's place. Think it's cuz I made one of my rare posts on this topic. Whatever, to see that someone feels that Tim needs to learn to "cuss" better or more naturally or whateve the hell was meant by that post, sheesh.. COME ON! "Cussin'" is a free-form art, a self-styled way of expression or getting it all out (as with me) or whatever. Bottom line, to cuss or not and HOW to cuss is an individual and personal style! ;-)
Game on! Cuss on!
--Ruthie
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