PSN Community Spotlight

The PSN Community continues to bring stories and illuminating gaming perspectives to the PlayStation Blog via the PSN Community Spotlight. This is your chance to share your story on the PlayStation Community Forums, while snagging a $50 PlayStation Store voucher if your post is selected!

Last month you may recall we had a special Mother’s Day PSN Community Spotlight. In the chaos that was E3 and the week that followed, I completely forgot to make a shoutout for all those gamer Dads out there for Father’s Day! So this week, check out this story from PSN member JoeTheBeast16. Read on to see how PlayStation plays a big part in his family’s life.

PlayStation, A Valued Member of My Family

I’ve been a gamer ever since the first time I picked up a controller but in the past few years, gaming has become a valuable part of my family life.

To start, I’ll give a little bit of background. I’m 20 years old, and a stay at home dad. In October of 2008, I met a wonderful girl, and fell in love rather quickly. She didn’t like videogames at all when she met me, but when I convinced her to play some multiplayer in Haze with me, she fell in love with it, playing everything from Far Cry 2 to Army of Two, as well as Call Of Duty (what can I say, she loves shooting stuff).

With the help of PlayStation, we bonded and grew together over the first year of our relationship, and then in December of 2009 we welcomed our daughter into the world. From helping her pass the time while she was recovering from giving birth, to giving us something we could do quietly while our daughter was napping, PlayStation served as an important comfort for us while we adapted to our new lives. I started working when our daughter was 3 months old, and for over a year she stayed at home, taking care of our daughter and taking care of the house while I was working, not to mention playing MAG, COD, and Battlefield, when she had time. We’d play a few matches together when I got home from work, and then we’d go to bed. This continued until she grew a little stir-crazy, so we decided to switch things up a bit; she got a job and I quit mine. Now she works during the day, and games with me at night. So I became a stay at home dad, and I’ve loved every moment with my beautiful daughter. I’ve even used my PlayStation Eye to capture home movies.

Our daughters first steps captured with PlayStation Eye. I’ll admit she took a few steps before I had the idea to start the video.

My daughter is now 2 and a half, and she’s loving PlayStation as much as we are, from Eye Pet to Little Big Planet and Learning With the PooYoo’s, she loves to game. We now have 2 PS3s, so we can either play online matches on different screens, or play splitscreen on one, while our daughter watches Netflix or Hulu Plus on the other.

PlayStation is more than just gaming for us, it’s entertainment as a whole for our family. It enables us to do more than just game together. We watch 3D movies together on our PlayStation 3D Display, we exercise together with our PlayStation Move, heck, I even use my PS Vita and my laptop as a baby monitor using the Skype app to keep an eye on my daughter if I have to duck out for a minute. I could go on and on, reminiscing about all of the wonderful memories that our family has shared with the PlayStation brand, but that would do little to convey just how much we love it.

Let me put it this way, when E3 had arrived, we all sat down with popcorn in hand, ready to enjoy the PlayStation press conference – like a family sitting down to watch a loved one in a school play or a sports game, it’s always nice to see a family member shine. As much as I’d like to keep typing, I have some chores to do and then I have to go work on my PS Vita Pure Chess strategy since my wife gets home later tonight, and we’ve got a tournament planned.

Congrats to JoeTheBeast16, who is now the recipient of a $50 voucher redeemable in the PlayStation Store! Send in your stories here, and feel free to read JoeTheBeast16’s original submission right here.