February 2nd
Final Pixel Springs

Prompt: In a retirement home

Retirement home is such a dirty word and honestly most of you probably think you can't even take advantage of it. Here at FPS 60+ we work to avoid those terms and allow our fellow Millennials a rest at the bonfire before working on their end game content. We recognize the experience grind, and side quest of our patrons and have tailored our rewards to not just their classes but their professions, hobbies, and crafting skills.

The scene on screen changed and a rendered tour and Jeff took the time to close his screen while he looked up at the clock awaiting his interview. Jeff was here to pitch a full remodel of the French Pines Retirement Home that was losing not only live in members but also staff and when it came right down to it he couldn’t blame anyone for leaving. The walls were plain, beige, with the same old landscapes that had probably been up there since the 70s. Outside as he had walked in there was a shuffleboard court that was so faded only his research had made him realize what it was, and the tennis court didn’t even have nets anymore. Inside when he’d walked past the ‘game room’ there had been board games he’d played as a kid like Life or Scrabble, playing cards, cribbage and someone calling out Bingo numbers to the only two people in the room that he didn’t feel bad calling methuselahs. 

Speak with confidence, you’ve done your research, the last renovation was done 23 years ago and from the few families you’ve talked to there are a single Xbox 7200 and PS 10 as ‘modern’ entertainment. Oh and lets not talk about the bare minimum ChromiumTab Tablets available to check out. Jeff’s goal was to make this the kinda place his generation would want to retire to in the next ten to fifteen years and it had taken finding a center about to close down to even listen to him.

When the door eventually opened Jeff was surprised to see a woman about his own age walk in, not the executive suit that had been on the website when he looked last week. There was a common almost passive level of exhaustion his generation walked with but not one that reached the eyes. One thing that could be said of them late 80s through late 90s kids was when they found something they were passionate about, they might work themselves dead tired but they could still info dump on you about it with the passion of a kid and their favorite stuffed animal’s life story, or these day’s their VR avatar’s biography. 

“Mr. Reed.” She started but in his mild excitement Jeff cut her off. “Jeff Please.”

“Alright Jeff.” The way she said his name, like she had wanted to use one of the millennial variants Jeef, or Jefuh-fuh was hopefully a good tone for the meeting. “I’m Madelyn and am interested in your proposal and honestly had a few ideas myself but I don’t have your background and so the board, while they hired me as the new young face, it’s been figure head only. So give me a pitch I can take to the board and maybe help them see past the stigma retirement homes have had since the 90s.” 

This was his chance but he realized a video wouldn’t do it so he put his computer down and leaned forward bringing his fingers to his lips rethought his opening and then started. “Imagine a LAN Center, Craft Classroom, and Gaming lounge, all rolled into a hotel.” He took his time selling his vision for what he thought they could have. Not just the latest game systems but the classics, Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, Windows 95 emulated computers that had game libraries that would allow access to classics never remade. 

Not long into the presentation she interrupted him and they started to walk the halls and at one point seeing a man and woman playing Warzone 3036, the man doing call outs while the woman was possibly just screen watching to hunt him down. When the game ended Madelyn and Jeff moved up to ask them a few questions the most important of which was this. “What’s something we can do to improve the entertainment day to day around here?” and without missing a beat the old man replied. It’d be awesome to have a webcam and mic to stream! I didn’t get to stream as a kid, I missed that phase of the internet and I’d love to give it a try! Like those two gaming grandmas in the 2020s, WowGrany78 or something and that Japanese woman Gamer Grandma!” 

There was a twinkle in the man’s eyes as the idea of reliving a part of his childhood he missed by probably a decade but thought he could get back before during his retirement years. A few other questions later and some smack talk from the woman who pointed out that he couldn’t finish a story before he got what he was talking about and Jeff and Madelyn finished their tour. They pointed to one unused meeting room that had been converted for Xoom meetings for out of state family (after Musk had bought Microsoft). It would make a good streaming lounge. Or another room that with the addition of a conference table and a bookshelf for rule books could be a tabletop RPG room. 

When the tour was done Madelyn and Jeff were sold on the idea and he finally played his pitch video which just got a laugh out of the executive. “I get what you were going for but I think our board of directors wouldn’t get half your jokes. I’ll say this though, when we are both retired and hanging out in here, we are totally doing wheelchair races down the hall.” she said giving Jeff a smile. 

“I’m mean do we have to wait?” Jeff returned her jovial attitude with his own joke pulling out the rolling chair behind the receptionist desk. 

A year later French Pines Retirement home reopened as FPS 60+ community. Final Pixel Springs with its first rotating 24+ hour Retro Gaming streaming event. Each member of the community got to replay on camera the first video game they ever played as a kid. Some of them not having played these games since before high school.

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